INVESTINGPLATFORMS
Under the big
umbrellas
I
ntense competition by large financial insti-
tutions–typicallythebanks–thatdominate
theinvestmentplatformmarkethasbeen
anetpositiveforinvestorscravingadded
functionality and better service. Between
them, banks have invested big bucks updating clunky
legacyplatformsthathavestruggledtohandletaxand
reporting considerations in one place.
Giventhatinvestorsareattractedbybrandstheyknow
and trust, it’s hardly surprising bank-controlled players,
such as CBA’s CFS FirstChoice, Westpac’s BT Wrap and
Macquarie Wrap, have attracted a large flow of funds.STORY
MARK STORYUnsurprisingly, most of the funds going into
investment platforms remain adviser-directed. And,
as expected, when independent financial advisers use
platforms, they favour those independent of big banks.
The arrival of independent, tech-savvy newcomers
such Hub24, Netwealth and Powerwrap, unencumbered
by these legacy issues, has encouraged all players in
the platform space to continue adding bolt-on services.
KingLoongChoi,senioranalystatInvestmentTrends,
is witnessing greater synergies between banks and
theinvestmentplatformstheyownandcontrolas
they attempt to catch up. For example, in 2015 CFSThe little-
known tools
that do much
of the hard
work for
investors are
getting
smarter