Towry transfer delays ended in 'weeks'-Ascentric

Ascentric has signalled the “beginning of the end" of the ongoing Towry transfer delays and is confident the problem will be resolved in a matter of weeks.

Managing director Hugo Thorman expects the transfer of Towry assets on to the Royal London-owned wrap to be completed within three to six weeks after the wealth adviser began "unblocking" the transferral process.

"It is the beginning of the end," says Thorman. "We have now had very good dialogue with Towry and things have improved. The process has become unblocked."

The assets waiting for transfer are those of former clients of Edward Jones, which was acquired by Towry Law last October.

Earlier this month, IFAonline revealed delays in transferring £75m worth of these assets on to the platform is costing it £15,000 per month, with Thorman hitting out at Towry for its inefficient handling of the problem.

But the Ascentric chief says Towry has now sent nearly 1000 instructions relating to Ascentric to fund managers and Crest and there are only about 100 outstanding requiring further information. 

He adds the wrap will now start the "horribly complicated" process of confirming account details.

"We have two more stages to go through so there is a lot more still to happen but this marks a big change in their engagement," he adds. "From here we should now receive confirmation of transfers from fund managers and Crest. We then have to tie those up with Towry's client records."

Ascentric has had to hire a specialist seven-member team to deal specifically with the transfer delays. The team, in place since March, is costing £15,000 in resources every month to run.

But Thorman says Towry has now made "great progress" in dealing with the transfers.