NMG Consulting has released the results of its most recent Australian Adviser Insight Programme, which surveyed 200 senior financial advisers on their platform usage.
On the whole, satisfaction with platforms continued to rise year-on-year, up to 72.1 per cent in 2017–18 as compared with 69.7 per cent in 2016–17.
The most significant contributor to the uplift was improvements in factors relating to ‘business management’ (which include commitment to market, ‘backing up messages with action’, brand strength and reputation).
NMG said that substantial increases to the operations function (i.e., administration accuracy and speed of service) shows that platform providers are “doing better at getting the basics right”.
But “most disappointingly”, ratings on price competitiveness – one of the single most important factors for platform selection – fell throughout the year, said NMG.
The platforms with the highest and biggest increases in satisfaction were Hub24, Macquarie and Netwealth, according to the survey.
BT’s recent changes to pricing on the Panorama platform are likely to affect the results of NMG’s next survey, which is currently being conducted.
