Industry Voice: Why compromise?

There’s a time and a place for compromises, your proposition isn’t it.

clock • 3 min read

Since Ascentric launched in 2006, a lot has changed.

Other platforms have come and gone. We've seen the savings landscape change through things like auto-enrolment and new pension freedoms. And advisers have adapted their businesses to deal with a raft of new legislation and rules (with plenty more to come!).

Ascentric has changed too. We've improved the technology behind the platform, created the broadest investment choice in the market and led the way with a true all-in pricing structure. The last point is key because it highlights that, despite all the changes around us, we haven't compromised on our original purpose: an unwavering commitment to support advisers.

The purpose behind Ascentric also helps to determine who we are, how we approach our business and what we're like to work with. We know that nobody understands your business as well as you do - the fact each of your clients is different and has their own investment needs. That's why we've chosen to focus on building a platform that can flex to your needs instead of developing or buying our own distribution.

That way, we're free to focus on building the best platform so you can grow and develop your own business. If we do our job right, we save you time and money - and everyone wins because nobody has to compromise. Ascentric can flexibly meet your demands and the breadth and depth of our investment and wrapper choices mean you can offer what you need to, creating a compelling proposition.

And we know that's important because many advisers have told us that it's their proposition and relationship with their client that defines them from their competitors. It's those things that help  build their reputation and brand. So, when choosing an investment or wrapper for your client, costs and charges should never be an influencing factor or get in the way of your relationship building. However, when sitting down with advisers and talking through their business, we were concerned by how many were still influenced by this.

With that in mind, we decided to stop compromising. We changed our pricing structure and switched to ‘all in' pricing. We've removed wrapper charges, investment charges and administration charges. Our advisers now spend less time calculating costs and trying to explain it all to their clients, and instead spend more time making the best planning decisions for them.

There's another benefit too. When the need to consider costs is removed, every adviser using the Ascentric platform has an unrestricted investment range of over 7,000 assets across the product wrappers. And, because our stockbroking service is included, each transaction and trade is made with nothing but the client in mind, exactly how we believe a platform should be.

When it comes to trading, we think the human touch is best. Having our own stockbroking team means we can deal in real time whenever the market is open, so we aren't limited to placing bulk trades once a day. That means we can time our trades depending on the market, ensuring the best outcomes for you and your clients.  It's another way we don't compromise our platform offer so you don't have to compromise your proposition to clients.

Stop compromising, find out more about the platform of choice

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