Thanks to everyone who came to Platforum V yesterday. Great to have so many people there.

To my mind, the main themes coming out of the day were the expansion of platforms into the execution-only and corporate markets; the suggestion that maybe adviser platforms don’t need more ‘shiny stuff’ and the rise of social media. Also – unlike 2007 when we ran our first conference – platforms are serious stuff now. When you have the CEOs of Fidelity and Standard Life in a room talking about platforms not as an adjunct to their business but AS their business, we think that’s really exciting.

Much debate and discussion around how many platforms the market can sustain. Skandia’s Nick Dixon felt that 8-10 platforms will be around in 2015 and we’ll see consolidation, acquisitions and some failures. I’m not sure things will pan out quite this way and think there’s a difference to be made between the core IT platform and a platform proposition. Zurich launched their retail platform yesterday at the event and so we now have 26 platforms today in the adviser space. Getting busy……

The IFAs we heard from had differing views, which is one reason I think the market can support lots of different propositions (NB not technologies...). There was general consensus that there is room for improvements in CGT reports, cash on platforms and also general quarterly client reporting. However there was less of a sense of the need for new tools and gizmos – Standard Life spoke well about how we need to focus on the core fundamentals and get these right. All 4 adviser speakers were clear that platforms had improved their businesses – Cofunds user Myles Jacobs confessed to a short platform affair a few years ago but has been using the platform for 10 years now and described how it’s changed his business. He feels it’s fine to use one platform only – and that the question is more around whether a client needs to be on a platform or not. Doug Brodie made the point that last year his business paid more than £100,000 in platform fees – when it gets to a certain level (he suggested £200,000) he thinks this should be capped. He works with some stockbrokers today and only pays a single dealing fee. If advisers are moving to a £ per hour, will platforms move to a £ fee per firm?

Different views from Duncan Hannay-Robertson and Philip Wise on the role of adviser software. For Duncan, platforms have almost become his software. For Philip, Adviser Office is the central point of the business. Interestingly he told us that he’s now seeing new clients who come to him with assets on platforms and wraps already – that’s a new dynamic in the market. He thinks a move costs his firm £1,050 – and there’s obviously the client implications of any transfer to consider too.

We interviewed SEI as they support groups such as Bestinvest across XO, advisory and discretionary channels – we think we’ll see more of this in the future – a common platform supporting lots of different channels. Fidelity’s Gary Shaughnessy spoke about workplace platforms and was clear that this is fundamentally the same platform as the core retail one. Standard Life CEO Paul Matthews mentioned flexible benefits and the corporate channel – as we know, they have acquired Vebnet and power a corporate wrap. It was the first time we’ve heard about this side of the market at a retail platform event and next year I’m sure we’ll hear more.

New and interesting technologies were shown by Sammedia – pulling bank account details into the picture to present a client’s financial dashboard. I like this. Capita showcased their latest release which compares the cost differentials of holding client’s products either on or off platform – some of the results are quite surprising. And we had to fetch smelling salts for the FSA when etToro showcased their forex trading platform where you can follow other traders and copy them. The latest addition to this ingenious site is to allow those “Guru” traders with followers to charge them 10 bucks a pop – thus turning day-trading into an income stream. I’ve had several emails this morning from people who have been up all night trading forex. This is not a recommendation!

Social media is at the heart of these new developments and yesterday was the first event for us where there was a flurry of tweeting throughout the day. Respect to Skandia’s Graham Bentley and Nucleus’ David Ferguson for the tweetathon. How can you listen and tweet so much!? Men multi-tasking?!

It really reinforces how news is live and as soon as we say anything – it’s extremely public. Logica’s Andrew Lloyd talked about how we can use this to our advantage with better customer insights that ever – but it can also bite us when things go wrong. Remember the “United Breaks Guitars” song by a disgruntled passenger – more than 10 million views on You Tube. Ouch. Hopefully The Platforum got better comments yesterday and if you’re nosey, go to Twitter and have a look at #platforumv

360’s Phil Young and Phil Billingham (the Two Phils) did a great job taking questions on issues from VAT, regulation and independence – will it matter? Someone raised the interesting question of Mifid 2 with me after the event – we wait and see what that directive will say about restricted advisers being able to be paid by commission. How does this sit alongside the FSA’s pronouncements? The FSA were there yesterday and I have to say did a great job in taking questions and engaged in way which I haven’t seen before so thanks to Rory Percival and Rob Muskett. Really useful contributions.

Finally there was a discussion about the investment piece. Paul Resnik spoke about risk and the need for a standard measure – much in the way there is a common understanding of blood pressure. John Baxter talked about the fact that no-one starts with a cheque – there is a pot of existing assets which sometimes should be left alone – 30% of cases he sees he feels should be left and not transferred – but that still leaves 70% of legacy and other assets where some sort of a transfer could be beneficial for the client. Great news for platforms. Raymond James’ David Hazleton then chaired a discussion on the merits of risk-rated funds vs model portfolios vs discretionary, with some delegate concerns raised about adviser use of model portfolios on platform without always having the appropriate permissions to re-balance and make changes. The passive vs active debate was given an new interesting twist with a Dutch delegate telling us that the Dutch regulator requires advisers to explain and justify use of any active investment, with passive being the approved default position.

A busy day – and a positive day I think. Less noise about the next whizzy tool and more thought about how platforms will grow and develop, quite often in partnership either with each other or new technologies. The convergence of digital media and the RDR is game changing – we ended the day with our observation that platforms could be the Kindle of the financial world. In that case, where the hardware is to drive content sales, will there come a time when the hardware is given away for free? Hmmm. I think it certainly gives platforms with tax wrappers or investments to sell an interesting strategic question. We’ve already seen AXA say there will be no platform charge on any Architas assets held on platform.

The final thing that I learnt is that drinking a pint of wine after a busy day with no food is not a very good idea. I suspect that later this afternoon I will be sticking CBeebies on and praying for some peace and quiet. Abney and Teal with a cup of tea. Nice. So thanks to all our sponsors, speakers and to everyone who came. Have a great weekend,

Holly