Platforms to offer help with opt-in

Platform providers will have an ideal opportunity to manage and run the opt-in requirement on behalf of financial planners, once the Government’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms package is implemented.

According to AXA’s general manager for platforms, Steve Burgess, and netwealth executive director Matt Heine (pictured), the introduction of this service would make sense, given that platforms had already been administering most of adviser businesses.

“The number of times that a platform, on behalf of the adviser, touches the customer during the course of the year is quite substantial in terms of standard and annual reports, as well as providing a portal for clients to log on to a website and check their balance,” Burgess said.

Heine said that platform providers would know what fees are being charged to a client, allowing them to become a ‘collection point’ for those fees.

“Therefore clients will need to opt-in and authorise us to actually continue to pay [advisers],” Heine said.

Both Burgess and Heine flagged plans to build a mechanism for running the opt-in in the next two years. However, the exact details around the requirement are still unknown, which Burgess said would delay plans of building such an administration tool.

“We’re waiting to see what the detail of the regulations means and therefore exactly the scope of what we need to build and design actually is,” Burgess said.

“Platforms will be there and ready to provide that kind of service to advisers just as they provide all-round administration and investment services already,” he added.