Netwealth and Hub24 top platform choice

Netwealth and Hub24 are continuing to dominate the platform space in terms of functionality in the eyes of advisers, according to the latest Investment Trends Platform Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis Report.

The report, released this week, listed Netwealth at the top of the list of five top-ranking full-function platforms, followed by Hub24, OneVue, CFS FirstWrap and Asgard eWRAP.

Commenting on the research, Investment Trends senior analyst, King Loong Choi said transactional efficiency continued to be a key focus for the platforms which were making headway on two main fronts – managed accounts and the ability to generate Records of Advice (RoAs) on platform.

“For years, financial advisers have sought to achieve greater admin and transactional efficiencies in their practice and in recent times many have embraced managed accounts as a solution,” he said.

“Many platform providers have responded by broadening the accessibility and functionality of managed accounts to their users – the main improvements relate to a wider range of managed account structures, models and managers, improvements to model manager portals and easier in-specie transfer process,” Choi said.

He said that industry-wide, both Netwealth and Hub24 stood out for their reporting, online business management and decision support tools.

“On the other hand, the relative strengths of OneVue revolve around its reporting and product offerings, while CFS FirstWrap holds a competitive edge with its online business management tools,” he said.