Quilter has completed the second phase of its platform migration, shifting a further 70 per cent of assets to its new technology.
Over the weekend, some 2,000 advice firms using the Old Mutual Wealth platform were transferred to the firm’s new platform with the site now live for advisers and customers involved in the migration.
The latest transfer brings the total amount of assets transferred to 80 per cent of the platform’s total, with the final 20 per cent expected to migrate in early 2021.
Steven Levin, chief executive at Old Mutual Wealth, said: “Our teams have been working hard to complete the migration and I’m pleased to confirm our new technology platform is now live for our advisers and customers in our second phase.
“We are monitoring closely for any areas that may require extra attention over the coming weeks and support is in place to identify and manage these.
“We are focused on ensuring our customers and advisers are well supported every step of the way whilst preparing for our final migration in early 2021.”
The road to replatforming has been long and costly for Quilter. The company has spent about £360m on the project since it began in 2014, and it switched technology providers in 2017.
Advisers included in the second tranche of transfers were initially expected to migrate by the end of summer, but the Covid-19 outbreak pushed that date back first to October and then again to the end of November.
Jeremy Mugridge, Quilter’s head of UK proposition marketing, told FTAdviser the firm really wanted to “kick off” its plans for the platform, but was focused on advisers and customers migrating safely before revealing the future of the site.
He added that the platform had already improved since the first wave of transfers in February, including the addition of a cash account, automated cash management for fees and charges and the ability to backlog trades.
Quilter previously told FTAdviser it had “learned some lessons” from other platforms that had done similar changes and had therefore split up migration groups and pushed deadlines back to be “extra cautious”.
Over the past few years platforms have been beset by a range of problems following upgrades and replatformings.
It resulted in the Financial Conduct Authority sounding the alarm on replatforming issues earlier this year, urging platforms to make sure any technology upgrades were “adequately planned and tested” before they were rolled out to advisers and consumers.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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