We all get swept away at awards dinners and are more likely to remember who won than why. Given that even The Great British Bake Off has a post-match analysis programme (An Extra Slice), perhaps we need one for industry awards. With this in mind, the Platforum pundits would like to comment on a selection of ‘good bakes’ that we saw at the Schroders UK Platform Awards 2016 on Tuesday night.
Heather Hopkins on Platform of the Year 2016, Nucleus
The team at Nucleus are resolutely focused on the needs of the appreciative advisers who use the platform. We think Nucleus is well placed to win market share in 2017 with a difficult replatforming exercise behind them, some good developments to the platform, and a very loyal customer base. We congratulate the team at Nucleus for their success and for this recognition.
Peter Mann on Platform of the Decade, Transact
This award is a great testament to bravery, constant listening to your customers and inspired leadership. The interesting thing for me is that few people in the room seemed surprised and the applause heartfelt – a great accolade in an inherently competitive environment.
Miranda Seath on the Dynamic Planner Best Platform for Adviser Service, AXA Elevate:
This award was voted for by advisers, so hats off to Elevate. Standard Life has been candid that once the acquisition deal goes through, it is keen to benefit from Elevate’s service expertise. Some of them may be thinking wryly that it would have been nice if the awards had taken place earlier in the year. It could also be a late surge of affection from advisers – to quote Joni Mitchell ‘You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.’
Jeremy Fawcett on the Leading Innovation in Investor Engagement on Platforms, Wealth Wizards
This robo innovation helped LV= to double life and pensions profits last year and shows that making pensions accessible and engaging can have a commercial pay-off. LV= is combining the mega-trends of pension freedoms and robo advice and says it will announce a number of automated advice white-label partnerships in 2016.
Rodolfo Crespo on Best Institutional Platform, Allfunds:
The UK platform market is predominately retail as opposed to the rest of Europe so it’s taken a little while for Allfunds to figure out its space in the UK. But this global platform is now succeeding in the private banking sector and by looking at the number of UK hires over the last few years it looks like they are here to stay… Bravo!
Rohit Vaswani on Best Platform Provider (AUM over £15 billion), Standard Life Wrap
Standard Life has been doing an exceptional job at gathering assets. Platforum research shows advisers rate it highly in customer service and technical support so no surprise that it bagged the award, though interestingly they missed out on a “Platform of the Year” runner-up medal. They’ll be looking with joy at the “under £15bn” winner, which turns out to be their new acquisition… marriage made in heaven?
Miranda Seath on the Leading Innovation in Workplace Solutions from Hymans Guided Outcome:
This demonstrates the impact that a well thought out guidance tool can have on engaging employees. There is a big advice gap in the workplace and a greater burden on employers to educate their workforce about retirement funding. Guided Outcomes helps both employers and employees to define ambitions and focus on outcomes.
Congratulations to all the other winners on Tuesday, not to mention Transact and Parmenion who picked up gongs at the Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts Awards 2016 last night. Next up… Platforum’s own awards on 28th November. Join us live as we’ve been unable to agree terms with Channel 4.