Ian Lowes, Managing Director at Lowes, tells Citywire NMA that one of the drivers for the partnership with Third Financial was its ability to facilitate structured products. Read the article here.
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Top 100 advice firm Lowes Financial Management has signed a partnership with technology provider Third Financial to launch a white-label platform.
The platform fee has not been decided yet, although Lowes said it will be ‘competitive’. Lowes will be able to customise the front end of the platform, and while Third Financial will provide custody, settlement, and hold client assets sourcebook (Cass) FCA permissions, Lowes will keep control of client administration.
The contract, one of a number of recent adviser white-label platform deals, was signed last month following several discussions with similar technology companies. Ian Lowes, managing director at Lowes, told NMA that one of the key drivers for the partnership with Third Financial was its ability to facilitate and offer functionality around structured products, which are favoured by the Newcastle-based advice firm.
‘It was about getting the right platform partner, we have looked at various options and ultimately, we do a lot of structured investment work so we wanted a platform that could add the functionality,’ Lowes said. ‘Third Financial were keen to build that extra functionality to accommodate that business centre which is growing. They’re very proactive, good people to deal with, and forward-thinking, which makes a refreshing change.’
Structured products offer fixed returns, but clients must invest for a particular period, with returns normally linked to an index. Lowes will continue to use other platforms, but it hopes the new partnership will get the firm into a more consolidated position. The white-label platform with Third Financial will not be limited to structured products but will allow for a range of funds and investments.
‘Using multiple platforms means you end up being quite disparate, and everyone does things differently, that becomes a frustration,’ Lowes said. ‘Getting into a more streamlined position was an appeal. We will be a long way from that because we’re now running multiple platforms plus one. We’re not naïve enough to think that we would be able to achieve a full migration [onto Third Financial].’
Lowes, which has £900m in assets under advice and has in the region of 14 advisers, predominantly uses the Aegon Platform, Quilter and Scottish Widows, while it has legacy assets with Transact and Fidelity.
Ian Partington, CEO at Third Financial, said: ‘Too many advisers still run their businesses across multiple platforms. To date, they have lacked an obvious single alternative to turn to, but we are now providing that alternative.’
Third Financial started out as a wealth management software business in 2008 before moving into the platform technology market in 2016 following a £7m investment from private equity firm Grafton Capital. The platform tech firm has 40 clients and has just under £7bn in assets under administration.
Foster Denovo and Kingswood are among the other advice firms which use a white-label version of the Third Financial platform.