More than a third (34%) of advisers have changed one or more of their preferred platforms in the last 12 months.
This is compared to 28% the previous year and 19% in the year before, according to the latest platform ranking from Defaqto.
The annual Platform Service Review published today (4 March) found that adviser satisfaction levels have fallen.
On average, satisfaction scores fell by seven percentage points, with the top five most important categories for advisers suffering the most. Some dropped by as much as 10 percentage points.
The Defaqto annual platform survey measures how satisfied financial advisers are with their preferred providers and identifies where expectations are being met.
Darren Winfield, Insight Consultant (Wealth Management) at Defaqto, said: “The rise in platform changes shows that advisers are becoming increasingly confident making switches to improve experience and accessibility for their clients. This is likely due to the impact of Consumer Duty regulation, alongside the impact of mergers, takeovers and technology updates in the past 12 months.
“Additionally, we’ve seen adviser satisfaction fall in key areas such as new business administration, existing business administration and transition and implementation. This combined with industry changes means that platform providers must continually look to improve service and experience to meet complex adviser needs. Investing in these areas is crucial and brands who become complacent will start to get left behind.”
The survey also polled advisers on their top 10 preferred platform providers.
Aviva remains advisers’ preferred platform provider with 29% of advisers placing the firm in their top three choices.
However, Quilter, which has remained in second place, returned the greatest number of first or only choices.
AJ Bell climbed one place moving into third position and Transact moved up to fourth place.
Fidelity Adviser Solutions dropped two places, from third to fifth this year. Hubwise Securities (6%) and Wealthtime (3%) also saw their positions drop, falling out of the top 10 preferred providers.
Defaqto also identified the top performing providers in 11 service area categories including new business administration, reporting and technical assistance.
7IM achieved the most top three places for performance, polling first place for three of the categories and second place for a further six.
Parmenion achieved the greatest number of first place positions (six) with seven top three places in all. Quilter and Wealthtime also did well with four top three places apiece.
Defaqto said overall the industry is meeting or exceeding expectations for only four out of the 11 categories of service.
Most concerning is that the categories ranked top three for importance (new business administration, existing business administration and transition and implementation) fell below adviser expectations by upwards of three percentage points of satisfaction.
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