Platforms! Faahzands of em! Barclays et al go over the top.

Yes, I know that was never in the film. But it seemed relevant as we round up some of the platforms who we haven’t covered hitherto (posh) and also take a look at Barclays Stockbrokers, who announced their plans today. Judging by the traffic on these blogs, and some of the comments, investors are really […]

Platforms! Faahzands of em! Barclays et al go over the top.

Yes, I know that was never in the film. But it seemed relevant as we round up some of the platforms who we haven’t covered hitherto (posh) and also take a look at Barclays Stockbrokers, who announced their plans today. Judging by the traffic on these blogs, and some of the comments, investors are really […]

Tiers for fears – Standard Life comes out of the shadows

Note:Hidden craftily throughout this blog are song titles by Tears for Fears. Anyone who gets them all wins a free copy of the lang cat Guide to Platform Pricing, along with regular updates for stuff like this. Enter via the comments form below. Standard Life is the last platform to reveal its post-RDR charging structure. […]

SUPERCLEAN – sorts stubborn semi-bundled stains!

So things move on apace in the clean share class / rebate war, and the industry continues to eat its young with gay abandon. The latest development to shine in is from everyone’s favourite consumer champion, Standard Life, who today announced it’s going to launch a whizzo range of SUPERCLEAN funds onto SL Wrap. SUPERCLEAN funds are […]

The tedium of going o’er

The news yesterday that Aviva has stopped its workplace savings platform programme (read the story here and here) is interesting in lots of ways. Now, before the yellow and blue dudes reading this start reaching for the batphone to the legal heavies, I should mention that I’ve worked on the Aviva workplace savings programme on […]

The worst of all worlds

You couldn’t make it up. I’m yet to meet anyone who thinks unit rebates are a good idea. That’s not quite true. I know one provider who likes them, mainly because they have the functionality in place to deal with them and they reckon there’s a competitive advantage there (that may not be how they’d […]

Clean is the new dirty

Hello and welcome to the first lang cat blog of 2013. At least the first blog on this site, I,ve been doing some posting over on Adviser Lounge, which is worth a visit if you haven,t already. So the hot issue at the moment, now that RDR is here, is fund rebates and their wily […]

Slainte mhath from the lang cat

Well, that’s been quite a year. As I look around me I see an industry full of completely done-in, knackered, farmutshet folks. Don’t know why, it’s not like anything big’s happening at the end of 2012… …Ho, ho. As I write, it looks like pretty much all the providers have just about got most of […]

My life as a pie chart

So I came across this article today, called Retiring The Portfolio Screenshot. I opened it thinking it was something about what clients see about their investments on wrap platforms. But it isn’t. It’s about creative types doing better demos of the work they’ve done for clients. So, you know, whatever and good luck to them […]

Just write the cheque already

Well, that’s been fun. The last 24 hours or so have seen a flurry of to-ing and fro-ing as a result of a Dear Compliance Officer letter from the FSA that landed on desks yesterday.It’s all to do with adviser charging and making sure platforms / providers can be really sure that clients have stuck […]

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Platform Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

/ White papers

Answering the Call

Service means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s so subjective it can be hard to put your finger on. This paper aims to challenge the status quo and inertia that’s built up in the sector for many years.