Platform debate: 'In an ideal world, we would use a single platform'

Q. Mark, your business uses three platforms. How did you arrive at that? Mark Hughes (MH): If you had asked me the question five years ago, I would probably have said that, by now, we would be using one platform. But dissatisfaction with certain providers and the fact not every platform suits every client are the main reasons we now use three. This is going to be the norm. Gary Thompson (GT): I remember some research earlier this year that suggested the average number of platforms used by an advisory business was 2.1, and I think that is because of the kind of scenario Mark has outlin...