The industry has seen the proportion of development spend dedicated to creating new features reach a five-year high, as it now represents 63% of development spend, up from 37% in 2017.
The study presented in the Platform Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis Report 2018 compared 20 of the industry’s leading platforms across 492 features.
“Many platforms have upped their game to help financial advisors improve the efficiency of their practice,” said King Loong Choi, principal analyst at Investment Trends.
“Many improvements are being made to help advisors reduce their administrative burden while increasing client engagement levels.
“Notable developments in 2018 range from improved cash management tools to customer portal enhancements. »
Netwealth was ranked as retaining its top spot for overall platform functionality, with HUB24 coming in second and BT Panorama in third.
OneVue secured fourth place while CFS FirstWrap was ranked fifth.
The platforms were also cited as responding to the growing popularity of managed accounts, which increased for the seventh consecutive year, with 35 percent of advisors recommending them to their clients, up from 16 percent in 2012.
“The availability of managed accounts across platforms is becoming more widespread, with 16 platforms now offering these solutions,” Choi said.
This happened with CFS FirstWrap, North and IOOF Pursuit joining the ranks in 2018.
“With more and more advisors and licensees operating managed accounts, it is increasingly important for platforms to provide users with access to a dedicated model manager portal,” said Mr. Choi .
“While many managed account platforms provide model managers with access to a dedicated model manager portal, there is an opportunity to improve the breadth and depth of functionality and reporting without sacrificing usability.”
