In the back
[ PLATFORMS & PENSIONS ]
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The UK’s large financial institutions – with all their
advantages in terms of scale, brand and marketing
power – haven’t made an impression on the investment
platform market
active customer accounts is also at a
record high of 5.9 million.
overly committed to the market (for
This is unlikely to represent the
example Halifax Share Dealing, Close actual number of investors, as many
Brothers and Selftrade).
people have multiple accounts,
I’m going to put Barclays in a league but it demonstrates the increasing
of its own. Historically, Barclays
popularity of DIY investing, or
Stockbrokers was a powerhouse in the perhaps its necessity, given that
UK platform market. More recently,
financial advice is expensive and in
as it has morphed into Barclays Smart short supply.
Investor, it seems to have lost its way.
Incidentally, if the entire platform
This suggests that the UK’s large
industry charged a 0.25 per cent fee,
financial institutions – with all their
it would earn £650m a year from
advantages in terms of scale, brand
us private investors. Again, a lot of
and marketing power – haven’t made money, and the biggest investment
an impression on the investment
platform of all charges considerably
platform market.
more than 0.25 per cent.
The cream of the crop
This explains my top-five platform list
of specialist companies: Hargreaves,
which is well out in front in terms of
assets under administration, followed
by interactive investor, then AJ Bell,
Fidelity and Bestinvest.
Holly Mackay of Boring Money
estimates that the platform market
had assets under administration of
£260bn at the end of last year. That
is a lot of money and the number of
TRUSTNET
Winners and losers
So, the questions we’re here to try
and answer are, who are the winners
and losers in the platform market
and which platform should I be using
going forward?
Will the platform market consolidate
further into two or three super
platforms and will this cause fees to
rise or fall?
trustnet.com