Platform Due Diligence Guide
For financial adviser use only. It should not be distributed to, or relied upon by, retail clients.
Welcome to Elevate Choosing the right platform is one of the key decisions you’ll make as a business. It’s imperative therefore that you have all the facts in front of you, to help you make the right decision for your clients, your company and you. That’s where we can help. Elevate offers a variety of products, as well as what we believe is the best range of funds currently available in the market. Elevate gives you: ¬Choice ¬ – providing a range of products and funds to help meet your clients’ needs ¬Transparency ¬ – a clear and concise pricing policy ¬Service ¬ – by constantly striving to improve our clients’ experience ¬Regulation ¬ – ensuring Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) principles and guidelines are at the heart of everything we do
Find out more We hope this document provides you with all the information you need when considering Elevate. If you need any more information, please get in touch with your usual contact or call 0345 600 2399.
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Introduction
Contents
Page
The importance of platform due diligence
04
Asking the right questions when choosing a platform Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Section 8 Section 9
08
The platform provider Terms and conditions of using the platform Charges Range of funds, tax wrappers and other products available Range of assets Functionality Accessibility Additional tools Support services
10 18 22 26 34 36 42 44 48
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Introduction: The importance of platform due diligence In the changing world of wealth management, wrap platforms are increasingly important in: ¬¬helping you to enhance your overall business model ¬¬improving your service to clients ¬¬increasing your efficiency. Platforms can play a key role in the success of your firm, placing a greater emphasis on undertaking an appropriate selection process. To support you with your platform selection process, we’ve pulled together the information you need to know about Elevate. We’ve thought about the key questions you need to ask all providers to comply with the regulator’s requirements of each stage of the platform selection process. This document also aims to ensure that you comply with the requirements of each stage of the platform selection process and that you select the most suitable platform for you and your clients’ needs. Helping you decide if Elevate is right for you and has the infrastructure and controls in place to support you and your clients changing needs.
Find out more If you need any more information on Elevate, contact your usual contact or call 0345 600 2399. 04/52
Integrating a platform into your business The term ‘Platform’ is commonly used to cover both ‘wraps’ and ‘fund supermarkets’. The FCA definition of a platform is internet-based services used by intermediaries (and sometimes clients) to view and administer investments. They tend to offer a range of tools which allow advisers and clients to see and analyse portfolios. As well as arranging transactions, platforms arrange custody for clients’ assets*.
A wrap platform may cover many areas:
Single view of holdings Investment tools Goals and scenario planning
Asset allocation
Fund research and selection
Risk profiling
Fund comparison tool
Tax wrappers
Cash account
Pension Investment Account
Individual Savings Account
General Investment Account
Other products
Underlying investments (including 3rd party managers) Mutual funds
Stocks and Shares (e.g. trading)
Unregulated funds
Exchange-traded funds
Note: Wrap platforms are mostly used by advisers but increasingly direct to client. The diagram shows a typical wrap platform in the UK platform market in 2016, with some platforms providing more or less wrappers or underlying investments than those shown here. *Source: FCA Factsheet 012 - Platforms: using fund supermarkets and wraps.
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Platforms have a number of potential benefits for you, your clients and the reputation of the market. For you Reducing costs ¬¬Less time and expense spent on administration and fulfilment tasks e.g. portfolio valuations. ¬¬Simplifying business processes and interactions with product providers and fund managers (tracking and monitoring performance). ¬¬Increasing business and operational efficiencies with straight through processing and client management facilities.
Increasing revenues ¬¬More opportunities for upselling of multiple products through a single platform account. ¬¬Helping build a stronger client proposition through in depth reviews, with a clear business vision.
Improving business models ¬¬Creating greater levels of trust with your clients, helping them appreciate the value of financial advice. ¬¬Creating a more sustainable long term business model with ongoing income, while moving from an upfront commission model. ¬¬Creating a stronger client proposition. ¬¬Facilitating proactive servicing of your clients on an ongoing basis – rather than a transactional approach.
For your clients Consolidating views of investments ¬¬Providing a single view of your clients consolidated investment portfolio; useful when completing tax returns. ¬¬Online valuations of investments. ¬¬Ability to view detailed levels of asset allocation and fund performance. ¬¬Access to a wide choice of investment options. ¬¬Increasing transparency of costs.
Increasing focus on your clients ¬¬Your incentives are linked to the performance of your clients’ portfolio. ¬¬You can provide better financial planning services, focusing on investment advice as well as tax planning and product advice.
Improving investment focus ¬¬Ability to switch asset classes and tax wrappers. ¬¬You have more time and tools to select the best products.
And for the overall market Wrap platforms can also increase the professional reputation of our industry by: ¬¬increasing transparency ¬¬creating a market that functions correctly for advice with downward pressure on prices ¬¬focussing on investment and holistic advice rather than product sell ¬¬creating clear and simplified tax wrappers with no product bias ¬¬consistently Treating Customers Fairly (TCF). 06/52
The complexities in administering a client’s portfolio can be simplified with a platform based model.
From this model...
...to this model.
Fund supermarket
Life and pensions provider Trading platform and products Back-office software Client Management Advice tools POS/advice tools Exchange
SIPP provider
¬¬Multiple provider relationships with little or no integration between point of sale or back office systems
¬¬Providing integration with a number of points of sale (POS) or back office systems in a single web system
¬¬Heavily paper based with no ‘real time’ single view of a client portfolio
¬¬Ability to trade online with multiple fund managers, through a variety of investment types and product wrappers
¬¬No consolidated management information (MI) of a firm’s overall investment business.
¬¬Providing a ‘real time’ view of a client’s portfolio and consolidated business MI.
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Asking the right questions when choosing a platform
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Section 1: The platform provider To help you with your selection process, we’ve listed some key questions and specific answers for our platform, Elevate. ¬¬How long has your company offered a wrap platform proposition? ¬¬What support and expertise is there to help develop my platform proposition? ¬¬How financially secure is your platform? ¬¬How would you describe your service reputation? ¬¬How would you describe the scalability of your platform? ¬¬Is your platform proposition the core business for the owners of the platform? ¬¬Do you own your own platform technology? ¬¬What has been your platform’s business growth record since launch? ¬¬Please detail how you benchmark your proposition and provide details of any awards or accreditations your platform has received in 2015-16
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How long has your company offered a wrap platform proposition? Elevate has been operational in the market since December 2007 and was made available to the wider market from Q4 2008. AXA Portfolio Services Limited - which trades as Elevate - has been acquired by Standard Life Savings Limited and now forms part of Standard Life Group. Key milestones of the Elevate platform Year
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
Date
Elevate’s key milestones
November
Elevate is acquired by Standard Life Savings Limited
September
New Pension Income Summary launched for drawdown clients
September
New summary screen to provide quick access to key information and an in-depth, single view of client accounts
February
Drip feed functionality available on the Elevate PIA
April
Assets on platform reach £10 billion
April
Launch of new ‘Pension Freedoms’ options for the Elevate PIA: ¬¬Flexi-access drawdown and UFPLS withdrawal options ¬¬Additional pension death benefit choices
January
Simplified pricing introduced for the Elevate PIA with the removal of regular pension and drawdown charges
December
Assets on platform reach £9 billion
December
AKG (Actuaries & Consultants Ltd) rate Elevate B+ (very strong). Elevate has retained this rating since.
June
Launch of New Elevate ISA, allowing clients to take advantage of new investment options, invest more tax efficiently and earn a higher interest rate on cash
May
Assets on platform reach £8 billion
November
Assets on platform reach £7 billion
October
New propositional release, including a user interface refresh, stockbroking and model portfolio capability enhancements and deeper integration with a range of practice management systems
July
Introduced paperless option for clients, allowing all outputs to be viewed digitally
March
Assets on platform reach £6 billion
December
Assets on platform reach £5 billion
December
Became RDR-ready and introduce adviser charging
March
Assets on platform reach £4 billion
September
Assets on platform reach £3 billion
July
Selected as platform of choice by Co-operative Financial Services (including Britannia Building Society)
January
Introduction on new tiers within our charging structure for high net worth investors above £2.5 million
December
Assets on platform break through the £2 billion barrier, doubling assets on platform within 6 months
November
Chosen by Sesame Bankhall Group as platform of choice
January
Introduction of Model Portfolios and International Bond
January
Introduce the following additions to the platform: ¬¬Elevate 3rd Party Provider Access ¬¬Risk Questionnaire ¬¬Discretionary Management capability ¬¬Model Portfolios, bulk switching and tailored fund range ¬¬OBSR risk rated model portfolios ¬¬Capability to access a limited range of unregulated funds
2010
2008
November
Launch to wider adviser market with enhanced proposition
2007
December
Launch to a number of consultative partners
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What support and expertise is there to help develop my platform proposition? Your feedback helps drive key enhancements to our platform, shaping developments that are important to you, improving the service you offer your clients. We’ll continue to listen and respond, to make a big difference to you.
How financially secure is your platform? Elevate is provided by AXA Portfolio Services Limited, which was acquired by Standard Life Savings Ltd (part of Standard Life Assurance Limited) in November 2016. Standard Life have been a leading provider of financial services since 1825 and is a FTSE (R) listed company, with a market capitalisation of £5.7 billion (June 2016). With such a strong financial base, Elevate is well placed as we begin an exciting new chapter together. Agency ratings
We’re committed to enhancing our proposition, with continuous development of our platform. Our platform is more than just a technology solution. With a range of tools and services designed to support you in running your business more effectively, improving the service you can offer your clients and helping to build long term value in your business. We also have a number of development phases over the coming years to help ensure Elevate can meet your changing needs.
