Trustnet Magazine 60 March 2020 | Page 52

In the back 52 / 53 [ PLATFORMS & PENSIONS ] John Blowers investigates how the wave of consolidation in the platform industry is likely to affect the end investor Last man standing I n February 2020, interactive investor announced the purchase of The Share Centre, further reducing the choice of consumer platforms available to UK investors. I would put The Share Centre in the Premier League of investment platforms, along with Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell, Fidelity, Bestinvest and of course interactive investor itself. Yes, there is still a wide choice of options if you want to look at the smaller players. These consist of independent platforms (for example Strawberry Invest, Chelsea Financial Services and Willis Owen), or from larger players that don’t seem to be TRUSTNET trustnet.com