Digital Wealth Systems has rolled out its first product which combines discretionary fund management, investment platform and technology to enable financial advisers to provide ‘Advice for All’.
DIGI has been built by Seccl, the Octopus Group-owned custodian and platform technology provider, and aims to automate as much of an adviser’s recommendation and review processes.
The business is a joint venture between investment and platform company P1 Investment Management, which is headed by James Priday, and IT company Nebular Holding Limited, which is led by ex-Paradigm partner Paul Hughes.
Fees will start at 0.35% a year on assets up to £500,000 ($665,863, €559,760). Assets up to £1m will be charged 0.25% and holdings over that will be charged 0.1%. The annual fee includes platform, technology, discretionary investment and tax wrapper costs.
Clare Beswick, head of sales at Digital Wealth Systems, said: “Our products are designed to enable financial advisers to support more clients, which we believe is the key to enabling ‘Advice for All’.”
Details
The DIGI platform promises to be paperless, can be completely branded and offers a client portal within which firms can share valuations, messages and documents with their clients.
Open by design, the platform will launch with integrations to several software tools including Intelligent Office, IRESS, Bluecoat, as well as many others.
The firm is also launching Microsoft Office plug-ins and other forms of technology that will help advisers to more easily send reports that properly reflect their own brand and style.
It is soft launching through a handful of firms with a wider market roll out expected in January 2021.
‘Changing landscape’
“The launch of DIGI marks a significant change in the world of advice fulfilment”, Hughes said. “Utilising Secc’sl APIs, we were able to launch a platform designed exactly to our requirements in a fraction of the time and cost usually associated with such a build.
“We are also pleased to have been instructed by several other firms to help them build their own bespoke platforms – something that is now feasible for any wealth management firm that has the ambition to do so.
“The only limitation going forward will be the imagination of the people designing their investment platform products. It is a truly exciting time, and we love being a part of this changing landscape.”
Priday added: “P1 is committed to progressively priced digitally enabled solutions, which is why we have backed the Digital Wealth Systems business and agreed to launch the DIGI product. DIGI facilitates efficient and compliant advice, sitting nicely within our stable of offerings.
“We too find it very exciting to be enabling firms to launch their own platform products – an activity we think will increase in the marketplace going forward, and which we are well placed to support.”
