Client disparity from multiple platforms usage a 'Consumer Duty risk'

30 Jan 2023

Third Financial featured in today's edition of Professional Adviser, discussing how a single platform can help firms stay compliant under Consumer Duty rules.  Article by Hope William-Smith, read here

 

Transcription

Third Financial has said advisers should use a single platform
Advisers should move their operations onto a single platform to avoid creating disparity between their clients, according to Third Financial.

Group chief executive of the investment platform, Ian Partington, today (30 January) said advisers are "at the mercy of platforms" and had work to do on their approach to platform usage in order to stay compliant under Consumer Duty.

"Currently, advisers are using multiple platforms for their client base, leaving them at the mercy of the platforms when it comes to costs. With certain clients, therefore, being charged more than others for the same service, it hardly presents a fair model," he warned.

By advisers moving operations onto a single platform, Partington said, firms can then have better control over what they charge their customers.

He opined that the approach would keep things "consistent across the board" and create "a better and fairer customer service, and falling in line with the Consumer Duty rules".

"Consumer Duty has the potential, and is already proving to be, a huge sticking point for the adviser industry," he added. "The deadline is fast approaching, and with firms assuming that they can just get by with repackaging current processes in a slightly different way, they clearly are not fully taking their responsibilities onboard."

Partington suggested advisers "think more deeply about the entire operational function" of their work generally in order to be able to "readily evidence they are meeting the rules" and acting in clients' best interests ahead of the Consumer Duty deadline later this year.

 

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