Consolidator Radiant has said it is looking at launching a digitalised front-end solution for clients, enabling them to do “some level of self-service”.
In November last year, Radiant announced it had revised its platform strategy and launched a new offering powered by platform provider Nucleus.
Radiant first made known its plans to establish its own investment platform, in partnership with Seccl, in February 2022. But it switched strategy to launch a new platform offering in partnership with Nucleus.
As part of the deal, Radiant runs its own platform, for which Nucleus provides the technology.
Radiant chief executive Simon Cogman-Hellier said the firm’s new direct-to-consumer (D2C) proposition will bring down costs and make its client offering “much more open and accessible”.
“It will fundamentally change the client journey and how they interact with us,” he said, during a video interview with Nucleus chief commercial officer Mike Regan.
“For the first time as a group, we’re producing huge amounts of digital information to provide financial education.
“We have a corporate arm that serves many household-name clients with thousands of employees.
“We look after their health, wellbeing, and auto-enrolment, but we also want to financially educate and help those clients with all aspects of their financial journey.
“What this front-end D2C proposition will do is not only improve our journey for existing clients, but also open up the opportunity to provide a broader service to a greater depth of clients.”
Cogman-Hellier said advice is becoming “more expensive to provide, not less”.
“Despite technology, the Consumer Duty has added another layer of cost,” he said. “As a result, several firms are increasing the minimum level that a client must have in terms of fees or assets under advice to benefit from a financial adviser.
“We need to close the advice gap. Therefore, I think in the next two to three years, we’ll see a real increase in front-end technology and AI to make the journey more cost-effective, especially for people starting their accumulation journey
“A large group of people are currently missing out on this.”
He said the tie-up with Nucleus had enabled Radiant to gain “incredible operational efficiency”.
“When you have 12 or 14 platforms, there’s no point in trying to link API technology to all of them at once – it’s not affordable,” he added.
“Now, we’re moving towards a more singular solution with key technology to create efficiencies. We’re also improving efficiencies in processes, and of course, creating profitability for Radiant, which allows us to reinvest and create greater opportunities.”
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