Guide to wrap platform technology

The impact of technology upon Financial Services cannot be overstated. In years gone by the only way that most of us saved for our future was via a packaged product distributed by a pension or insurance company. You had very little control and in all likelihood you never really understood what was going on under the bonnet.

Today, with the advent of platform technology, financial advisers are able to provide a smarter, more effective and efficient service to you by using what are known as fund supermarkets and/or wrap platforms. As part of our service, we will consider whether or not they are appropriate for you and your situation. So what are the supermarkets/platforms within the world of Financial Services?

Platforms are web-based solutions that administer some or all of your investments whether they are held in pensions, ISAs, unit trusts or some of the other more obscure savings products. Instead of having all your investments and pensions invested and administered by different companies, all producing statements at different times in different formats, platform technology centralises the administration function so that your money is still invested by different companies but the administration is done in one centralised place. You receive one consolidated report detailing all the different providers and because the systems are web based you can access this information 24/7 at your own convenience. Different platforms have varying amount of other services that run alongside the valuation reports from “what if” projection calculations to complex tax reports.

Should this approach not be suitable for your needs, we are happy to use more traditional product providers.