Daniela Tsagaris explains how platforms can gain a competitive edge by evolving to meet new client needs.
How do platforms maintain their ‘tax-friendly’ status? The short answer to this question is through a consistent focus on meeting changing adviser and customer needs.
A ‘tax friendly’ platform offers four key things:
- Taking the tax burden out of administering client accounts at year end. This includes providing timely, clear and reliable tax statements.
- Providing tax tools to help manage a client’s account throughout the year.
- Keeping up to date with tax changes and providing education and support to advisers as tax rules change – this could include alterations to contribution caps and tax rates. Platforms can make dealing with these changes a simple one for advisers by staying on top of these changes and providing advisers up to date reporting and information.
- Offering individualised tax treatment in the super environment-platforms have a distinct advantage of giving clients in super the benefit of their own franking credits and reducing the tax impact when moving from super to pension.
These are some of the basic services platforms need to offer to support advisers which in turn provide a better experience to advised clients.
Whilst it is absolutely critical to get the basics right, offering a market leading platform has to mean more than just this. ‘Maintaining’ a tax friendly status is not enough to keep an edge in the highly competitive platform game. The best platforms in the market are set up to continually evolve in response to changing industry dynamics and to ensure they offer advisers efficient ways to run their business. The best platforms focus on continually improving customer service and administration and have a focus on ease as a top priority.
And as our industry matures the demands of customers and the evolution of technology is rapidly changing. In turn our platforms and our businesses need to change as well. This will include an extension of investment options, development of retirement solutions and responding to technology developments. Being able to support new advice segments such as scaled advice and SMSF services will also be a key factor in platforms maintaining relevance over the long term.
Daniela Tsagaris is senior wrap product manager, investment, gearing and insurance at BT Financial Group.
