Nicholas Ryan
Two financial advisers, Nicholas Ryan and David Mills, have launched their own back-office technology firm Pilot.
Launched this month, the UK-built practice management software firm is intended to "transform how financial planners and advisers engage with clients by streamlining onboarding, reducing admin, and improving transparency across the advice process".
Pilot was built to simplify the fact-find process, reduce paperwork, sort out the necessary research and suitability requirements for IFAs, and allows advisers to focus on "delivering value rather than chasing admin".
It has been three years in development and is fully independent, supported by enterprise investment scheme and seed enterprise investment scheme investment, an Innovate UK grant, and no institutional backers.
Developed by two IFAs
Developed by two practising IFAs with over 35 years of combined experience, Ryan and Mills said that Pilot aims to solve the "real-world frustrations of modern financial planning".
"From intuitive client onboarding to powerful compliance tools, Pilot simplifies every stage of the advice journey," the advice duo said at its launch event yesterday (22 July). "Designed and hosted entirely in the UK, Pilot offers highly competitive and transparent pricing as a fresh alternative to expensive legacy back-office systems."
Ryan and Mills said that as IFAs themselves, Pilot has been "designed and built by advisers, for advice professionals".
"It delivers a practical, cost-effective solution to the longstanding inefficiencies faced by advice firms of all sizes," they added.
Ryan and Mills together bring more than 35 years' experience in financial planning and business management.
Ryan built his own IFA firm - Yellow Bear Financial Consultancy - from the ground up and Mills, a Chartered Fellow, is co-director of Ridgeways Financial Planning, focusing on high net wealth clients.
Ryan and Mills confirmed that they remain active advisers themselves.
Adviser frustration with ‘clucky and expensive' tech
Both founders said that they have experienced first-hand the "frustration of clunky, expensive" practice management systems that "fail to reflect how real advice firms operate". That is why they decided to build their own.
Ryan said: "We built Pilot to do what other systems no longer seem to care about - deliver real efficiency, from end to end, at a fair price.
"We believe it will quickly become the desktop solution of choice for advice professionals who are tired of being tied to bloated, expensive back-office systems that have lost sight of what they actually need to run a great business and serve clients well in a competitive market."
"Built and hosted entirely in the UK, with secure UK-based data storage, the platform is fully scalable and built to support both sole practitioners and multi-adviser firms," the founders set out. "At its core, Pilot offers a streamlined digital onboarding experience that allows advice professionals to input key information on any device, at a time that suits them."
Ryan and Mills added that clients also benefit from "secure" access to their plans, documents, and reports. Meanwhile, advisers can access "integrated" workflows and "robust" compliance tools that "help meet regulatory requirements and improve service quality".
This launched comes as AdviserSoftware.com recently found that advice firms are considering changing their core technology systems, citing frustrations with data management, client portals, and integration capabilities
