Advisers Are Quiet Quitting Platforms

Earlier this week we won the Leading Innovation Award at the Schroders UK Platform Awards. I could wax lyrical about our innovations and how great we are but instead I’ll keep it short with 3 points before I go into the body of the newsletter: 

1. A quote from the judges when we won “P1 are delivering innovations that tangibly benefit advisers.” 
2. A link to the supporting doc showing all the innovations we delivered in the last 12 months.  
3. And a link to book a demo with the team and see these innovations and see how they can help you focus on advising, not admin. 

Easy. Now win aside, I want to discuss Platforum’s most recent UK Adviser Platform Selection report. I can’t share the report, but I’ll dive into an interesting trend in it which could really hinder advisers who are looking to grow.  

The bad news 

First, I’ll get the bad news out the way from the Platforum report - it pains me to say it but in 12 months we’ve dropped from top place. In only one category though. We’re still rated the top overall platform (out of 19) with 46.79 out of 50. And still top in 7 categories, dropping one category from 2023. We’re top for “General Opinion and Rating”, “Value for Fees”, “Usefulness of online tools”, “Quality of reports”, “Technical Support”, “BDM Support” and “General web usability” and now second in the three remaining categories.  

See what I did there? #marketing. Now, moving on to an interesting trend the report touches on.  

Quiet Quitting Platforms  

A fascinating aspect of the report to me is that when advisers become dissatisfied with a platform they often don’t move assets away, they simply stop adding more. They ‘quiet quit’ the platform. A term I’ve taken from employee engagement, and I found this graphic as to the causes for employees. Arguably, many of the factors that demotivate an employee could apply to advisers and platforms. But I’ve made an adviser Pyramid of Quiet Quitting using the Platforum’s report. 

But I’ve made an adviser Pyramid of Quiet Quitting using the Platforum’s report.

Passive Partnering 

At the other end of the adviser experience, and as mentioned in this and previous reports, quiet quitting is mirrored with what I’ve dubbed “passive partnering” when advisers win new business but decide to leave the client with their existing provider to save transferring them to the adviser’s preferred proposition. Thereby engaging in a relationship with a platform but with no ambition to expand on it. A reflection of how painful and reputationally risky the transfer process has become.  

Platform Addition & Subtraction 

Paradoxically to these behaviours that expand an adviser's list of providers, the research shows that advisers are slowly reducing the number of platforms they use. 83% of advisers now use between 1 and 3 platforms. The reality of the data is that there is probably a long tail of unreported ‘legacy’ platforms advisers have clients on, the ones they’ve ‘quiet quit’ or ‘passively partnered’ with. The FCA’s own data indicates only 7% of advice firms use only one platform for all clients.  

This trend in advisers reducing the number of platforms they use coincides with a shift in perspective on a platform’s role as detailed in the report, from a ‘product’ to more of an administration and tech function. This shift in mentality has facilitated, or was maybe preceded by, increasing comfort in reducing the number of platforms advice firms use while remaining independent. 

Advice, Not Admin 

Sidebar, we first used “Advice, Not Admin” as our motto since 2021, recognising that our role as provider is to reduce the admin drag on advisers delivering their advice – something we’ve constantly worked to do launching innovation after innovation (hence the award) - letting you focus on the real value you add to your clients.  

Why Quiet Quitting and Passive Partnering Matter 

Both behaviours matter to advisers looking to grow and prosper in this increasingly pressured market. Both are paths of least resistance, and I understand why advisers do it, but continuing down this path adds inefficiency which hinders growth. I’m a marketeer, not an adviser, but I do appreciate there’s work and tax implications when it comes to moving clients, in addition to risks posed by transfers, but for firms looking to grow, slicing away inefficiencies is key.  

In many ways quiet quitting and passive partnering are not reflections on advisers, they’re on us, providers – transferring shouldn’t be so fraught with risks that it's safer to keep clients where they are. We’ve tried to make it easier with innovations like our Transfers Tracker and fully digital processes, and the industry works to improve things (see the new Platform Association), but in the meantime continually taking the path of least resistance only leads to a mountain of inefficiency. (cliché galore!) 

Have a great weekend,

Harry Webster

Emoji Quiz: 📥👏  🏆

Answer: 🏢🤝🌱 = Corporate Social Responsibility.

Also, a slight error in last week's answer (the person who made quiz was on holiday and person writing the email assumed they knew...). The actual answer was meant to be Mortgage (Death = Mort, Aged...easy)

Here's what else we've been up to...

• We recently published our 2024 Engagement Report - highlighting engagement themes, engagement activity and voting records. Read the report here.
• Our quarterly investment review webinar with P1's CIO, Will Dickson. Going through macros trends, P1 Portfolio changes and performance and more. 10 10 2024 14:00 1hr Free CPD. Register your place here.