Out on 2nd February: 'The Direct Platform Guide: More activity under the surface'

The Direct Platform Guide

On the surface there's not much movement in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) sea but beneath the waves there are exciting changes. A market of 6.5 million active private investors in the UK are not unnoticed by providers. The RDR, changing consumer behaviour and the march of digital technology continue to disrupt this market. What are the opportunities and who is taking the initiative?

The Platforum has researched the D2C market for the second year and find the big fish are still patrolling but the smaller fish are also making waves – established D2C brands, stockbrokers, fund managers and discount brokers all have their slice of the (fish?) pie but so do a fresh wave of new entrants.

The Direct Platform Guide will be available to purchase at £6,500 +VAT from the 2nd February 2012, when we will also be holding a launch breakfast in The City. For further information please email Jeremy Fawcett.

A look back at 2011 and a glance forward to 2012

16th December 2011 – Holly discusses the 2011 platform market and looks forward to 2012.

Out Now: The Adviser Platform Guide – Issue 8

PLATFORM GUIDE

Our ‘best-seller’, The Adviser Platform Guide is a must for any group wanting to understand and keep abreast of UK retail financial services distribution.

  • As at Q3 11, total IFA platform assets were £168.02 billion
  • On a like-for-like basis from 30 Jun to 30 Sep, adviser platforms shrank by 4.33%.
  • We report AUA for AJ Bell’s Sippcentre platform for the first time
  • 77% of new adviser business in Q2 11 was still written off-platform
  • Pershing have re-launched their Nexus Complete platform services to advisers
  • Despite market turmoil, there are now 12 platforms that have AUA greater than £3bn. In August 2010, there were only 10 platforms with over £1bn

Out Now: The Corporate Platform Guide

CORPORATE PLATFORM GUIDE Employee Platforms & Corporate Wraps continue to hit the headlines as providers launch and promote their services. The Platforum's preview Corporate Platform Guide brings together the latest information from providers, advisers, buyers and users to produce an up-to-date and reader friendly guide on this rapidly evolving market.

Thanks to our sponsors Mercer and Standard Life, this publication is available free of charge to readers.

The report is available here.

Please contact Tina Harris for more details or with any insights you would like to share.

What can The Platforum do for you?

The Platforum are experts in investment platforms. We work with providers and IFAs to provide help and advice with research, product development, marketing and strategy. Have a look at the research, events and consultancy we offer and some client feedback.

  • IFAs - worried about platform selection and due diligence? Have a look at PAT. Want to know what your peers think? Check out the Platforms page (no providers allowed!)
  • Fund managers - want to see what IFAs are planning; keen to see how the trend to model portfolios and discretionary management is developing and anxious to understand the new commercial relationship between asset managers and platforms? Our quarterly research, The Adviser (plat)Form Guide reviews this and more.
  • Thinking of building a direct to customer platform? Take a look at our D2C research for market sizing, provider reviews, business cases and consumer research.
  • Platforms - talk to us about our research for competitor analysis, benchmarking against peers and understanding adviser feedback and trends. We also conduct some bespoke research projects and advisory work.
  • Corporates - we are currently producing our first Corporate (plat)Form Guide. Watch this space!

Please contact us on 0207 970 6640 if you have any questions at all. We like speaking to you!

Platform Analysis Tool - PAT

Any subscriber wanting to access the detail included in the Platform Analysis Tool which provides data, facts and figures on some 12 leading IFA platforms can visit PAT's page and download the data in Excel format.

Have you registered yet?

Registered users have access to additional content and features. If you haven't already, register now . All users get access to the most up-to-date news stories from the industry press, PAT - our platform analysis tool, our weekly updates on the platform world and regular articles, features and editorial on issues affecting retail distribution. IFAs get additional access to our exclusive IFA Platform ratings service to see what other IFA platform users have to say about the services they currently use. There is no charge for registration.

A New Breed of Filing Cabinet

Congratulations to Novia who pass the £1 billion hurdle and get an improved AKG rating of B this week. Great effort from the team in Bath.

In a sure sign that platforms are expanding we report £73bn in direct platforms in our latest research to be published next week.

We think there's a pool of 6.5 million active private investors in the UK. Of these, 2 million are hard-core investment aficionados. The rest think it's a bit dull.

An Idiot's Guide to the FSA's platform Policy Statement

Yesterday, the FSA published the long-awaited Policy Statement on platforms. We have summarised the main points and our reaction to these in the document below (we also include the full FSA policy paper for those who have not seen it). The headlines are that bundled pricing and the payment of cash rebates to clients are imminent Dodos.

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