Standard Life Assurance Limited
(entity responsible for Elevate)
A+
A1
(as at February 2016)
Assets under administration (“AUA”)
£328bn (as at 30 June 2016)
£11.3bn
(as at 30 June 2016)
Elevate & wrap combined
£40bn Assets under administration (as at 30 September 2016)
360 customers
thousand
(as at 30 September 2016)
Net inflows of
£5.1bn in the last 12 months (as at 30 September 2016)
Working with over
3,000 advisers firms (as at 30 September 2016)
Elevate has no automatic right of access to the assets of Standard Life Plc
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How would you describe your service reputation? We have a very strong service reputation. The performance of our operations department is measured by a number of metrics against our service targets: ¬¬80% of calls to be answered in 20 seconds. Above 80% service performance against 20 seconds target in 2016, with average speed to answer of 15 seconds ¬¬5% abandon rate. 3.01% of calls were abandoned during 2016 ¬¬90% first call resolution rate. If our Client Services team can’t provide an immediate answer we aim to respond within 24 hours. We’re currently resolving 80% of calls first time and aiming for 90% ¬¬Above 90% quality on all processing work. Our Call Quality and Process Quality were consistently over 92% in 2016 (figures as at 31 October 2016)
How would you describe the scalability of your platform? Elevate has been built with scale and can support 3,000 concurrent users and 100,000 transactions per day, with scalable IT infrastructure. With Elevate’s efficient and automated business model and straight through processing, most processes don’t need manual intervention. For those processes that do, our aim is to provide superior levels of service with the capability to rapidly scale up, if needed, to meet the demands of our partners.
Is your platform proposition the core business for the owners of the platform? The acquisition of Elevate by Standard Life is a clear sign of Standard Life’s continued commitment to lead the UK adviser platform market. Supporting your business and meeting the evolving needs of your clients is central to the long-term strategy of everyone at Elevate and Standard Life.
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Do you own your own platform technology? Elevate has been built using the latest generation web based technology on a ‘pure’ architecture model with the majority of products and components developed within the platform. This enables proposition flexibility, a consistent client experience and avoids integration with legacy systems and processes. Standard Life have a number of key partners who work closely with us to continue to develop the Elevate platform. One of these 3rd Parties is FNZ. We’ve built upon the basic FNZ model, tailoring it to our specific requirements, with the underlying technology still being owned by them. We have a robust governance model in place with FNZ to ensure platform development and performance targets are met. FNZ administers over £92 billion of assets on behalf of endcustomers in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. They employ over 1000 technology and investment operations specialists in London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Sydney and Wellington. Providing investment services for a number of life companies, banks and investment institutions across the world.* Source: FNZ Group, http://www.fnz.com
*
Elevate funds under management 2008 – Q2 2016
12000
FUM (£ million)
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2008
2009
2010
What has been your platform’s business growth record since launch? From just £3 million in Assets under Managment (AUM) in 2008, we’ve grown to £11.3 billion AUM by the end of June 2016. Over the year period to March 2016, Elevate saw AUM up 9%.
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015 Q2 2016
Please detail how you benchmark your proposition and provide details of any awards or accreditations your platform has received in 2015-16 We proactively seek to benchmark ourselves in the industry. Each year we use an independent research company to review the experience of a cross section of the adviser community. This study reviews the whole of the Life and Pensions Industry so we can understand how Elevate is viewed in the industry at an adviser level against our peers. This data is key to the development of our strategy to ensure we continue to deliver market leading propositions and client experience.
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Elevate awards and accreditations Schroders UK Platform Awards 2016 ¬¬Winner - best platform provider (AUM up to £15 billion) ¬¬Winner - best platform for adviser service. Defaqto 5 star rating 2016 ¬¬5 star for platforms. Defaqto gold service ratings 2016 ¬¬Gold for platform service. Investment life and pensions MoneyFact awards 2015 ¬¬Winner - best wrap/platform ¬¬Commended - best online service. Financial Adviser service awards 2014 ¬¬5 stars - Investment category ¬¬5 stars - Life and Pensions category. Investment life and pensions MoneyFacts awards 2014 ¬¬Winner - best wrap/ platform ¬¬Highly commended - best online service. Aberdeen UK platform awards 2014 ¬¬Winner - best platform provider (AUM up to £12.5 billion) ¬¬Highly commended - platform of the year. Please remember that past performance is not a guide to future performance.
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Section 2: Terms and conditions of using the platform We’ve listed some specific questions you should consider when looking at platform terms and conditions of use: ¬¬Is an adviser firm required to sign platform specific terms of business? ¬¬How can you evidence procurement and effective management of third party providers? ¬¬If either the platform provider or the adviser firm were to terminate the agreement, what is the standard procedure (i.e. notice) and under what circumstances would this not apply? ¬¬Will I be entitled to shares in your platform if I place enough business with you? ¬¬Do you require my clients to maintain a minimum holding in a cash account before they can make an investment? ¬¬Do you have a ‘best execution’ policy? ¬¬What is your complaints procedure? ¬¬What is the level of financial protection that clients have when investing through your platform? ¬¬Describe your business continuity plan. ¬¬Do you have a disaster recovery process? ¬¬How do you ensure data and system security?
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Is an adviser firm required to sign platform specific terms of business? Yes, the adviser firm will need to sign ‘Terms of Business’ with Elevate, these describe the basis on which the adviser (firm) will conduct business with AXA Portfolio Services Limited (the provider of Elevate) through the Elevate platform, and vice versa. The Terms of Business also set out the responsibilities of users when acting on behalf of the adviser and/or client and how the adviser will be remunerated for the business placed through Elevate are also included. Users will also be required to confirm their acceptance of the Elevate Terms of Business when first entering the Elevate platform as additional enhancements are made.
How can you evidence procurement and effective management of third party providers? Elevate is contracted with a number of third party providers in order to provide you with an additional source of expertise and market knowledge. One of these third party providers is FNZ (as described on page 14). Elevate is also integrated with Winterflood Business Services (‘WBS’) to provide an online stock trading capability, DST International Pension & Actuarial Services (PAS) for the pension quotation engine and receives third party feeds from, Bloomberg, Mellon, Morningstar OBSR, eValue Investment Solutions, Global Cap, Link, and Voyant. Elevate operates a comprehensive and detailed procurement process to ensure third parties are able to meet Elevate’s high standards and values. In order to achieve effective management we have a robust oversight framework for key third parties. This includes the provision of Investment Transactions Services as well as the provision of the platform itself. Third party providers on Elevate, 2016 System
Function
Internal / outsourced
System / service
Morningstar
Advising upon fund selection for risk profiled portfolios
Outsourced
n/a
eValue Investment Solutions
Providing risk assessment tool
Outsourced
n/a
eValue Investment Solutions/Global
Using the stochastic modelling to deliver the approach to risk rated asset allocations
Outsourced
n/a
Winterflood
Service - stockbroking partner
Outsourced
n/a
Voyant
Provides LifePlanning Toolkit
Outsourced
n/a
DSTi PAS
Service - providing pension illustrations
Outsourced
n/a
Finex
Service - providing financial feeds
Outsourced
n/a
Bloomberg
Service - providing financial feeds
Outsourced
n/a
SAP
Financial accounting system
Internal
Internally hosted
Navision
Financial accounting system
Internal
Internally hosted
Thunderhead
Providing document generation functionality
Internal
Internally hosted
Sequence
Service – providing workflow management capability
Outsourced
n/a
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If either the platform provider or the adviser firm were to terminate the agreement, what is the standard procedure (i.e. notice) and under what circumstances would this not apply? The agreement between Elevate and the adviser firm may be terminated by either party upon giving three months’ written notice to the other party. We may terminate the agreement with immediate effect without liability in the event of any of the following occurring: a. material breach by the adviser or users (employees nominated by the adviser firm) or any person engaged in the agreement as set out by the Terms of Business b. investigation, suspension or de-authorisation of the adviser under the Financial Services Markets Act 2000 or by the FCA c. the adviser or users engaging in any act of wilful misconduct, which may, in our opinion, impact upon us or our interests d. suspension, cessation or reconstruction of the adviser’s business, not limited to bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings or any creditor agreement or e. any requirement by law, rule, regulating authority or government body.
What is your complaints procedure? Complaints are managed by the Elevate Quality Team who undertake investigation and resolution of all complaints. We aim to resolve a complaint within 24hrs of receipt of the complaint. If this isn’t possible we’ll send a holding letter within 5 days, detailing the situation and the contact details of the person handling the complaint. If the complaint hasn’t been resolved within 4 weeks, a further letter is sent explaining why we haven’t been able to come to a conclusion. Complaints must be resolved within 8 weeks from receipt of complaint (except with express permission from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to extend our deadline). A closing letter will be sent during the 8 week period, explaining our final decision and detailing any compensation, if relevant. Clients are able to complain further to the FOS if they’re still unhappy after receiving this letter. A root cause analysis will also be performed on all complaints and communications that are received by us.
What is the level of financial protection that clients have when investing through your platform?
Will I be entitled to shares in your platform if I place enough business with you?
All client assets are kept separately from Standard Life’s own assets. In the unlikely event that Elevate became insolvent, the full value of the clients’ assets would still be available to redeem.
No, Elevate does not offer this. As a publicly listed company you may adopt Elevate as well as purchasing Standard Life shares, however these would be two separate transactions and their shareholder influence would be negligible.
Elevate is a trading style of AXA Portfolio Services Ltd, authorised and regulated by the FCA as an Investment Firm, so your clients would benefit from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection.
Do you require my clients to maintain a minimum holding in a cash account before they can make an investment? There is no minimum holding requirement. For each of the Elevate product wrappers clients can invest a minimum single payment of £1,000. The minimum regular payments are: ¬¬£100 monthly ¬¬£300 quarterly ¬¬£500 half-yearly or ¬¬£1,000 yearly. Whilst any new purchase requires suitable funds to be available we don’t impose a minimum amount in the cash balance.
If your clients have a valid claim against us in respect of the operation of or winding-up of the Elevate PIA, then they may be covered for 100% of the first £50,000 of their investment. If our external banking partner became insolvent your clients may be covered under the FSCS for 100% of the first £75,000 of the money on deposit with that bank. The £75,000 limit will normally include cash held within the Elevate portfolio together with any other money held with that same bank. Details about our external banking partner are available on request. Your clients may hold some assets with banks other than our external banking partner. If this is the case, your clients may also be covered under the FSCS for 100% of the first £75,000 of the money on deposit with that bank. Some banks are covered by schemes other than the FSCS. We’ll give you information on any local compensation arrangement where this applies to you. The FSCS does not apply to:
Do you have a ‘best execution’ policy?
¬¬FCA recognised funds
Yes, we do. For more detail on our ‘best execution’ policy, please consult our Order Execution Policy document (provided on request by your allocated Business Development Manager).
