Celebrating its 20th year, Investment Trends has released its 2023 Platform Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis Report, seeing HUB24 maintain the top spot, narrowly beating Netwealth for the second straight year.
Investment Trends said the report found that platforms have continued to deliver a significant range of new functionality for their users over the last 12 months to support advisers in the provision of advice to clients, assisting their continued growth and helping de-risk their businesses.
Maintaining the ranking order from 2022, HUB24 took out the top overall functionality score with 92.6 per cent, closely followed by Netwealth (92.1 per cent), and Praemium (90.0 per cent).
Closing out the top five were BT Panorama (86.2 per cent) and Mason Stevens (84.3 per cent).
The report acknowledged AMP North as the ‘most improved’ with the largest increase in its functionality score this year, delivering a significant range of improvements across several areas of its platform.
Speaking on the report’s new assessment category for retirement solutions, director at Investment Trends, Paul McGivern, said the rising urgency about retirement by regulators and policymakers made it necessary to introduce assessment criteria for platforms, ensuring they are continuing to evolve.
“It was rather evident in our review that all platforms have sharpened their focus on this important area, with their holistic approach encompassing product, calculators, claims processing and education,” said Mr McGivern.
Investment Trends said that managed accounts featured as a key area of development again with the continued expansion of models and managers offered, as well as a shift towards supporting partner-build models and client-level customisation.
With the demand for cash products and functionality having soared, the report showed that platforms have been able to respond swiftly with a range of creative solutions to help advisers offer their best rates and improve their flexibility of access to funds.
The research firm director also noted Australia’s superior net flow into platforms compared with the UK in 2023, partially crediting this to Australian platforms’ ability to adapt to changing conditions.
“We can’t help but attribute – at least in part – the strong performance of Australian platforms to the agility in identifying the growing demand for the asset class and the timely solutions deployed to address it,” Mr McGivern said.
Investment Trends said that platforms have added significant educational resources, online and in person, to ensure users are utilising the platform’s capabilities as much as possible as they continue to expand their functionality.
Cyber security once again saw a wide array of enhancements in 2023 with a particular focus on implementing a range of authentication steps along the adviser/client workflow.
“The challenge for platforms here is to strike the right balance between appropriate and effective protection and minimal friction,” said Mr McGivern.
Investment Trends said that the 2023 review also showcased the newly launched CFS Edge wrap platform, built on FNZ OneX infrastructure.
“Across our very extensive set of criteria, we have found CFS Edge has harmoniously blended sophistication and affordability while maintaining a focus on operational efficiency for advisers,” added Mr McGivern.
