PlatformSep 20 2022

Letters of authority are ‘bane of the industry’

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Letters of authority are ‘bane of the industry’
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Letters of authority are a significant barrier in the advice process, according to a report by the Lang Cat.

The Lang Cat's report 'Fragmented World' revealed that letters of authority (LOAs) and transfers remain a massive source of frustration for those working in advice firms and financial planning practices. 

The Lang Cat tested the worst-case scenarios for time taken from submitting an LOA to getting full, satisfactory data and the timeframe often ran to several months. 

In the very bad cases, firms were waiting over six months for the data they had asked for.

The research is based on more than 40 interviews with advice professionals ranging from the big consolidators and national firms to smaller specialists.

One adviser said: “LOAs are the bane of the industry, not just for advisers but for providers as well.

“It makes absolutely no sense at all for everyone not to kind of join hands and try and work on this. It’s a perfect example of an industry that has gone mad where we’re just creating more work for everybody.”

Another managing director of a financial planning firm said: “Technology allows our clients to go from 0-100 in terms of their engagement, but they then fall off a cliff with LOAs and transfers taking months to complete.”

The guilty parties

The Lang Cat supplemented this with online research, and also heard from providers, platforms and tech companies.

Through interviews with those professionals and providers, the guilty parties most frequently reported for frustratingly slow LOAs were legacy closed-book insurers and platforms who have grown by acquisition, as well as defined contribution providers, especially Mercer, Towers Watson and Capita.

The advice process can be broken down to three main stages - onboarding, implementing and reporting.

The first and last stages respectively can now operate completely digitally. Implementing a financial plan, however, is still a major issue because of LOAs.

To implement a plan for a typical client in their early 50s, the adviser will often have to deal with between five and 15 products, the Lang Cat explained. 

This means advisers need to create anything between five and 15 LOAs and agency transfer forms in order to be able to take control of the client’s plans, which often takes several months.

The Lang Cat said some have tried to fix the problem, such as Origo and its Unipass LOA, but it’s still early days.

Principal Mark Polson said: “Despite the threat of regulatory action in this space, progress is not being made quickly enough. We need everyone to accept and adopt common standards before we see meaningful integration and automation.

“This part of the technological world needs to de-fragment before it can be fixed and properly connected.”

Wealth Wizards chief executive and founder Andrew Firth, said after the pandemic, there were a lot of processes sped up and barriers reduced for financial advisers.

“Wealth Wizards’ consumer-led and human-assisted (hybrid) guidance and advice platform automates key processes such as onboarding, fact finding, suitability report production and cashflow analysis,” he said. 

“We are also looking at making the LOA process easier by creating automated digital signature and provider requests.”

FTAdviser approached Mercer, Towers Watson and Capita for comment but neither had responded at the time of publication.

Fragmented world

During the research as part of the report, five key advice market issues emerged: digital ability is greater than technology; lack of control; data is the new oil; platforms aren’t enough; and clients expect more.

All of these issues are addressable, but the research found three fragmenting forces getting in the way of progress: misaligned commercial interests, decentralised control without tech to match it, and no shared desired view.

Advisers reported it was difficult to understand software before they buy it as they often struggle to sort the good systems from the “marketing hype”. 

This was borne out from the findings of the Lang Cat's online survey, where more than seven in 10 firms agreed that it is impossible to make an informed comparison on software providers.

GBST head of EMEA David Simpson, said: “Connectivity of systems to improve efficiency and the adviser and client experience is paramount to GBST’s product strategy. 

“We recognise the importance of open access to data, common standards, ease of integration, paperless processes and reduced cost of ownership of maintenance to support this drive for improved efficiency.”

Simpson said one of its key principles in developing platform technology is to provide a single core solution to all customers, so any new feature, and that includes an API, becomes available to everyone in the same format, structure and functionality.

Benchmark Capital’s managing director Ed Dymott, said: “Our services aim to help advisers navigate the complexity of integration with a turnkey solution, which covers the key services a high-quality financial planner needs to run their business.

“We support the entire lifecycle of an advice firm, helping practices launch, run more efficiently, accelerate growth, and then ultimately think about succession planning, with one simple aim – to help our advisers achieve more than they thought possible.”

sonia.rach@ft.com

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