¬¬unregulated funds or securities.
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However, an FCA recognised fund or an unregulated fund may be covered by a local compensation arrangement. Details of any such arrangement should be available from the relevant regulator’s website.
Describe your business continuity plan
How do you ensure data and system security?
We have a series of detailed business continuity plans in place for our people and our systems.
Security of data is a paramount concern to Elevate which is why we have created a set of extensive security measures.
The Standard Life Group (and therefore Standard Life Savings Ltd) has robust Business Continuity Policy and Disaster recovery plans which are endorsed and audited under the group governance and enterprise risk management frameworks.
All traffic to and from advisers, clients and the data centre is secure and encrypted using SSL (secure sockets layer). Both name/password authentication and a federated security model are used to authenticate users.
The process will include: ¬¬Defining policy and standards for the Business Continuity Management programme ¬¬Understanding the business and appointing appropriate individuals to the business continuity structure ¬¬Determining the Business Continuity Management strategy ¬¬Developing and implementing Business Continuity Management responses ¬¬Exercising, maintaining and reviewing the programme ¬¬Embedding Business Continuity Management within the organisation culture. The business continuity plans (BCP) are issued electronically to the appropriate individuals named within the BCP and they’re involved in the appropriate tests. The plans and capabilities are reviewed and tested regularly and take into account critical processes and a wide range of incident scenarios that could result in significant disruption to business operations. We also undertake externally benchmarked incident simulation exercises, the current capability rating being ‘Excellent’.
Within each data centre, a multi-zone multi-layered defence approach to system security is employed in line with (or ahead of) best practice for secure online financial transaction processing services. Multiple firewalls from different vendors are deployed at the network and application levels to provide an extremely high level of security combined with intrusion detection to monitor and alert any suspicious activity. Application and network security is audited under a continuous assurance programme operated by KPMG. There’s a robust process in place to ensure the integrity of the data. Elevate is currently hosted from two data centres located in Edinburgh and Dundee. Each data-centre is scaled to deal with potentially millions of clients (end investors) and provide the storage, processing, bandwidth and redundancy required to provide a high-level of service to those clients and the advisers who service them. Each data centre is a secure high availability facility. Within each centre there is complete redundancy in respect of: power communication links (bandwidth), air conditioning, network infrastructure, web-server and database infrastructure, security infrastructure and storage infrastructure.
Do you have a disaster recovery process? Yes, we have a disaster recovery process for our employees to continue operations. It’s our policy to: ¬¬Identify the critical business activities, Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective and dependencies upon services and related activities, through Business Impact Analysis ¬¬Develop and implement plans to manage business disruptions, as well as plans for the recovery of critical activities, incident management for sites and crisis management ¬¬Regularly test our disaster recovery plans to ensure they remain fit for purpose ¬¬Regularly test and train the appropriate employees to ensure they’re adequately prepared to respond and remediate swiftly any business disruption, incident or crisis ¬¬Maintain the records and services identified for recovery ¬¬Define the teams and responsibilities of team members involved within the Business Continuity Management programme.
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Section 3: Charges To help you understand the platform fees and charges, here are the questions you should consider asking: ¬¬What is your platform’s pricing structure, the likely cost it entails to my client and how simple is it to explain to my market segment? ¬¬What are the pricing terms on your platform? ¬¬How does your charging structure account for retail distribution review (RDR)? ¬¬Which adviser charging options do you have available on your platform? ¬¬What are the charges for re-registration on and off your platform? ¬¬Is there a facility to link clients’ accounts on your platform for charges i.e. family members? ¬¬Are there any fund manager initial charges on the platform? ¬¬Do you allow share trading on platform (for example on ETFs)? ¬¬How can securities be traded? ¬¬What are the stockbroking charges?
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What is your platform’s pricing structure, the likely cost it entails to my client and how simple is it to explain to my market segment? Our pricing structure is as flexible, clear and transparent as possible, ensuring you and your clients can easily understand what is being charged. ¬¬Simple ‘pay what you see’ tiered pricing – it’s easy to show your clients they’re always charged the lowest price they qualify for on their whole investment ¬¬Pre-funding of transactions – Elevate is one of the few platforms that offers pre-funding for switches, cheques and tax relief, to ensure your clients are in the market for longer ¬¬No additional transactional charges – for fund switches, model portfolio functionality and tools such as the risk profile questionnaire ¬¬Link family accounts – clients linking family accounts can see their charges fall even further by qualifying for a lower price tier.
What are the pricing terms on your platform? Charge type
Elevate platform charges
Elevate Initial Charge
Nil
Elevate Portfolio Charge (p.a.)
£5 million + £2.5 million + £1 million + £500k + £100k to £500k £25k to £100k £0 to £25K
Fund Manager Initial Charge
The majority of funds carry no initial charge*
Fund Manager OCF/TER
Varies by fund; The OCF/TER can be different for each share class within the fund
Fund Switch Charge
No charge for fund switches
Cash Interest Rate
Elevate Cash Interest
ISA Wrapper
No additional charges for ISA wrapper
GIA Wrapper
No additional charges for GIA wrapper
PIA Wrapper
No additional charges for PIA wrapper
Drawdown Pension Regular Charge
No additional charges
0.10% 0.15% 0.25% 0.28% 0.32% 0.34% 0.40%
The majority of funds carry no initial charge, but please check the Terms and Conditions and Charges documents of your selected fund managers, as charges may exist.
*
Please note Other third party providers will apply their own charges – please refer to their original documentation or contact them directly to obtain this information. Charges are subject to change, according to market conditions. Should that be the case you will be informed by your Business Development Manager. Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 23/52
How does your charging structure account for retail distribution review (RDR)? Elevate’s charging structure has been developed specifically with RDR in mind and is based on the regulatory premise of openness, transparency and consolidation of wealth. We’ve developed an Adviser Charges Agreement (ACA), which is a one time declaration from your client, giving us authorisation to pay Adviser Charges through their Elevate Account. We can facilitate the payment of Adviser Charges without seeking a new signature every time a new charge is applied, or an existing charge is amended or increased. It means that we can continue to offer you the flexibility to set and amend adviser charges as agreed with your clients, until an agreement is cancelled.
Adviser charging options available on Elevate, 2016 Adviser charging options
Options explained
Initial Adviser Charge
¬¬A one-off charge taken at wrapper opening, or when an additional contribution is made ¬¬% of contribution or specific £amount
Initial Adviser Charge (Drawdown)
¬¬A one-off charge taken from the value of the fund allocated to drawdown pension after PCLS has been deducted ¬¬% of contribution or specific £amount
Spread Initial Adviser Charge
¬¬You can set a ‘£ total charge amount’ for the whole agreed term (which is then split by the payment frequencies) or ¬¬You can just set the ‘£ deduction amount’ per frequency for the term set (e.g. £10 monthly for 10 years)
Adviser Switch Charge
¬¬A charge taken from the value of funds being switched ¬¬% of value of funds realized
Ad Hoc Adviser Charge
¬¬A one-off charge available from cash within product wrapper or Elevate Cash ¬¬A charge taken as % of the product wrapper value ¬¬Specific £amount
Ongoing Adviser Charge
¬¬A recurring charge for ongoing service ¬¬A charge set for each product wrapper ¬¬% of wrapper value or specific £amount
Which adviser charging options do you have available on your platform? Elevate offers the following adviser charging options: ¬¬Initial Adviser Charge ¬¬Initial Adviser Charge (Drawdown) ¬¬Spread Initial Adviser Charge ¬¬Adviser Switch Charge ¬¬Ad Hoc Adviser Charge ¬¬Ongoing Adviser Charge.
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What are the charges for re-registration on and off your platform?
How can securities be traded?
Elevate aims to make the transfer process as efficient and cost effective as possible for all parties and does not have any charges for standard re-registration to another platform or provider.
¬¬At Best – clients’ orders are grouped (aggregated) together with any other orders for the same security. They’re then traded in a single transaction at the best possible price available in the market at the cut off time. This means clients could benefit from lower trading charges, depending how many clients are trading at the same time
Is there a facility to link clients’ accounts on your platform for charges i.e. family members? Elevate offers linked accounts which can be held between spouses, civil partners and between parents and children. Your client may pay a lower Elevate Portfolio Charge if they have a linked account. Holding a linked account means that the value of each account is added together to determine the rate of Elevate Portfolio Charge that will apply. For example if a husband and a wife had accounts of £340,000 and £250,000 each, the Elevate Portfolio Charge will be calculated on the combined value of £590,000. Based on this combined value, each will be charged 0.28% p.a.rather than the 0.32% p.a.they would be charged if the accounts were treated separately.
There are two ways of trading securities on Elevate:
¬¬Quote & Deal – the adviser or discretionary manager will request a price (the quote) and have approximately 10 seconds to decide whether to accept (deal) or reject it. If accepted, the order is transmitted to execution immediately.
What are the stockbroking charges? Stockbroking charges are tiered based on the type of security and amount of trades being aggregated. The client charges (for a buy or sell) are as follows:
Quote & deal*
Are there any fund manager initial charges on the platform? Elevate accepts funds with an initial charge in only rare circumstances. Over 98% of all our funds have no initial charge. Initial charges are accepted if they relate to funds that are no longer open to new business, or circumstances such as Vanguard where the initial charge is not a fund manager fee, but a fund expense.
At best** Aggregated trades
Nonaggregated
ETF
NON-ETF
£12.50
£12.50
FROM
TO
1
1
£10.50
£12.50
2
49
£9.50
£11.50
50
+
£5.50
£7.50
Quote & Deal is a trading mechanism where a client can place and complete a trade instantaneously (and can’t by definition be aggregated).
*
Do you allow share trading on platform (for example on ETFs)? Yes, we offer trading on a range of asset types on the platform which covers sterling denominated and London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed non-complex instruments only:
** At Best is a trading mechanism where all trades placed will be held and traded at 15:00 hours. If more than one of the same share is placed during the day, the shares will be aggregated and traded as one. This creates cost efficiencies.
