According to brandmanagement's Weightless World survey, which sent mystery shoppers to more than 250 financial planners in Australia, the platform conversation came up very early in the sales process but clients did not understand what they were being told.
Brandmanagement principal Andrew Inwood said while this year's survey showed the frequency with which the selling of platforms during a first interview was actually falling - down to about 50 per cent of all first interviews this year from about 80 per cent in previous years - the planners ability to explain what a platform did or how it added value had actually fallen.
Inwood said while a portion of the industry did not believe platforms added value, platforms were very important to both the planning and the administering process. However, the poor scores in the mystery shopping survey spurred brandmanagement to launch a competition - giving planners the chance to win a bottle of Penfolds Grange - to describe the benefits of using a platform for clients in 100 words or less.
While there were more than 200 responses, the winner was Sal Hepworth from Genesys Wealth Advisers. Hepworth said, in part: "Wraps provide clients with: flexibility to work with their financial planner to structure a portfolio to suit their needs and objectives; choice - large menus of underlying investment options (including managed funds and shares) at competitive prices all housed in one place for simplicity; control every step of the way; reporting to keep investors informed and up-to-date."
