A lack of agility and innovation could see legacy platforms left behind, as newer entrants shake up the market, says P1 Investment Services.
The investment firm, operator of the P1 platform, believes that the new UK platform players will be the companies setting the standards for delivering value for money to clients, potentially leaving legacy firms behind unless they can rapidly change their operating models and tech stacks.
It says new entrants have speed and agility, giving them the advantage over slower legacy platforms which can’t innovate or strip costs quickly enough to compete on price and technology.
James Priday, CEO of P1 Investment Services, said: “A lot of the legacy narrative that comes out against new platforms talks about low cost not necessarily equating to value for money for clients. It is also said that low costs mean worse support, worse technology and a worse overall experience.
“That’s complete rubbish. All the markers show this just isn’t true. Newer platforms rank higher on average across all metrics compared to their legacy peers. These arguments are a false narrative to justify higher platform costs.”
P1 Investment Services, which recently released a new user interface to enhance the usability and functionality for clients and advisers of the P1 platform, said legacy platforms are failing to acknowledge the user experience. According to the firm, platforms can identify how they are offering value for money using a simple equation; Platform Value for Money = (Quality of Support + Quality of Technology) / Cost.
Priday added: “The less we hear from advice firm users the better. It generally means everything is working well and is intuitive. Our industry should be all about usability and making the advisers’ life easy. When advisers log in to their platform it no longer needs to feel like logging into the early 2000s internet.
“The platform market needs to realise that a high-quality user experience is something advisers really want. Having efficient operational capabilities together with an easy and effective user interface for the adviser and their clients to interact with is so crucial to the overall value for money. It should be an absolute priority because a platform can have a huge impact on an advice firm in terms of profitability and efficiency, and the end client experience of their services.
“The User Interface upgrade is one of the many areas that platforms should be focussing on to improve. We should be constantly listening to advisers to understand what business critical requirements they need.”
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