¬¬Stocks and shares (traded in the UK) ¬¬Investment Trusts ¬¬Exchange Traded Funds ¬¬Exchange Traded Notes ¬¬Fixed-Interest Securities ¬¬Debenture stock or other loan stock ¬¬Permanent Interest Bearing Shares (PIBS)
Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 25/52
Section 4: Range of funds, tax wrappers and other products available Questions you should ask to ensure you’re aware of the investments and tax wrappers that are available on the platform: ¬¬Which wrappers can be held in your platform? ¬¬How many funds are available? ¬¬What type of clients can manage their investments on your platform? ¬¬How many fund managers are there on the platform? ¬¬How do you select the funds that you offer? ¬¬Is the fund range consistent across all wrappers? ¬¬Is there an ISA tax wrapper? ¬¬Are there unwrapped unit trust/OEIC funds? ¬¬Is there a personal pension? (Give details of the provider) ¬¬What will be the process for an individual converting from capped drawdown on your SIPP to FAD? ¬¬Will there be additional charges imposed to maintain these contracts? ¬¬Is there a limit on the number of withdrawals for UFPLS or limit on the size of withdrawals? ¬¬Is there an onshore bond? ¬¬What are the benefits for an adviser firm placing funds on the platform? ¬¬What is the flexibility to accommodate additional funds onto your platform? ¬¬What due diligence is carried out by your platform before adding funds onto the platform? ¬¬What fund and investment information is provided by your platform to help adviser firms run client accounts? ¬¬What is the capability offered by your platform to adviser firms to choose and tailor Discretionary Managers to the platform?
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Which wrappers can be held in your platform? The following table outlines the wrappers available on the Elevate platform as well as their key features. All on platform wrappers benefit from straight through processing and require only one wet signature. A consistent investment strategy can be applied across all wrappers (in accordance with regulation). In addition to the tax wrappers mentioned, our reporting tool, Memoitem, enables off platform assets to be recorded and valued on Elevate, providing a complete picture of your clients’ wealth. Elevate wrapper types and description Wrapper type
Description
General Investment Account (GIA)
¬¬An unwrapped product which can be used to hold general investments. As is the case with the Elevate ISA, an income can be drawn down through the Elevate Cash Account or taken directly from the product wrapper. The Elevate GIA wrapper is the basis for Elevate Trust Accounts and to manage investments on the platform from third party International Bond and pension products.
Stocks and shares Individual Savings Account (ISA)
¬¬The Elevate ISA enables current and previous years’ stocks and shares and cash ISAs to be consolidated and managed within a taxefficient environment. ¬¬Like our other wrappers, the Elevate ISA allows you to perform in-specie re-registrations avoiding the need for investments to be en-cashed and suffering out of the market time. Regular withdrawals from the ISA are permitted into the cash account or client’s bank account at any time.
Pension Investment Account (PIA)
¬¬The Elevate PIA is a SIPP which allows consolidation of various pension holdings. All trades benefit from pre-funding of tax contributions and are ready for the new pension flexibility rules introduced April 2015. ¬¬One of the unique features of the Elevate PIA is the online drawdown facility which enables you to crystallise benefits and manage income reviews and payment strategies for clients directly through the platform. ¬¬Pension benefit options include uncrystallised fund pension lump sum (UFPLS) withdrawals, flexi-access drawdown, regular flexiaccess drawdown and capped drawdown for those clients that already have or are transferring capped drawdown arrangements.
Elevate General Investment Account (GIA) for third party product providers
¬¬The Elevate GIA can also be used to hold investments from products provided by third party providers (International Bond or pension provider only). This allows advisers to combine the unique features or tax benefits of a specific product with the investment range and trading flexibility of Elevate. It can also be helpful where product exit charges make it more beneficial to keep the existing product wrapper and move the assets to Elevate rather than transferring the whole product. ¬¬For those third party products accessible through Elevate, this will enable you to easily set up and manage a consistent investment strategy across a client’s portfolio as well as apply a consistent charging structure.
Remember, the value of investments can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed, and your clients could get back less than they invest. Elevate cash account Elevate provides clients with a centralised ‘Elevate Cash’ facility in their account, in addition to a cash element included in each of the product wrappers. Elevate Cash can be used to pay money into and out of the Elevate account and to move money between wrappers, while the cash element within each product wrapper is used for dividend and interest payments, to pay charges or to hold cash ahead of investing.
Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 27/52
Elevate cash interest rate Interest is payable on money held in Elevate cash accounts at a rate set by us (or the relevant banking partner, depending on product). Interest is calculated daily and credited to the account on the first working day each month. More information can be found in ‘Your guide to charges’. Elevate GIA, Elevate ISA and Elevate Cash We pool the cash holdings of Elevate GIA and Elevate ISA customers in addition to customer holdings in Elevate Cash and money deposited by customers who use other investment services provided by us. This total amount is then deposited across client money bank account(s) and banking partner(s). We currently retain any interest payments from our banking partner(s) based on this combined amount. The amounts we retain vary depending on the total cash balances held and market interest rates. The interest rate we pay on cash held in the Elevate ISA, Elevate GIA and Elevate Cash is not based on the amount we receive. Elevate PIA interest The rate of interest paid on cash held in the trustee bank account for the Elevate PIA is set by our banking partners, payable at the rate shown below. Other interest We operate platform administration bank accounts to move money to and from your Elevate account and into and out of Elevate cash and product wrappers. We also operate investment administration bank accounts to make payments for investments, receive proceeds from the sale of investments and receive investment income. No interest will be paid on money in the platform investment bank accounts. Full details of the interest we receive and the current Elevate cash interest rates are available on our website: www.axawealth.co.uk/Our-Products/Elevate/Elevate-CashInterest-Rate/
How many funds are available? We offer a range of over 5,000 funds on the platform, covering both onshore and international, from over 150 fund managers, including 3,400 clean share classes and this is constantly expanding; we’ll add any fund managers that you require, if not already on platform (provided they meet our operational requirements and are not considered a risk). In addition Elevate also gives access to sterling denominated stocks and shares which includes investment trusts and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Elevate constantly monitors the range of funds available to the UK market, through its relationships with the fund groups and its own research. Through this continuous monitoring we’re confident that we’ll always offer a range of funds representative of the whole universe, covering all the asset classes and investment styles available to UK retail investors.
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What type of clients can manage their investments on your platform? In addition to retail clients introduced and managed by you, Elevate can cater for a range of other client groups including: ¬¬Trustees ¬¬Pension providers ¬¬Bond providers.
How many fund managers are there on the platform? At the end of October 2016 Elevate had over 150 fund managers on platform and this is constantly expanding.
How do you select the funds that you offer? Our overarching aim is to offer representative access to the entire investment universe; supplemented by adviser demand and operating within our investment governance process. We’re happy to add any fund or fund group where there is identifiable demand, provided it meets Elevate’s own regulatory obligations and the agreed operational framework.
Is the fund range consistent across all wrappers? Yes. Elevate’s policy is to offer each fund across our entire suite of wrappers wherever possible whilst complying with any eligibility criteria for each of those wrappers. For example, the net distributing version of a fund being available to the GIA whereas the gross version will be found in the tax-exempt wrappers.
Is there an ISA tax wrapper? Yes. The Elevate ISA enables current and previous year’s stocks and shares ISAs to be consolidated and managed within a tax-efficient environment. The ISA allows in-specie re-registrations avoiding the need for investments to be en-cashed and suffering out of the market time. Regular withdrawals from the ISA are permitted into the cash account which can in turn be drawn down to produce an income. Charges for the ISA can be levied against the General Investment Account to allow maximum tax efficient growth.
Are there unwrapped unit trust/OEIC funds? Yes. The Elevate GIA is an unwrapped investment account with access to every eligible asset available on the platform. Investment in this broad range of funds and the ability to monitor investments under a single view is facilitated on Elevate through The Elevate GIA. The Elevate GIA acts as a flexible unwrapped product which can be used to hold general investments and also provides options to plan around the Capital Gains Tax aspects of the HM Revenue & Customs tax regime. The Elevate GIA has its own product wrapper cash facility from which charges and remuneration can be paid. The product wrapper cash also enables your client to hold cash pending an investment decision, convert investments into cash and to take income via single or regular payments providing there is sufficient cash available.
Will there be additional charges imposed to maintain these contracts? No, there will be no additional charges imposed to maintain these contracts.
Is there a limit on the number of withdrawals for UFPLS or limit on the size of withdrawals? No, there’s no limit on the number of withdrawals for UFPLS. Clients can withdraw the entire fund, withdraw lump sums or take a regular income. There’s also the flexibility to crystallise part of the whole pension fund in order to make withdrawals in the most tax efficient way.
Is there a personal pension? (Give details of the provider) The Elevate PIA is a SIPP which allows consolidation of various pension holdings. All trades benefit from pre-funding of tax contributions. A unique feature of the Elevate PIA is the online drawdown facility enabling you to crystallise benefits and manage income reviews and payment strategies for clients directly through the platform. Pension benefits include Uncrystallised fund pension lump sum (UFPLS) withdrawals, flexi-access drawdown, regular flexi-access drawdown and capped drawdown for clients that already have or are transferring capped drawdown arrangements in.
What will be the process for an individual converting from capped drawdown on your SIPP to FAD? Flexi-access drawdown is available to new and existing Elevate Pension Investment accounts being placed into full or partial drawdown. The Elevate PIA offers a range of income options with the facility to set-up one-off or regular payments; take different initial and on-going withdrawals; generate tax efficient income using regular PCLS payments. Capped drawdown functionality is also provided where a proportion of benefits are already being taken on that basis. If multiple capped drawdown arrangements already exist (because of transfers in), benefits will continue to be held in separate arrangements until such a time as they’re converted. Where conversion of existing capped drawdown arrangements (including those being transferred in) to flexi access is requested, converted assets will be held in a single flexi-access drawdown account. Existing capped drawdown clients can continue taking taxable withdrawals and ad hoc single withdrawals and continue to enjoy an annual allowance of £40,000. If at any point the client wishes to access more than 150% of GAD, we can seamlessly move them into flexi-access drawdown.
Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 29/52
Product key points Feature
Uncrystallised Fund Pension Lump Sum Full or partial
Flexi-access drawdown From 6 April 2015 Full, partial or drip-feed (Regular)
Capped drawdown Pre 6 April 2015 only Full, partial and phased
Additional fund designation Pre and post 6 April 2015 if capped drawdown set up by 5 April 2015 Full, partial and phased
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Key points
Elevate Pension Investment Account
¬¬Withdraw the full pension fund or partial amounts ¬¬25% of the payment will be tax-free, 75% will be taxed at clients marginal rate ¬¬For clients not looking to set up regular withdrawals, this allows them to take out a lump sum to meet ad-hoc needs. Useful, for example, when needing to make a large purchase or meet an unforeseen expense. Only the amount withdrawn is crystallised ¬¬Client’s money purchase annual allowance limited to £10,000 ¬¬Subject to passing lifetime allowance test.
✓
¬¬Withdraw the entire fund, withdraw lump sums or take a regular income ¬¬Flexibility to crystallise part or the whole pension fund in order to make withdrawals in the most tax efficient way. ¬¬Clients’ money purchase annual allowance limited to £10,000 if clients withdraw taxable income, otherwise clients continue to enjoy £40,000 annual allowance.
✓
¬¬Subject to 150% of GAD, existing Capped drawdown clients can continue taking regular taxable withdrawals after 5 April 2015 as long as a drawdown fund was established by 5 April 2015 ¬¬Clients continue to enjoy annual allowance of £40,000 ¬¬If at any point clients wish to access more than 150% of GAD, we can move them seamlessly into flexi-access drawdown.
✓
¬¬If clients want to increase the amount they can withdraw subject to the capped drawdown points above, clients will be able to crystallise additional funds from their pension, or transfer in additional capped drawdown funds from another policy ¬¬Clients can take tax free cash and/or taxable income from additional funds designated ¬¬Clients continues to enjoy annual allowance of £40,000.
✓
Current third party providers of SIPP, SSAS and pension plans on Elevate 3rd party name
Products available
Barnett Waddingham SIPP LLP
BW SIPP
Bourse Trust Company Ltd
Executive Investment Bond
Canada Life International
Accelerated Access Account Control Access Account Estate Preservation Account
Inheritance Planning Account Premiere Account Wealth Preservation Account
Curtis Banks Plc
MPAS SIPP The Montpelier SIPP
The Montpelier Protected Rights SIPP The Curtis Banks SIPP
Friends Prov International
Reserve
Reserve Advance
Hornbuckle Mitchell
The Private Pension Flexible income Pension Plan Hornbuckle Mitchell Private Pension
Flexible Pension Plan SSAS
Investaac Pension Admin Limited
Minerva SIPP
Intelligent Money Ltd
Intelligent Pension
Intelligent SIPP
Isle Of Man Assurance Group (IOMA)
Estate Control Bond Estate Transfer Bond
Estate Management Bond
London & Colonial Assurance Plc
Open Annuity New Open Annuity
EU Open Annuity
London & Colonial Services Limited
Open SIPP
Pointon York
Pointon York Individual SIPP Pointon York e-SIPP Pointon York Single Investment SIPP
Prosper
Prosper SIPP
Talbot & Muir SIPP LLP
T&M SIPP
Barnett Waddingham Flexible SIPP
Pointon York Corporate (Group) SIPP Pointon York Sharia Compliant SIPPs Pointon York Family Trust
Current third party providers of International Bonds on Elevate 3rd party name
Products available
Bourse Trust Company Ltd
Executive Investment Bond
Canada Life International
Accelerated Access Account Control Access Account Estate Preservation Account
Inheritance Planning Account Premiere Account Wealth Preservation Account
Friends Prov International
Reserve
Reserve Advance
Utmost Wealth Management
Evolution
Estate Planning Bond
Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 31/52
Is there an onshore bond? Elevate does not currently offer this.
What are the benefits for an adviser firm placing funds on the platform? Our platform solution is flexible to your needs with straight through processing, comprehensive support, a range of tax wrappers and investment options all available under a competitive and transparent pricing structure. We may be able to negotiate preferential terms with fund managers which we can share with platform users.
What is the flexibility to accommodate additional funds onto your platform? Elevate aims to represent the whole investment universe. The fund range will be continuously updated with any fund that either has demand from the market, or strengthens the proposition. Any fund added must meet our strict operational requirements in order to protect the efficiency of the platform and meet service standards.
What due diligence is carried out by your platform before adding funds onto the platform? All funds and fund groups meet our strict service standards. We also run due diligence at corporate and investment levels, which involves face to face meetings when required (e.g. new or little known fund groups and novel investment techniques). Elevate makes no judgement on the investment qualities of any particular fund, but reserves the right to reject any fund we believe puts Standard Life’s reputation at risk.
What fund and investment information is provided by your platform to help adviser firms run client accounts? We provide previous day’s market updates for valuations (for Elevate sourced assets), portfolio scans at the touch of a button, fund level factsheets, Key Investors Information documents and a Fund Research tool available on platform. All these are provided in addition to six-monthly client reports.
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What is the capability offered by your platform to adviser firms to choose and tailor Discretionary Managers to the platform? Elevate offers access to a large number of Discretionary Managers. They can be selected to run client assets as simply as choosing a fund, you would need to have a prior agreement with any Discretionary Manager before allocating assets to them on Elevate. All Discretionary Managers will run money already held on Elevate within the standard adviser/client IFA model, but you can allocate, specified client assets/cash to be managed by the Discretionary Manager. Any service provided by Discretionary Managers will be charged at their own advertised and disclosed rate. The amount will depend upon the service provided and the needs and requirements of any advisory firm. If you require a bespoke service on specific terms this can be negotiated with your chosen Discretionary Manager.
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Section 5: Range of assets So you’re aware of the assets that are available on the platform, here are the questions you should consider asking: ¬¬Which assets are available through the platform? ¬¬Are non-daily priced dealing funds available? e.g. hedge funds ¬¬Do you offer multiple currency share classes? ¬¬Does your platform offer fixed term deposits? ¬¬How can a client invest in a Fixed Term Deposit?
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Which assets are available through the platform? We offer you a wide range of investment funds and access to FTSE listed Stocks and Shares which cover all the Investment Association (IA) sectors. Through Elevate cash account we offer you the ability to manage liquidity through client portfolios. Elevate cash enables cash to be held separately from the wrapper cash element of each tax wrapper. We offer a large number of FCA recognised international funds. We insist on FCA recognition to ensure they’re UK retail friendly. They must also have distributing/reporting status to assist tax treatment and traded in GBP. We also offer, on application, access to unregulated funds that may be domiciled internationally. There are no limitations provided we can process/administer an asset, it is traded in GBP and it meets our operational, ethical and commercial requirements. We offer structured products only if in an open-ended structure. We don’t currently provide access to complex products such as medium term notes and options. Remember, the value of an investment can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed – this means that clients could get back less than they invest.
Are non-daily priced dealing funds available? e.g. hedge funds
Does your platform offer fixed term deposits? Yes, Elevate gives you and your clients access to different Fixed Term Deposit providers, who will all offer a variety of interest rates and fixed terms. Please note that this is only available on the Elevate Pension Investment Account (PIA). This means that you can work together with your clients to choose the interest rates and fixed terms that best suit their needs. In return for investing their money for a fixed period of time, clients benefit from a specified rate of interest. The interest rate received is fixed at the start and paid into your clients’ product wrapper cash account at the end of its term, along with the amount invested. Your client cannot withdraw, transfer or switch their money until the end of the term of the Fixed Term Deposit, other than in exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances are determined by each individual Fixed Term Deposit provider, who may impose a charge for early withdrawal.
How can clients invest in a fixed term deposit? Fixed Term Deposits are available through the Elevate Pension Investment Account (Elevate PIA). They’re not available through the Elevate Stocks & Shares Individual Savings Accounts (Elevate ISA), or the Elevate General Investment Account (Elevate GIA).
Yes. ETFs can be traded and held in any of the platform wrappers. Elevate allows access to a further range of unregulated investments such as hedge funds in situations where it is commercially viable to Elevate and you.
Do you offer multiple currency share classes? At this time Elevate only offers access to sterling denominated investments, so only GBP priced share classes are available.
Elevate | Platform Due Diligence 35/52
Section 6: Functionality To ensure you have clarity regarding platform functionality, here are the questions you should consider asking: ¬¬How does the platform meet my compliance needs? ¬¬What is the level of straight through processing offered by the platform? ¬¬Can assets be moved off the platform? ¬¬Does the platform provide an online audit trail? ¬¬Can the platform record non-platform assets? ¬¬Is there a scheduled portfolio rebalancing facility? ¬¬Is bulk switching available? ¬¬Is there a phased investment option for clients? ¬¬Do you allow clients to take fund specific withdrawals? ¬¬Do you offer a Bed and ISA facility? ¬¬How do you process re-registration of assets from other platforms? ¬¬What are your key SLAs and most recent metrics on platform downtime? ¬¬What is the speed of processing investment instructions allowed by the platform (execution only)? ¬¬What reporting is available to me from the platform? ¬¬Can I build and maintain my own Model Portfolios? ¬¬What are the functionalities available for rebalancing, editing and upgrading Model Portfolios? ¬¬Can I white-label client reports that are generated through your platform’s portfolio planning tool? ¬¬Do you offer pre-funding and what are its main benefits for me? ¬¬Is there an option for clients to have paperless Elevate accounts? ¬¬Do you have income review alerts?
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How does the platform meet my compliance needs?
Is there a scheduled portfolio rebalancing facility?
The platform provides a technology solution which increases administration efficiency, offers access to a whole of market investment proposition, a wide choice of wrappers to maximise tax efficiency and a range of functionality which supports both the initial new business and on-going review process.
Yes, Elevate offers the ability for users to manage their client portfolios within a model by either re-balancing the mix back to the intended proportions or by editing the model to a new investment mix then upgrading selected clients to the new version of the model. For both options the user is able to select one or multiple clients.
As part of our broader proposition, you’ll have access to expertise in aspects of running and growing your business, including our platform consultancy team who provide expert platform implementation and integration support, configuring the platform to users preferences, delivering training and assisting in the review of office processes to integrate Elevate as seamlessly as possible. Our Technical Consultancy Team is available to help with product, legislation and tax queries. We also have an expert contact centre, who can help with any ad hoc queries. The platform is an enabler, forming part of your proposition. It’s not the only answer to your compliance needs, but the broader Elevate proposition can support your business.
What is the level of straight through processing offered by the platform?
