But those platforms which do not include offshore bonds in their offering may be missing out on a top rating of five stars as one of the core features identified is the investment range.
The availability of offshore bonds and other products and investment vehicles is one of 25 key platform features identified by Defaqto, which also include financial strength, allowance of in-specie re-registration on or off the platform, provision of risk profiling and asset allocation tools, allowance of bulk trading, and facilitation of back office.
There is a striking variation between platforms in terms of the investment flexibility that they offer, and only those platforms with certain core features including a good range of investment vehicles can achieve five stars.
According to Defaqto, only 39% of platforms offer access to onshore bonds while at the other end of the spectrum 76% do include investment trusts. The other investment types are UK stocks and shares (69%): overseas stock and shares (52%); ETFs (72%); hedge funds (52%); and structured products (48%).
David Cartwright, Defaqto’s head of insight, said: “Growth in platform adoption by advisers has certainly taken off over the last two years. We have also found that the growth in assets under administration has accelerated over this period. There is no doubt that the RDR has been the main catalyst for this growth as advisers review their business strategies in preparation for 2013.”
He added that there are opportunities in this sector and posed the question of how providers can differentiation their proposition and effectively communicate what their platform offers to advisory businesses to stand out from the crowd.
Defaqto’s star ratings for platforms are available on its website.
