Ricky Chan, director and chartered financial planner at IFS Wealth & Pensions, said he was “pleased to see that Quilter still recognises the importance of working with IFAs”.
But he added: “With its growing in-house restricted advice arm, it is likely that there will be discriminatory pricing in place. For example, more favourable costs for its in-house advisers for the same platform/investment solutions offered to IFAs, which causes an uneven playing field.
“As we still have clients on the Old Mutual Wealth platform, my concern is potential disruptions that may be caused during the ‘re-platforming’ process onto the new platform. I hope they get it right.”
Profitability
Other advisers who have used Quilter in its previous guises will be tracking how the company’s profitability will pan out in the long term.
Scott Gallacher, chartered financial planner and director at Rowley Turton, said: “We were previous supporters of Old Mutual Wealth under its original incarnation of Skandia. However, we haven’t proactively used Old Mutual Wealth for some time as we felt there were better options for clients.
“The key downside would be that some platforms historically have struggled to deliver long-term profitability, and can be capital intensive businesses. Consequently it will be interesting to see how Quilter copes without the direct support of Old Mutual.”
He added: “We’ll be watching the future of Quilter with some interest.”
A Quilter spokesperson was also keen to stress that advisers won’t see any differences.
“Today our business offers a huge amount of support for advisers, including technical specialist support, and none of that will change. Our business is built around a belief that face-to-face advice offers people the best outcomes and we continue to support advice in all its forms,” the spokesperson said.
It is understandable that at this early stage Quilter has sought to assure advisers directly that standards will only improve, and publicly there are specifics emerging among the platitudes. For one, the company is looking to develop more products.
The group is also now implementing the UK Platform Transformation Programme in its UK platform business. The board hopes the new platform will enhance service levels, support the group’s advisers and enrich the overall proposition.
Quilter’s spokesperson added: “We will continue to build our national advice business, OMW Private Client Advisers, through recruitment and small acquisitions. The establishment of the Financial Adviser School (FAS) has also enabled us to train new advisers and we expect this to continue. FAS is looking to enhance its offering, for example by adding a chartered status qualification in the coming months.”
