Using Financial insights and data to support my clients

I am a bit of a fan I must admit. There I have said it! But I am not alone it seems. 

The Lang Cat really know their stuff! And I know many others who use their services. 

I am a subscriber and appreciate their insight and analytics (and humour). I recently signed up for their #langcatlive event in London next February and hope to see some familiar faces there. 

In advance of this, they recently released their most recent report, in partnership with Parmenion, titled “The impact of poor platform service 2024”. This document is aimed at the industry only, but the headline stats do not make great reading for the public. 

 

95% of advisers had to apologise to their clients on behalf of providers in the last year and that’s up from 93% in the previous year and almost half (45%) of advisers had moved assets from a platform due to poor service! Those are not the sort of statistics we as an industry want to be shouting about, or maybe we do! 

Consumer Duty should tackle this situation head-on. Clients should be able to access their cash and be able to transfer across platforms all digitally and without any loss to themselves and their assets. 

You would think this would be a given. There are certainly platforms that do make this a simple and easy process, but as an adviser you must be aware of those that don’t, rather than those that do! 

In a digital age, customers should be able to move money both on and off investment platforms with the same speed and it shouldn’t be made harder to leave than it is to join. I am so aware of what my clients say about me, I continuously monitor reviews and feedback. You would think as an industry in general we would now be on top of poor service. 

 

I appreciate the platforms I choose to work with, their approach to my clients and how easy they make the movement of assets. This all takes time to establish but should just be the norm. 

No doubt all advisers will have experience of both good and bad service. Let’s hope reports like this continue to highlight the situation and force a positive change. 

 

After all, client outcomes are at the forefront of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty rules.