FirstChoice knocks Asgard off platform perch

Colonial First State’s (CFS) FirstChoice platform has surpassed Sealcorp’s Asgard as the platform of choice for groups in our Top 100 Dealer Groups survey.

In last year’s survey, Asgard, Navigator and BT Wrap topped the list of most commonly nominated platforms, with CFS FirstChoice sharing an equal fifth position with MLC MasterKey.

This year Money Management split the platform section of the survey into a number of product types: personal super, corporate super, investment and risk, as well as identifying badged platforms.

It must also be noted that there is a definite trend towards groups using more than one platform, with the average generally around 1.8 platforms per group.

Of the 47 groups which nominated their platform provider for personal super, 12 used the relative newcomer FirstChoice platform, which was first launched in May 2002. Aviva’s Navigator was next most popular, used by nine groups, followed by Asgard and MLC.

In the corporate super stakes, FirstChoice led again, with nine groups out of 35. Asgard was second with eight groups, followed by ING with seven groups.

And of the 48 groups disclosing investment platform providers, where there were significantly more responses with many groups nominating two or three platforms, CFS came out on top with 11 groups. Asgard and Navigator followed with eight groups, then MLC with seven.

In the risk area, Asteron was used by eight of the 29 groups in this product category. ING and MLC were the second most commonly used platforms in this area, both with seven groups. Comminsure, AXA, Aviva and Citicorp were also nominated as the risk platform provider of choice by several groups.

When it comes to dealer groups badging a platform, BT and Asgard are equal leaders, with nine of the 41 groups each opting to rebadge the BT and Asgard wrap as their own. They are followed by Oasis and Macquarie, both with five groups.

However, there are a smattering of other platforms in the list with three or four dealer groups disclosing they are badging their product — including IOOF, Avanteos, CFS FirstChoice, Perpetual, Summit, Synergy and Navigator.

Notably some of the new low-cost platforms are beginning to show traction with the dealer groups, with Skandia’s SkandiaOne, Perpetual’s WealthFocus, and Tower’s Arc all showing up on the provider list.