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BT Wrap has upgraded its platform to better service advisers wishing to invest in direct equities and exchange traded funds.
The head of BT Wrap, Chris Freeman, said the changes had been made in response to increasing adviser and client demand for these investments.
Freeman pointed to research from Investment Trends that found 50 per cent of planners expected to have heightening involvement in share trading for self-managed super fund (SMSF) clients in the coming months, while also pointing to inflows into exchange traded funds.
Freeman said feedback given to his group was that one of the barriers to advisers growing their client’s equities portfolios was the “administration burden involved in trading equities across a large and diverse client base”.
Freeman indicated advisers had struggled with cost-effectively servicing large numbers of clients.
BT said its new ‘multi-client bulk order’ trading functionality for equities would allow advisers to bulk trade on behalf of clients who have the same trading strategy. The platform upgrade would allow advisers to buy or sell a single listed security for up to 25 clients at once.
Freeman said the enhancements would reduce administration costs while also allowing advisers to “take advantage of the growing SMSF market”, where the demand for equities remains strong.
“We’ve worked very closely with a number of advisers across the country to ensure the functionality is not only fast but also very easy to use,” Freeman said.
