Platforms are becoming increasingly tech-focused, with more than four fifths of processes now digitalised, new research from NextWealth shows.
According to its latest Tech Stack Report ‘Paper Trails to Digital Highways: Assessing Digitalisation of Processes for Investment Platforms‘, the overall number of processes digitalised across 19 of the 20 platforms surveyed has risen 3% in 2022 to 81% this year.
The report found that processes relating to portfolio management, regular withdrawals and income drawdown are the most digitalised, while those relating to orphan customers, death and trusts are the least digitalised.
Emma Napier, consulting director at NextWealth, said: “Our report shows the largest platforms by assets are among the most digitally enabled. The largest seven platforms by assets are among the top 10 for digitised processes. This challenges the view that larger firms are slow to change and will redeploy project teams accordingly.”
NextWealth said Novia, which was deemed a “digital laggard” and scored lower than its peers last year, has made the most progress of all platforms in 2023, with 46% of processes now requiring no signature. The number of paper-based processes has dropped to 28% from 65% in 2022.
Lucy Bristow, chief customer officer at Novia, commented: “While digital processes have been on the priority list for a while, the report highlighted that we had room to improve support to our advisers and clients when using the platform.
“Following the report, we put together a team of people to review all requirements for digital client sign-off and worked with digital partner providers to ensure these processes more accurately reflect the overall user experience of the Novia platform. We now have around 90 processes digitalised: the ones left are where there is a heightened security risk.”
NextWealth said three quarters (72%) of advisers want to use fully digital platforms. However, there is still a gap in the number who use eSignatures. The latest report showed 61% of advisers are using eSignatures, with 13% more advisers reporting they are using eSignatures in the last two years.
Napier added: “We continue to see that eSignatures are more widely used in larger advice businesses but this year we note an increase among single adviser businesses. Among those who are employing eSignatures, DocuSign continues to be the most widely used provider of preference for advice firms.”
