The Adviser Issue 1 | Page 51

TECHNOLOGY IN YOUR BUSINESS
SWITCH AND SAVE WITH CENTRA
• Risk profiling , research , and reports all in one place
• Plus you can benefit from the new Income Drawdown feature at no extra cost
• All Members and Clients can access five complimentary Centra licenses
• Switching is easy with the help of our dedicated Adviser Services team and complimentary training and support
• Centra is backed by the trusted regulatory experts at SimplyBiz
Introducing the new Defaqto ATR Questionnaire Our commitment with Centra has always been to ensure that we continue to deliver a best in breed solution to advisers that creates real efficiencies within your firm , whilst strengthening your compliance and client relationships . We believe the new Defaqto ATR questionnaire does exactly that . With this in mind , we made the decision that this would be Centra ’ s preferred questionnaire moving forwards and replaces the Oxford Risk questionnaire which will no longer be available . The new ATR questionnaire has been designed to be easier for clients to understand when filling out independently and is now 12 questions as opposed to 18 . It also moves away from the use of a Likert scale ( five possible responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree ), so that each question has a bespoke set of responses and , as a result , clients must give clear answers and can ’ t sit on the fence . Furthermore , the new ATR questionnaire flags when these answers are inconsistent so the adviser can address this . Mark Greenwood , Director of Compliance Services had this to say : “ The language used within the Defaqto ATR questionnaire does not contain jargon and is client-friendly . We also feel the fact that there is no middle answer for clients to sit on the fence is a positive ; tools that have a set of questions with the option to answer ‘ neither yes nor no ’ have been highlighted as poor practice in previous FCA papers . The natural and agreed risk levels and notes section within the questionnaire lend themselves to the adviser having an in-depth conversation about the client ’ s attitude to investment risk . These features , along with the client-friendly language used in the questionnaire , should ensure that the end client has a better understanding of their attitude to investment risk , which can only be a positive for firms .”
Centra ’ s Enhanced Homepage We ’ ve refreshed the Centra homepage to make it easier for you to navigate and manage your tasks . The new navigation has been updated to :
• support the most common actions
• make the recommencement of in-progress activity easier , and
• provide an area to quickly view the status of questionnaires you ’ ve emailed to clients .
By doing this , we ’ ve introduced a new ‘ Tasks ’ area which we ’ ve shared more details on below .
Tasks Take control with the new tasks area within Centra which shows you notifications for sent and completed questionnaires and , in future releases , we ’ ll be adding more notifications relating to other tasks here .
You can now top-up from multiple sources As always with Centra , you asked and we listened , and you can now top-up from a combination of sources which will be especially useful during ISA season , for example . This new feature is also supported by updates to the topup research report to reflect any earlier source selections and suitability report updates to support multiple sources . At the end of the process , valuations are also updated for those products withdrawn from and the product topped-up .
Explore Centra ’ s other features In addition to the new features above , Centra also includes a DC Pension Switching tool , allowing you to efficiently and compliantly compare multiple pension switching scenarios . Plus , you can now conduct client meetings remotely thanks to Centra ’ s in-built secure video conferencing solution . You can save time by sending pre-populated and secure meeting invitations via Centra and conducting client reviews and other meetings online with the ability to share your screen should you wish .
Want to know what Centra can do for you ?
If you ’ d like to know more about the benefits Centra can bring to your business , speak to our dedicated Adviser Services . They ’ ll take the time to understand exactly what it is you need from your technology and help you implement the best solutions to meet those needs .
You can call them on 0808 124 00 00 or email investmentservices @ simplybiz . co . uk . Alternatively , you can find more information on your website under Investments .
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