Large falls in equity markets made it difficult for many platform providers to deliver new innovations to financial planners, according to new research delivered by Investment Trends.
The 2008 Investment Trends Platform report, released today, revealed that equity market volatility had had a considerable impact for many platforms in their efforts to convert innovation spend from concept and test stage to live release.
“Market volatility led many platform owners to defer many new projects late in 2008, when the full impact of the sub-prime crisis was felt by wealth management organisations, with significantly lower funds under management meaning dramatic risk to revenue,” Investment Trend principal Mark Johnston said.
Investment Trends analyst Andrew Knox said two major changes in platform transaction processes had been observed in 2008, with fewer platforms requiring a signature from the end client in order to process new business and links with external providers and internal transfers having become more seamless, particularly around risk transactions and reporting and super to pension transfers.
According to the Investment Trends research, Avanteos emerged as the top ranked platform for the third year in a row, while Aviva/Navigator won the award for best navigation and user interface.
The company said the award for best new functionality had been shared by Avanteos for their risk integration development with CommInsure and AXA North for their online managed fund transaction capabilities.
It said the award for best new technical functionality had gone to Perpetual WealthFocus for their back-end work to improve internal processes and the introduction of Investment Advantage, while the award for overall reporting went to netwealth.
The award for the best direct equities functionality was shared by netwealth and Macquarie Wrap, with the most improved platform award going to MLC Masterkey for its new online transaction capabilities and integration with planning software.
