Tech Review: Standard Life Wrap

Mark Loosmore of AT8 Group finds Standard Life is making bold moves in the wrap market

Standard Life is undeniably on a mission. It appears to be a company undergoing change to move into the increasingly technology-led world in which we operate today. It has recently rebranded to demonstrate visibly the changes and is undergoing a technology refresh of its AdviserZone platform. It has also undergone some fundamental proposition, organisational and corporate changes as it shapes up for the post-RDR world.

The vision is one of an integrated set of services to support the distributor from front-office technology, through compliance support, to business submission and ongoing administration of the business. To support its vision, Standard Life has been on the acquisition trail. Firstly it bought support services provider threesixty, a regular winner at the Professional Adviser awards; and, more recently, acquired Focus Business Solutions a leading supplier of point-of-sale (POS) technology.

The recent acquisitions are added to Vebnet (a provider of worksite marketing technology). The acquisitions were not cheap, because Standard Life targeted the market leaders, signalling real commitment and intent to make the vision work.

An end-to-end vision

The idea of an end-to-end integrated vision will suit some distributors more than others. In particular, it may be attractive to those that are considering or have decided to move to a restricted advice business model. The business benefits of a truly integrated sales and administration platform are significant. For a number of distributors this will triumph over independence. However, when we spoke to Stephen Ingledew, retail distribution director, he was keen to point out that IFAs do not have to take the whole solution and can use any part of the system on its own as they see fit.

Standard Life is developing solutions to support a true multi-channel approach that can be used for most of the market, regardless of client or advice type. There is the wrap for those clients with larger and broader portfolios requiring a wealth management service. Alternatively, for the retail-led IFAs there is Standard’s Extranet AdviserZone, which it claims is one of the most used extranets in the industry.

The adviser can navigate which solution best delivers their proposition and meets their needs, along with those of their clients. Through the sales solution from Focus, IFAs may also be able to access other product providers’ solutions, assuming the additional integration links are created.

Standard Life’s wrap platform is at the centre of its strategy, having had many tens of millions of pounds invested in it at start-up. It continues to invest, making the platform more functional and robust. While it is still not in touching distance of the big platforms such as Skandia and Cofunds in terms of Assets Under Administration (AUA), it has momentum on its side. It took 18 months to reach its first billion pounds of AUA, but is now putting a billion pounds of assets on its book each quarter. The last published figures for AUA were £5.7bn.

The wrap story

The history of the wrap platform is of interest. It has always had high levels of budget assigned to it, but in the past it was run as a separate entity. While this gave it scope to grow its own culture, it was contrary to the current vision of providing better integration with the broader value chain.