Is bulk switching available? Yes, Elevate provides a Bulk Switching function which supports you in actively managing your clients’ investment portfolios by allowing assets to be switched in bulk. For instance, if a specific security or fund is no longer suitable, all or multiple clients can be switched at once; if required. This functionality supports you in bulk switches including amending Model Portfolios and switching clients between different models. You can provide instructions through the platform with no client signature being required by Elevate. Bulk switching functionality
FNZ operates straight through processing with most fund managers. Over 98% of trades on Elevate (e.g. subscriptions, redemptions, switches, both one-off and regulars) are placed with fund managers electronically.
Can assets be moved off the platform? Yes, assets can be moved off platform.There is no charge for this.
Does the platform provide an online audit trail? Yes, all your activity, conducted on behalf of your client is recorded against each individual account providing a detailed audit trail.
Can the platform record non-platform assets? Yes. This can be done in two ways: making a note of holdings (e.g. Artwork, stamp collection) and holding of third party products (e.g. pension product, International Bond). You can also record off platform assets through the Elevate’s Memoitem functionality. This gives users the ability to record and value off-platform or legacy assets. These assets can be grouped by tax wrapper and automatically valued where the underlying asset is held on platform and receives a live data feed. Where a price link is unavailable for a specific asset, you would need to input the relevant investment and update its value.
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Is there a phased investment option for clients? Yes, Elevate has a phased investment option for clients that applies to all product wrappers. Phased investing may reduce the risk of buying at the wrong time by spreading the investment over a period of time and a number of investment dates, although there is no guarantee phased investment will be beneficial. In a falling market clients benefit from the effect of ‘Pound Cost Averaging’, purchasing a larger number of units over the period than they would have done by investing a lump-sum. Phased investment requires the lump sum to be paid into the product wrapper cash account and the setting up of a regular investment instruction into the chosen holdings over time (including Model Portfolios). The same functionality can be used to create a series of advance investment orders. By selecting a ‘start date’ for the date of investment and then using the ‘Continue’ and ‘Set Date’ function to end the regular purchase the day after the investment has been placed. This way the user has total flexibility to create a bespoke investment strategy to suit the needs of individual clients.
Do you allow clients to take fund specific withdrawals? Yes, we do allow clients to take fund specific withdrawals, in the following ways. Regular or one off withdrawals can be set up at wrapper level and funded from either existing wrapper cash holdings or by selling units from specified investments. Any income generated by an investment can be paid into wrapper cash or alternatively, for GIA and ISA wrappers (not PIA), paid out as natural income to the clients’ bank account. Payment in respect of natural income will be dealt with in the following ways:
Do you offer a bed and ISA facility? Currently we do not offer this facility.
How do you process re-registration of assets from other platforms? Re-registration of assets is accepted from other platforms and provider/nominees. The process involves sending the request to the ceding company and chasing the assets until confirmation has been received that the assets have been reregistered. A chase will happen, if relevant, after 5 days and chased again every subsequent 5 days. Once confirmation has been received of the re-registration, the funds will be available on the platform. In July 2013 we launched an automatic re-registration system so you can undertake electronic platform to platform transfers of assets, giving you and your clients the freedom to move assets easily. We’ve worked with FNZ and Calastone to trial and deliver this system and we’ll continue to develop and enhance it.
What are your key SLAs and most recent metrics on platform downtime? The performance of our operations department is measured by a number of metrics and performance against our service targets: ¬¬80% of calls to be answered in 20 seconds. 80% service performance against 20 seconds target in 2016 and average speed to answer of 15 seconds ¬¬5% abandon rate. 3.01% of calls were abandoned during 2016 ¬¬90% first call resolution rate. If our Client Services team can’t provide an immediate answer we aim to respond within 24 hours. We’re currently resolving 80% of calls first time and aiming for 90%
¬¬Clients can elect to receive natural income in respect of investments managed by you. Where clients elect to receive natural income, this option will be applied to all the types of income received. There are no minimum or maximum amounts of natural income payments. Natural income will be paid out to the client’s nominated bank account(s) as soon as reasonably practicable after it is received by us. Natural income payments will be made to a client’s nominated bank account(s) through BACS
¬¬90%+ quality on all processing work. Our Call Quality and Process Quality were consistently over 92% throughout 2016.
¬¬If, prior to payment of natural income, there is insufficient cash available in a client’s GIA Cash and/or ISA Cash to pay any agreed charges due, the income received will be paid into the relevant GIA Cash and/or ISA Cash and used to settle the amount of agreed charges due. Any remaining natural income will be paid to a clients’ nominated bank account(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. If the amount of income received is insufficient to meet the agreed charges due, no natural income will be paid
Platform downtime
¬¬If a client has appointed a Discretionary Manager to manage their investments they will not be able to elect to take natural income in respect of those investments. Any income received from investments managed by a Discretionary Manager will be paid into and held as cash.
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(figures as at 31 October 2016)
In order to ensure continual improvement we have a state of the art tool which enables us to capture client feedback. This is then fed into our proposition enhancement plans and prioritised accordingly. Elevate has not experienced any previous IT failures. We’ve maintained core hour availability (from 08.00 - 20.00) of 100%, non-core hours was 99.97% (discounting planned maintenance and implementations), in 2016 up to the end of October. The Elevate platform has been built with scale in order to support our long term business plan.
What is the speed of processing investment instructions allowed by the platform (execution only)? For complete and detailed information on the speed of investment instructions processing allowed by Elevate (on an execution only basis) please consult our Order Execution Policy document (this can be provided at your request by your allocated Business Development Manager).
Adviser reports Portfolioscan for Model Adviser Portfolios Consolidated analysis of all funds contained within the constructed adviser fund portfolio. This is broken down to include all the information/details that can be found in individual fund facts sheets but within a consolidated PDF document. Individual fund fact sheets
What reporting is available to me from the platform?
Individual fund fact sheets are available for all open traded funds offered by Elevate in a PDF format.
There are over 40 reports available that can be generated directly from the platform e.g.:
Key investor information documents (KIIDs)
¬¬holdings and asset allocation including investments and cash (i.e. business reports)
Individual KIIDs are available for all traded funds offered by Elevate in a PDF format.
¬¬management information (MI) including funds under management (FUM) by asset (i.e. adviser reports)
Client reports
¬¬client reports.
CGT report
Asset allocation
Capital Gains Tax report presents data so you can calculate your client’s capital gains tax liabilities, for investments held on the Elevate platform.
Displays associated investments split by asset type e.g. GIA, ISA etc. Each asset displayed as a percentage and as a monetary value. Cash balances Displays the percentage of products held as cash, by client. This details the amount of cash held within the product wrapper (i.e. located outside of investment). Client listings
Portfolioscan Detailed analysis of client’s portfolio, including detailed information on all underlying holdings – all consolidated within one document. This document can be generated between specified time periods. Transaction listing
Displays the full client list by adviser and includes their individual portfolio value.
Detailed breakdown of all transactional activity within your clients account between two chosen specified dates. Produced in PDF form.
Investment instructions
Client valuation
Provides a breakdown of transactions per client over the specified time period.
Detailed portfolio valuation, which can also include Memoitems, can be generated at any present or past date. Produced in PDF form.
Total holdings Displays the total holdings by Investment and Asset Sector for each client (please note this will include unwrapped assets listed under Memoitem). Remuneration statement View remuneration statements (automatically uploaded on the 25th of each month) or request an ad hoc remuneration report. Charges information document Explains the specific charges associated with client’s investments made through the Elevate platform and details any adviser charges agreed to be paid from a client’s Elevate product wrapper(s). It also provides fund specific information such as fund manager specific charges and any fund manager rebates.
Individual client fund fact sheets Individual client facing fund fact sheets for all funds offered within Elevate are readily available in PDF format.
Can I build and maintain my own Model Portfolios? Elevate has some of the most advanced Model Portfolios functionality in the market, with a range of features that are not always available from other competing platforms. The platform provides the ability to create Model Portfolios that may be applied to one or more clients. Model Portfolios can be defined at the clients, adviser or firm level; there are also Old Broad Street Research (OBSR) models available which can be applied to all wrappers. Giving you total version control as the model creator to use, edit and name models.
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Asset allocation functionality
What are the functionalities available for rebalancing, editing and upgrading model portfolios? You can re-align a client’s asset allocation to the original model/objective within the Elevate model portfolio functionality. Simply submit clients for rebalance, produce a Charges Information Document and authorisation in the Disclose and Authorise screen. You can select individual clients/wrappers at both stages and consolidate Charges Information Documents for print. This creates a series of trades to make clients’ investments match the new version of the model. You can sell and buy the amounts needed to make the portfolio match the model, so where investments are common to both versions, the platform only sells and buys the necessary proportions, it doesn’t sell and re-buy the entire model. You can view how many units and/or £ would be sold and bought if a re-balance takes place for each client and wrapper. The model portfolio functionality can upgrade your clients from an historic version to a new version of the same model. Simply select and submit client’s and wrappers for upgrade and then produce a Charges Information Document and authorisation.
The Elevate Model Advisor Portfolios provide you with an intelligent fund filter to ensure funds are suitable for particular wrappers and charging structures. All funds are allocated to a model, so you can keep track of sector allocations and actual underlying holdings. We provide three distinct types of Model Portfolios within Elevate, each with a unique set of features: ¬¬Morningstar OBSR Model Portfolios: -- Created and managed by Morningstar OBSR -- Aligned directly to the eValue Investment Solutions Risk Assessment outputs created for our Risk Profiling tool (see section on Additional Tools) -- Reviewed quarterly, alerted when changed -- Enables outsourcing of fund selection. ¬¬Adviser Model Portfolios: -- Created and managed at adviser or adviser firm level -- Can be applied across a number of different clients -- Allows rebalancing of portfolios across wrappers -- Ultimately allows for efficient management of multiple portfolios with similar needs. ¬¬Client-specific Model Portfolios: -- Created and managed at firm or adviser level -- Applied to one client account only -- Can be applied across different wrappers in the same account.
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Model Portfolios
Can I white-label client reports that are generated through your platform’s portfolio planning tool? Yes, there is the potential to white label your Elevate client reports, building your brand through your own logo, colour scheme and URL address.
