According to the latest Investment Trends Planner Technology Report, newer platforms are gaining momentum in the industry and threatening more established players.
CFS FirstChoice and BT Wrap are the two most widely used platforms among planners, however newer platforms such as Netwealth, Hub24 and BT Panorama are steadily extending their market share, the research showed.
In the Investment Trends research, Netwealth and Hub24 both came in as the top platforms in terms of overall adviser satisfaction for this year. CFS FirstChoice came in second, BT Wrap scored third place for adviser satisfaction and Macquarie Wrap came in fourth.
However, despite investments being made in financial technology, an increasing amount of advisers feel their technology needs are not supported and many are open to switching platforms.
According to the research, advisers are becoming increasingly unsettled with their product suite and 75 per cent are open to switching their primary platform, either for lower admin fees (47 per cent) or a wider platform feature set (28 per cent).
Investment Trends research director Recep Peker said, “While planners traditionally use platforms for their efficiency benefits, the vast majority are open to alternative solutions that play a greater role in advice delivery, from the back office to the front.
“Netwealth, Hub24 and BT Panorama are among the most technologically advanced platforms in the market.
“Good BDM relationships also play a key role in driving selection for these platforms, which emphasises how vital it is to blend a feature rich proposition with good support.”
There have been a number of concerns from the industry over the lack of technological support in financial advice. In February, the Association of Goals Based Advice (AGBA) voiced frustration over the absence of sufficient technology backing for goals-based advice, while one entrepreneur has cited the Australian robo-advice scene as “broken” and ineffective.
I think soon we will need to legislatively define the term ‘Fintech’! The platforms mentioned above are just newer (and largely have no legacy or scale). Once scale and legacy come for them then they will inherit the same issues that the older platforms have today.