Platforms

Since the banking and financial services royal commission, smaller, independent, specialist wealth platforms have been able to grow their market share at the expense of their much larger ‘legacy’ rivals — and share investors have jumped on for the ride.

The spectacular market gyrations of April, sparked by escalating trade conflicts, geopolitical tensions and the Presidential ‘X’ account, represent the first significant stress-test for a generation of separately managed accounts (SMAs) run by Australian asset consultants.

The advice community is being well-serviced by platforms, according to the research house Investment Trends’ 2024 Platform Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking Report.

There are now an average of 120 clients per adviser in Australia – a number not seen since 2013. While the declining adviser cohort is a factor, so is the improved experience of advisers with technology according to researcher Investment Trends.

If you’re going to offer services that the incumbents already do well, Steinhardt tells Inside Adviser, you need to do a pretty good job at it yourself. And if there are any flaws in your system, they need to be addressed.

Netwealth and HUB24 are expected to continue eating the incumbents’ lunch, according to UBS. Meanwhile, as adviser numbers have halved the average amount of money they manage has doubled.

Advisers are spending more on technology and using more platforms than ever, but satisfaction levels are on the wane according to Investment Trends.

Wealth platforms are seeing strong growth as the country gets ready to open its international borders, post-Omicron. This follows-on from a year of robust equity returns in a new world of tech disruption post-Royal Banking Commission. According to an article in the Australian Financial Review this week, “Australia’s wealth management platforms collectively administered $990 billion…