Do you offer pre-funding and what are its main benefits for me? Most investment platforms wait for your clients’ funds to clear before they invest them. We don’t. We invest your clients’ money without delay. Elevate pre-funds the following: ¬¬Cheque clearance ¬¬Tax relief ¬¬Fund switches. Without prefunding clients could miss out on the following days in the market and miss out on any associated gains: ¬¬On average 65 days’ worth of potential growth waiting for tax relief on every payment ¬¬On average 6 days’ worth of potential growth waiting for switches to settle for every switch ¬¬On average 4 days’ worth of potential growth waiting for cheques to clear for every payment. The benefits of pre-funding are extensive. Your clients’ funds are invested faster and are in the market longer. Your client has certainty and consistency regarding when rebates are paid and tax due. In 2015 we pre-funded £2.38 billion worth of transactions on Elevate.
Is there an option for clients to have paperless Elevate accounts? Yes, clients can choose to receive document in the post or online. With instant access to documents, clients can view, print and save documents. For those clients that choose to opt out of paper, Elevate has an automated alert system that notifies clients via email when they have important documents to review. This solution balances both clients and your needs with our own regulatory obligations. For security reasons certain documents will be sent by post including details of a client’s change of address and any withdrawal confirmations.
Do you have income review alerts? Yes, you can select your own choice of date for flexiaccess drawdown reviews and receive an Elevate alert when this is due.
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Section 7: Accessibility Questions you should consider asking to help you in your journey of platform selection on accessibility: ¬¬Which back office systems does your platform allow integration with? ¬¬Can a client access the platform? If so what can they do? How can this be managed? ¬¬What levels of access does your platform offer? ¬¬What are the technology requirements to be compatible with your platform? ¬¬How secure is data on your platform? ¬¬Do you have a business continuity/disaster recovery plan?
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Which back office systems does your platform allow integration with? Elevate has two way integration with IRESS Adviser Office, IRESS XPLAN, Intelliflo and Distribution Technology’s Dynamic Planner to facilitate the pre-population of pension illustrations, new business applications, top-ups and applications for additional product wrappers for existing Elevate clients. Elevate’s account details and documents from completed processes can also be shared between Elevate and these back office systems together with an automated valuation feed and electronic renumeration statements. Elevate links with a number of other back office systems providing valuations (contract enquiry/bulk data import) and electronic renumeration statements. These include Plum Software,True Potential, Assyst Software, Fastrak, JCS, Durrell Software, Enable, (Best Practice Network) and Figure Out (2plan).
Can a client access the platform? If so what can they do? How can this be managed? The Elevate platform allows for client level view only access. Clients can view their portfolio online, including transactions and performance information, and documentation. View only access can be granted on a client by client basis at your discretion. In addition, the My Elevate investments iPad app is available as a free download from the Apple store. The app’s been designed so clients can view their current investment portfolio, with up to the minute information, wherever and whenever they want to: https://www.axawealth.co.uk/ Adviser/Elevate-platform/Features-and-benefits/ My-Elevate-App/
What levels of access does your platform offer? With Elevate you can set up four user access levels which are discussed in detail as part of the onboarding process to ensure your users are set up appropriately, giving you greater control over your risk and compliance process. Creating a robust, consistent sales process by controlling access levels for your employees and providing a consistent client experience. The ‘expert user’ (the person within your organisation with the greatest level of knowledge and access to the platform) will be provided with the training and access privileges to control this.
What are the technology requirements to be compatible with your platform?
Computer software minimum recommendation is to run Windows XP or Vista on a machine with minimum 1GB RAM and Microsoft IE6, plus broadband connectivity to the Internet. Whilst other configurations may work, the platform has not yet been specifically designed to work with other software and hardware such as Macs. Screens should support a screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels to avoid scrolling horizontally.
How secure is data on your platform? Security of data is of paramount importance to Elevate and we’ve created a set of extensive security measures. All traffic to and from users, clients and the data centre is secure and encrypted using SSL (secure sockets layer). Name/password authentication is also used. Within each data centre, a multi-zone multi-layered defence approach to system security is employed in line with (or ahead of) best practice for secure online financial transaction processing services. Multiple firewalls from different vendors are deployed at the network and application levels to provide an extremely high level of security combined with intrusion detection to monitor and alert any suspicious activity. Application and network security is audited under a continuous assurance programme currently operated by KPMG.
Do you have a business continuity/disaster recovery plan? Standard Life takes data and system security very seriously and compliance with legislation is ensured at all times. Any personal data which is collected, recorded or used in any way whether on paper, online or any other media will have the appropriate safeguards applied to it to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and EU Directives. Company information is protected by controls designed to minimise loss or damage through accident, negligence of deliberate actions. Staff must also protect sensitive or confidential information when storing or transmitting information electronically and must undertake annual training on this. Standard Life’s Information Security Policy includes monitoring of the company’s secure network to detect possible intrusions. Both Standard Life and FNZ undergo internal and external penetration and vulnerability testing. External testing is carried out annually and internal testing is carried out on a regular basis.
Elevate is a web-based solution so access to the internet is needed. We recommend fast internet connection, especially important if you do a lot of document uploading, as these will be larger than the web pages transferred as part of normal platform operation. If there will be an increase in the amount of traffic the network needs to process, then you would need to factor this into your capacity planning.
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Section 8: Additional tools Questions you should consider asking to help you establish what additional tools are available on the platform: ¬¬Which tools are provided as standard to your platform? ¬¬List tools that may be bespoke to your platform. ¬¬List charges for tools (if any). ¬¬Is there a facility to turn off tools or limit access to them? ¬¬To what extent can the tools support seamless execution of my business strategy? ¬¬Can you provide detail on your Retirement LifePlanning Calculator? ¬¬Can you provide detail on your LifePlanning Toolkit?
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Which tools are provided as standard to your platform?
Risk profiling and asset allocation tool
Elevate offers, as standard to the platform, a range of tools which facilitate the portfolio planning and review process. These include: Risk Profiling and asset allocation – Our Risk Profiler tool provides a psychometric evaluation of a client’s attitude to risk, corresponding risk rating (on two ranges of scales from 1-10 or 1-7) and directly associated asset allocation models. This tool (offline and online) has been developed by Elevate with the modelling and psychometrics supplied by eValue Investment Solutions. An 18 question psychometric questionnaire helps you to ascertain client’s attitude to investment risk and provides a suggested risk rating. eValue Investment Solutions also supplies suggested asset allocation models to support the different risk ratings. The corresponding asset allocation is targeted for a 15 year time horizon and reviewed quarterly, to ensure the proposed asset mix remains relevant. In addition, this risk profiling tool provides the ability to: ¬¬amend the risk profile to be adopted, reasons for doing so will automatically be transposed into client reports ¬¬access to a fully auditable client record online (reports and ratings) ¬¬integration with other tools. Both online and offline versions produce a written report for the client confirming the questions answered, how the questionnaire works and includes possible target asset allocation. This is complemented by the addition of risk rated actively managed model portfolios constructed and monitored by independent investment experts. The Risk Profiler has been developed by Elevate and the modelling and psychometrics are supplied by eValue Investment Solutions. We offer a printable copy of the risk questionnaire. A mobile Risk App is available on the move and as a web application compatible with iPad and iPhone devices and desktops. Helping you undertake a risk discussion with your client, capture their attitude to investment risk, and generate emailable reports, whilst on the move. The final risk score can be used on the platform in conjunction with Elevate’s other investment tools. To access the risk assessment tool: http://riskapp.axawealth.co.uk
Portfolioscan™ – produce comprehensive portfolio analysis tailored to the needs of your clients supporting the following features: ¬¬Modular reporting options – tailor reports to the needs of your clients ¬¬Portfolio breakdown by asset class, geographic region and stock sector ¬¬Report actual portfolio (discrete and cumulative) performance and measure against popular benchmarks ¬¬Fund performance and information ¬¬Option to dual brand reports to include your logo ¬¬Option to personalise reports with your own commentary and analysis ¬¬Generate easy to understand reports in either MS word or PDF. Pension Illustrations – provided by DST International Pension and Actuarial Services (PAS), based on a combination of inflationary factors and standard investment growth. Generating pension illustrations online to give a ‘what if’ scenario. All illustrations generated are stored against the client record and accessible at a later date. Alerts – Elevate offers a broad range of alert tools to assist you in managing your clients’ accounts. You can tailor the alerts they receive, options include: ¬¬Stock-broking alerts: order completion, corporate information, corporate actions ¬¬Retirement alerts: GAD review, pre and post retirement reminders ¬¬Money management: benefit authorisation, income payments, insufficient funds, transfer completion ¬¬Financial planning alerts: investment review, asset allocation changes, model portfolio edits
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Investment Document Library – provided by Funds Library, a document library that provides information on Investment Funds (e.g. OEICs and Unit Trusts), Exchange Traded Funds and Investment Trusts. It provides access to key investor information documents, adviser factsheets, private investor factsheets and simplified prospectus for non-UCITS retail schemes (NURS). Fund Research and Selection – receiving data feeds from Financial Express, this tool gives an overview of an investment demonstrating past performance over a chosen period and sector breakdown and can work in conjunction with any pre-existing client investment range. The tool allows for preferred search criteria to be input and used to identify appropriate investments so you can conduct detailed investment research and build investment portfolios in an efficient and convenient manner. The Fund Research and Selection Tool: ¬¬supports analysis of Investment Funds (e.g. OEICs and Unit Trusts), Exchange Traded Funds, Investment Trusts, Stocks, Shares and Gilts ¬¬provides multi-criteria search facility (e.g. price, performance, asset allocation, sector weightings, largest holdings, ratios, crown rating etc.)
List charges for tools (if any) There are no additional charges for any of the adviser portfolio planning tools provided by Elevate. This is an integral part of our service proposition and key to supporting you and your clients through the advice process.
Is there a facility to turn off tools or limit access to them? Yes, this is possible, this would be done during the platform configuration stage where access to certain investments and tools could be configured centrally and rolled out to the branch network.
To what extent can the tools support seamless execution of my business strategy? Elevate’s aim is to fully integrate all tools with the platform to ensure single keying of data and seamless execution of desired solution. We understand that each business is unique and we offer the option for you to choose which elements of our tools to adopt. The tools we’ll provide are based on consistent approaches and standards, ensuring that you receive consistency across the entire platform.
