Seccl, the Octopus-owned custodian and platform technology provider, has launched a new tool to help advisers stay in control of the platform transfer process – improving their customer experience and operational efficiency in the process.
Its transfers workbench allows advisers who use Seccl-powered platforms to easily and accurately track the progress of their clients’ cash and assets as they move across from other providers – a process normally handled off-platform by spreadsheets.
Advisers will be able to see, among other details, each transfer’s status, previous provider, estimated value and the total time that has elapsed since it was first instructed. As well as a high-level view of all transfers currently underway, advisers can also find an asset-by-asset breakdown of each client’s pending transfers; helping them to field inbound queries.
What’s more, the tool will allow advisers to quickly and easily input the book costs of assets that are being transferred, without having to leave the system. Although crucial for Capital Gains Tax reporting, book costs are generally neither passed on by the ceding platform, nor editable by advisers themselves. Instead, advisers often have to provide platform back-office staff with the relevant details via spreadsheet, for them to be manually updated – adding yet more friction and delay.
Dan Marsh, Seccl’s Head of Customer, said:
“Platform transfers are still a nightmare for advisers and their support teams, who are forced to endlessly chase providers for updates and maintain unwieldy spreadsheets to track the progress of their clients’ assets – as well as ask them to manually edit all-important book costs. Advisers using Seccl-powered platforms can now do all this straight from their transfers workbench – introducing some much-needed transparency and efficiency to an obscure and clunky process.”
Rather than offering a platform directly to advisers, Seccl provides technology and an outsourced custody service that, when combined, allow firms to operate their own platform – controlling the customer experience and creating additional revenue in the process.
The P1 Platform, which is powered by Seccl, was recently named Digital Process Champion by NextWealth, and voted number one for overall service by advisers in The Lang Cat’s State of the Platform Nation report.
James Priday, CEO of P1 Investment Management, commented:
“We chose to operate our own platform as we wanted to deliver a solution that was fast, efficient, paperless and completely transparent. The new transfers workbench is another way in which we can be operationally efficient while providing transparency to adviser firms, by shedding light on what’s historically been a long-winded and opaque process.
“It’s already saving our platform operations staff several hours a week, reducing transfer-related queries by 50%, and helping us to deliver the fantastic level of overall service for which we’re becoming well-known. It’s all part and parcel of our platform’s crucial role in helping us build the efficient – and self-sufficient – business of the future.”
Behind the scenes, the electronic transfer and re-registration of client assets is supported via Seccl’s real-time integration with the Altus Transfer Gateway (ATG).
Howard Finnegan, Sales Director of Altus, added:
“Electronic transfers have gone a long way into transforming the process. But there is still much work to be done. Some parts of the transfer process still rely heavily on paper, which has a considerable cost and time impact.
“With its industry-leading transfers workbench, Seccl is taking a great and innovative step forward. By giving up to the minute, readily-available information on how a transfer is going, Seccl has set a new benchmark for what advisers and clients can, and should, expect from a platform transfer: a quick, paperless and completely transparent process.”
The team developed the entire tool from start to finish within a single six-week development cycle. It follows the company’s recent development of a custom-built illustration tool – and the launch of two new adviser platforms built on Seccl’s technology: IronBright and JustFA.
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For a guided tour of the end-to-end transfers flow click here; while for screenshots and other press materials, click here.
For journalists in their professional capacity only. Issued by Seccl Technology Limited. Registered in England and Wales at 20 Manvers Street, Bath, BA1 1JW (Number: 10237930). Issued: April 2021.