OMW platform cautious of next few weeks after migrating first 100 advisers

At the weekend (22-23 February) OMW migrated 100 adviser firms, including 10% of its assets onto its new FNZ-powered technology. OMW told PA the migration had so far gone well and that the new platform went live this morning (24 February). 

However, OMW did say it was preparing for there to be certain aspects of the re-platforming which might need more attention. A spokesperson for OMW said: "As with all programmes of this size and nature certain areas requiring some extra attention may appear over the coming weeks and we have monitoring and support in place to identify and manage these.

"We are focused on ensuring our customers and advisers are well supported every step of the way and we will provide an update on our progress in our full year results in March 2020."

Prior to the migration, Penney Ruddy and Winter director and Chartered financial planner David Penney said he was worried the migration might not go well but told PA this morning that it seemed to go as planned: "[There are] no problems to speak of so far."

In the build-up to the migration, Penney said OMW had kept him up to date through emails, letters and meetings with the people who were running the project. "The main glitch was the continued postponement, which was not helpful," he said. However, he added the platform had been "very helpful".

'Hyper-care support structure'

Before the re-platforming, OMW head of proposition and marketing Jeremy Mugridge told PA that his teams were "not leaving anything to chance".

At the time, Mugridge told PA they had informed advisers migrating about trading restrictions to the platform leading up to the migration. From 12 February there was a trading restriction on online fund switches and, from 18 February, the platform restricted the ability to request new investments or top up existing investments.

OMW also introduced what it called a "hyper-care support structure" to make sure it would be able to support advisers and customers in any way they need. That was set to be in place from the point of migration, Mugridge said.

Last week (19 February), the platform revealed its plans to simplify its pricing structure to help clients save what it said would be "substantial" amounts each year. OMW said its pricing structure will reduce from five charging tiers to four, which will be introduced from April 2020.

The platform also said it will launch family linking, which will allow investors from the same family to link their OMW assets together. Spousal linking is the common factor so far, but it said the new feature would allow multiple generational links, including grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren.

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• Topics
• Wrap/platforms
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• Quilter
• omw
• Penney Ruddy
• Jeremy Mugridge
• migration