¬¬provides access to fund fact-sheets as PDFs ¬¬enables analysis at varying levels of detail including asset allocation, sector and geographical breakdown and dynamic charting. Fund research and selection tool
Can you provide detail on your Retirement LifePlanning calculator? Supplied by Voyant, our Retirement LifePlanning calculator allows you to engage your clients in the retirement planning process, with a quick and easy tool that helps them to visualise what their retirement income could be. By modelling a client’s retirement income now and in the future the Retirement LifePlanning calculator highlights key aspects of retirement planning. You can use it to: ¬¬show how essential and discretionary needs can be met by blending guaranteed solutions and drawdown income ¬¬show the likelihood of the target income being achieved and maintained throughout retirement ¬¬see the effect of changing key variables, including the target income, levels of pension saving, amount committed to a guarantee and the period of retirement.
Can you provide detail on your LifePlanning Toolkit? Supplied by Voyant, our LifePlanning Toolkit comprises of two main elements:
List tools that may be bespoke to your platform The tools can’t be bespoke but they can be tailored to your specification. For example, the output of the risk profiler can be changed to your preferred asset allocation model; you can also create a reduced investment universe in line with a corporatised restricted advice proposition when using the fund research tool.
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¬¬Retirement Income Optimiser helps you create tax effective income strategies for your client, based on their annual income goals. It helps to illustrate the potential impact of a particular income withdrawal strategy on your client’s tax rate as part of an overall financial planning process. ¬¬Let’s See Cashflow Planner allows you to model your client’s assets, projected income and goals and work out if they’re affordable in the short, medium and long-term. It also supports scenario planning so you can assess alternative strategies that may best suit your client.
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Section 9: Support services Questions you should consider asking to ensure you are aware of any wider support services offered: ¬¬What platform set up support and initial employee training is provided by your platform? ¬¬How can you demonstrate your ability to support me on an ongoing basis? ¬¬What additional ongoing support do you provide to help my business adapt to using a platform?
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What platform set up support and initial employee training is provided by your platform?
How can you demonstrate your ability to support me on an ongoing basis?
¬¬When you start using Elevate, you’ll be allocated a platform consultant who’ll set up an introductory meeting to agree a bespoke implementation plan. This will include:
With extensive servicing functionality and a high degree of straight through processing already built into the platform - helping you with day to day servicing of your clients’ portfolios.
-- understanding your platform requirements to ensure Elevate is configured to meet your needs, including your charging structure, remuneration terms and access levels for your employees -- understanding your core business processes to ensure the platform can be integrated as seamlessly as possible -- agreeing a bespoke training and support approach to ensure you are self-sufficient in all areas of platform use. Training should be flexible to suit your business and we can adopt different approaches. For example: ¬¬group “show and tell’ sessions, which can be tailored to meet the needs of your business and intended platform use ¬¬a fully interactive individual approach based on a number of scenarios or ¬¬via a remote training tool, called WebEx, which can be tailored to suit specific audiences.
In such a dynamic market, the ability to respond quickly to your clients’ needs is essential - we know you need a solid platform that can continue to adapt to ever changing market requirements. We empower our people to act for the benefit of you and your clients, investing heavily in the development of our platform to ensure we continue to deliver exceptional client service. Platform consultants – provide expert platform implementation and integration support. This support includes designing and delivering bespoke training and support plans, as well as reviewing office processes to ensure the platform is integrated into your business as seamlessly as possible. In addition to this, all our platform consultants are qualified in online design and facilitation, which means we can offer an interactive WebEx training schedule, allowing your staff to gain core platform skills in a quick and efficient manner. We also run regular online user forums designed to help users share knowledge as well as learn about new platform enhancements. Technical Consultants – in an ever changing financial advice landscape this team of very highly qualified individuals understand the legislation, tax wrappers and tax environment that drives advice. They look at the changes and identify both challenges and opportunities these present for your business and your clients. Delivered via group meetings, a national Financial Planning Forum programme, individual adviser meetings, specific client cases and answering technical queries. Most of these sessions qualify as structured CPD and can be tailored to meet your annual CPD requirements. Tax and Trust Team has a core focus on taxation and trusts for individuals, businesses, charities and trustees. The team can support you with in depth analysis of current legislation change impact, analysis of trust planning issues, case specific enquiries on the impact of tax and trust planning. Pensions Technical Team has depth of knowledge and experience in providing expert technical and legislative solutions. This team of highly experienced experts cover a variety of legislative and planning aspects across a wide range of pension schemes and the relevant HMRC and DWP legislation. With a core focus on analysis and understanding for individuals, businesses, and trustees, the team can support you with in depth analysis of current legislation change and its potential impact, analysis of retirement planning issues, as well as case specific enquiries on the impact of legislative change.
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Service designed to support you:
1. People In order to produce an outstanding client experience we want the best people. We recruit for behaviours. We’re looking for individuals who can demonstrate and evidence a passion for delivering great client service.
2. Training We’ve designed an innovative and diverse training programme covering all areas of Elevate, including platform navigation and processes, tax wrappers and bespoke Elevate functionality. New employees must complete and pass their training programme to continue employment with Elevate. There is a series of tough accreditation programmes throughout the training programme.
3. Process In order to ensure high standards are maintained and improved upon, we have a Quality Assurance and Investment Operations team. They monitor and manage the quality of our Service team’s output, to ensure we’re delivering an outstanding client experience and are in line with industry regulation. The Quality Assurance team score the quality of calls and processes from both yours’ and the clients’ perspective with targets of 90% accuracy on all processes and 90% call quality. The Investment Operations team monitors the investment processes and they manage the relationship with external fund managers to ensure performance is in line with the service level agreements set out in the fund agreements.
4. Contact strategy We aim to provide a simple and innovative contact strategy. Keeping things simple by offering one contact number without touchtone or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) options – when you phone us you’ll speak to an experienced individual who’ll be able to answer your query. In order to improve the quality of our client experience, callers and platform users are directed to our feedback tool which allows them to comment on their experience. This is compiled and reviewed on a weekly basis. Elevate offers a number of innovative practices when it comes to training and query resolution. Via Skype we offer remote training through video streaming allowing online demonstrations of the platform.
5. Performance and service commitment Our standard service level agreements reflect our drive towards outstanding service. (Figures as at 31 October 2016). 20
seconds
80% of calls to be answered in 20 seconds
80% service performance against 20 seconds target in 2016 and average speed to answer of 15 seconds
4% 4% abandon rate
3.01% of calls were abandoned during 2016
90% first call resolution rate When our client service team can’t provide an immediate answer we aim to respond within 24 hours. We’re resolving 80% of calls first time and aiming for 90%
6. Culture We have a culture where our people feel motivated, informed and valued. We believe this approach supports outstanding client service delivery with each individual understanding the importance of their role in achieving Elevate’s goals and targets. To reinforce this approach our Client Experience team are measured and rewarded on the quality of the service they provide to our clients.
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92%+
92%+ quality on all processing work
Our Call Quality and Process Quality was consistently over 92% throughout 2016
What additional ongoing support do you provide to help my business adapt to using a platform? Elevate offers you a broad range of support services, which we believe are unrivalled in the marketplace to help your business adapt to using our platform. The level and nature of support is agreed with you, dependent upon your individual needs and circumstances. Our service works totally around you – you decide the level of consultancy best suited to you and your business. You’ll have access to expertise around aspects of running, growing and eventually exiting your business. We’ll support you in adopting Elevate to deliver value through your client proposition in an efficient, effective and profitable way. Specific support This can involve a review and refresh of part or all of your client value proposition, your ongoing service arrangements, or help to review your investment process in order to suggest a more consistent approach to the way value is created for your clients. We can also work with specific people in your business to help them establish the best way of articulating to your clients how an Elevate account forms an important and valuable element of the advice and service they’re able to deliver.
A business review may identify a need for consultancy support in one or more of the following areas: ¬¬Vision, mission and strategy – business vision and strategy, leadership, business planning, executive coaching and exit strategies ¬¬Client proposition development – understanding your clients, proposition development, segmentation and client management strategy ¬¬Marketing – marketing-led planning, new client acquisition, communications and managing introducers ¬¬Operations – business process innovations, back office efficiency, IT strategy, project management and change management ¬¬Finance – fee/pricing strategy, income strategy, RI remuneration, managing costs and profitability ¬¬People – skills development, recruitment, reward and recognition and performance management. We’ll also support you with a highly trained client services team who have in depth knowledge of our platform and can answer ad hoc queries. Open 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday. In addition, there is online help with FAQs and ‘how to guides’.
Scope We don’t operate a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The scope of work we carry out can range from: ¬¬sharing sample templates to help you document and describe how you deliver value to clients ¬¬helping people in your business articulate how Elevate can add value to your advice and service ¬¬the proposition you deliver to your clients ¬¬a comprehensive review of how your business model is shaping up to thrive in the future, followed by working with you to adapt and adopt best business practices that bring about the developments you wish to implement.
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Get to know us better We hope you’ve got a good insight into our platform and the potential benefits it can bring to you and your firm. If there is anything more you want to know, please contact us.
Call us on 0345 600 2399 Our lines are open 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. As part of our commitment to quality service and security, telephone calls may be recorded.
Email us at
[email protected] Please be aware that emails are not secure as they can be intercepted, so think carefully before sharing personal or confidential information in this way.
Follow us on Twitter @Elevateplatform Address Elevate, PO Box 6877, Basingstoke, RG24 4RT
elevateplatform.co.uk Elevate, Winterthur Way, Basingstoke RG21 6SZ. Telephone: 01256 470707. As part of our commitment to quality service and security, telephone calls may be recorded. Elevate is a trading name used by AXA Portfolio Services Limited. AXA Portfolio Services Limited has been acquired by Standard Life Savings Limited and forms part of Standard Life Group. The trade mark “AXA” is used under licence from AXA SA. AXA Portfolio Services Limited (01128611) is registered in England at 14th Floor, 30 St. Mary Axe, London, England, EC3A 8BF and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Standard Life Savings Limited (SC180203) is registered in Scotland at Standard Life House, 30 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH1 2DH and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. SLE0004 1116
