2023 Review: Delivering the platform you want to use

Richard Denning, CEO, reviews our platform enhancements and how these better support you and your clients

Since we acquired the platform in September 2020, we’ve worked hard to make it a platform that advisers really want to use. A platform which supports your chosen proposition and frees you up to focus on the activities that add most value to your business and clients.

Most of all, we want to deliver a value for money platform that you can always rely on to help you achieve the very best client outcomes. Delivering this will always be an ongoing process. 2023 has seen the completion of some of the major changes we know were important to you.

Here are  a few of this year’s highlights.

Putting the full PruFund range on platform

A milestone this year has been putting the full PruFund range on our platform – the first time this smoothed fund range has been available via any online platform. Having launched PruFund Planet on the platform in 2022, having access to the full range was  top of many advisers wish lists, so we’ve added PruFund Growth and PruFund Cautious. We’re now seeing many firms use smoothed funds as part of a portfolio solution.

Extending digitisation

We rolled out DigiSIPP, our digital pension application process. This allows the whole pension application journey to be completed online and has been transformational – especially when transferring pensions from elsewhere into the SIPP. Our process now is considerably faster.

Of course, transfer times are still reliant on the processes of ceding pension schemes. And lots more needs to be done across our sector so that pension funds can be moved around with the ease that advisers, clients and the regulator would like.

We hope that by demonstrating best practice ourselves, we can help to drive change.

Reducing steps, saving time

We’ve also introduced functionality this year to make day-to-day tasks simpler and faster:

• ‘Illustrate and Apply’ enables details within a pension illustration to populate a pension application simultaneously so there’s no need for rekeying. Any new information in the illustration will also automatically update in the application.
• 'Sell and Withdraw’ ensures that when you make an ad-hoc request to sell holdings, the money can be paid straight to your client’s bank account as soon as it has settled. You don’t need to spend time double-checking if a sale has gone through or not. And ultimately, the client can get their money faster. We want to make it as easy to take money off the platform as it is to put it on. Because if your clients can get their money when they need it, they can feel more confident about investing it in the first place.

Adding new features – but only the ones you want

When it comes to new platform tools and features, we’ve always said that we’ll only introduce things we know will add real value for you and your clients.

• This year has seen us take a ‘microservices’ approach to platform enhancements, we’ve taken a different approach this year by selecting best-of-breed third-party technology and adding it to the platform as and when required.
• Our new CGT Tool, which enables extensive scenario-planning for capital gains and losses, is a good example of that.  
• Another example is how we manage and calculate platform and adviser charges. We now have greater flexibility in what we can offer you, without the need for manual intervention.

Evidencing compliance with Consumer Duty

I couldn’t do a review of 2023 without mentioning the new Consumer Duty regulation, which came into force in July. The Consumer Duty has made everyone in the supply chain consider how we each need to act to deliver good outcomes for customers, which has to be a good thing. Now it’s a matter of continuing to demonstrate good practice.

The FCA has made clear that Consumer Duty is not a “one and done” exercise. Like the advisers we support, we will be continuously learning and making improvements.

Meeting the needs of more clients

A final enhancement in 2023, which we detail more here, is the extension of family linking of platform accounts to include co-habiting partners and step-relations. This makes it one of the widest-ranging family linking services on the market. We support the changing modern family and hope this enables you to support your clients in all their diversity, including more blended families. 

What’s ahead in 2024?

The extensive activity the platform has seen over the past three years means it’s in good shape. In terms of activity in 2024, we are keen to enhance service levels, so that you always get the responsive, day-to-day support you need.

We’ve already done a lot to deliver this. But we know there’s always room for improvement.

Your platform for your business

And if there’s anything else you’d like to see from us, let me know. Our platform is your platform –we  know you have choices and we appreciate your support and business.

So please keep talking to us and help us make the platform as useful to your business as it can be.