In other words, cost matters. The nature of the product matters; and the task of checking whether equivalent products can meet the client’s needs is an ongoing process.
Which takes us with all the grace of a Labour party Brexit policy manoeuvre to our second category: practicality. While firms generally have no problem with individual transfers, far fewer feel confident in bulk exercises, and many won’t recommend transfers even where they would like to, according to our research.
So we have a market where the regulations are clear on advisers’ responsibilities for ensuring what the Financial Conduct Authority considers “value for money” for clients, yet the practical implications of transferring are so onerous that many firms simply can’t make the case for it. When you think about the suitability rules in particular, this is unacceptable.
Yet, with the right processes and preparation, companies can largely overcome the expensive practicality problem and make sure they don’t run into an even more expensive suitability problem.
Project picks
I’m 700 words in and haven’t done technology yet – time to sort that out. The tech I want to look at this month is project management software – freely available to companies like yours – that can make processes a lot more manageable.
I’ll mention three here, all of which are either free or very low cost and offer firms visual ways of setting out their various project steps and to-dos. They’ve all got their pros and cons, and some might be more suitable for you than others. I think, used right, the emerging world of project management tech out there can unlock the secret to low-hassle, low-resource, high-suitability transfer processes.
I should mention I have no commercial interest in any of the companies I’m about to mention; I just think they’re great.
My first pick is Pipedrive, a customer-relationship management system designed to help small sales teams manage intricate or lengthy sales processes. From a platform transfer perspective, its value lies in the visibility of a process in which each stage can be named, progress tracked, and the relevant parties can see what’s being done. What started life as a lead generation/tracking system is maybe an awesome transfer process tracking tool.
