Clive Waller
Submissions are now open for the 2023 Schroders UK Platform Awards – the Oscars of investment awards – which will be held on 19 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
The awards, which are in association with Professional Adviser, are now in their 17th year. Once again, we will celebrate the very best of platforms and the latest technology in retail investment and financial planning. The wonderful Kate Silverton will host the event for the 14th year running.
Thank goodness, platform upgrades are no longer the nightmare that kept so many platform people awake at night. Today's main issues are adviser platforms and microservices. As we see more consolidation in the adviser arena, more are tempted to go the whole hog and become their own platform manager or maybe just opt for a white-label solution.
We expect to see entries from such providers in the Strategic Platform Partner award entries. More and more advisers are looking to find the best provider of services such as cash flow, ATR, CRM et al, and are opting to plug and play such products with open APIs, rather than go for a one-stop shop solution as was common in the past. Again, we will see super entries in the Leading Digital Platform award and Leading Innovation award entries.
Sustainability remains an issue, albeit some see the significant, but utterly predictable, rise in stocks of carbon fuel producers and travel-related businesses as a reason to ditch ESG and sustainable stocks. We disagree, as climate change will not go away, nor will proposed legislation and regulation. As such, we will have an award for the Leading adviser for sustainable investment and there is a question on sustainability in every platform submission form.
Our panel of independent judges will once again be led by Keith Richards, chair of the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce.
Once again, we will be supporting a very deserving charity - the hospice that looked after our wise old friend and colleague, Ian Taylor, the founder, and inspiration behind Transact, without which this event would never have been held, in his final days.
Just a reminder that last year, we raided over £90,000 for Beautiful Inside and Out - far, far, more than any similar event raises.
We look forward to seeing many of you there. In the meantime, please get going on your submissions.
