A message from BT Financial Group CEO
It has been four months since I joined BT Financial Group and one of the highlights so far has been meeting with dealer groups and advisers. What I’m hearing is advisers value the service and technical support BT provides and they are also looking to us to be a trusted partner that gets the little things right and provides platform features that help them deliver advice efficiently to more clients.
We’re listening and becoming a simpler, more focused business.
We have finished the BT Wrap migration and we’re delivering improved platform performance, customer service delivery and new functionality requested by advisers.
We’ve reviewed our business practices to give more control and flexibility to advisers and as well as providing middle and back-office personnel more transparency on workflow status and faster processing times.
Increasingly, mobile solutions are the way of the future, and that’s why last quarter we delivered an upgrade of the BT Panorama app, which has had rapid take up. We also added new platform features including auto-generated reduced income tax credits (RITC) on advice fees for investment clients, enhancing the advice fee process for offline consent, and the commencement of in specie rollovers to BT Panorama Super.
Looking ahead we’ve got an exciting pipeline of enhancements. In February enhancements include the increase of client transfer payment limits from $200k to $500k and the addition of in specie contributions to BT Panorama Super.
We’re also making over 100 smaller upgrades to improve the online experience for advisers and their clients particularly in relation to IPOs, account closures and corporate actions; as well as enhancing integration with adviser software to improve administration processes.
This year our team will continue to deliver more practical support and insights at our upcoming adviser roadshows, professional development days, and providing high-quality technical support through our phone-based service, podcasts and webinars.
All these changes are important but what’s more exciting is our longer-term future. We will be a bold industry advocate – helping advisers to help their clients have their best financial futures. BT Panorama will be the undisputed leader in the platforms market. We are setting a new strategy with advisers at the heart, and I look forward to leading and building the BT of the future.
Matt.
New managed accounts on BT Panorama driving growth
Advisers’ take up of managed accounts solutions on contemporary platforms with full digital features remains strong and comprised 66% of net flows to BT Panorama for the December quarter.
During the December quarter 11 managed accounts were added to the platform, while managed accounts FUA nearly doubled to $10.42bn, compared to the PCP.
Among the new additions are Lonsec’s diversified sustainable managed portfolios. More managed accounts that prioritise sustainability are expected to be added on the platform as momentum in this area increases, catering to strong investor and adviser interest.
Across all of BT’s platforms, net flows into investments that prioritise sustainability have more than doubled in the year to June 2021. Furthermore, 82% of those advisers who use managed accounts are interested in ESG solutions for their clients, with the vast majority preferring to implement these solutions via managed accounts2.
Also driving the demand for managed accounts are advice practices that had used BT Wrap primarily as their main platform and have since taken the opportunity to implement managed accounts for the first time for their recently migrated clients as well as new clients.
This trajectory is expected to continue as the popularity in managed accounts continues to rise. BT is a market leader in driving practice efficiency through managed accounts with one of the most comprehensive solutions in the market to suit the dealer group, the adviser and their clients.
Mobile and digital consent usage grows
The quarter showed clients and advisers are embracing tech, in particular BT Wrap customers who have adopted the BT Panorama mobile app with enthusiasm and are using the reporting tools and investment research on BT Panorama to understand their super and investments better.
There were more than 1.23m client logins into BT Panorama in the December 2021 quarter, 62% of which were via the mobile app. This is up from 475,000 to 757,000 app logins, a 59% increase compared to the PCP.
BT Panorama’s digital consent feature, which allows advisers to obtain client consent via the platform in order to implement advice, has remained popular in the December quarter, with advisers using this tool over 10,000 times in total each month. Digital consent usage has multiplied more than ten-fold over calendar year 20213.
Providing efficient digital solutions is vital in supporting advisers in meeting their compliance obligations and to enhance the client-adviser relationship. This will continue to be key to the success of BT Panorama.
BT Panorama quarterly statistics
BT Panorama continued to grow due to strong market performance and $1.04bn in net flows coming on to the platform for the December quarter. Importantly $0.76bn in pension payments were made to over 60,000 Australian retirees.
According to Plan For Life’s latest data, BT’s September 2021 quarter net flow rose to $0.88b1, even as other large groups recorded negative flows. BT’s quarterly net flow is ranked fifth largest in the market, boosted by BT Panorama’s +$1.88bn contribution.
BT is the market leader in platforms, with FUA of $150.73bn and FUA share of 18.5% (excluding retail and corporate super)1.
1 All BT platforms. Plan For Life Platform Wrap Admin Report, September 2021 (excluding Corporate Super)
2 Investment Trends February 2021 Managed Accounts report, prepared for BT
3 BT Panorama statistics - monthly usage of digital consent feature from Jan-Mar 2021 was under 1,000 per month; from Sep-Dec 2021, over 10,000 per month
More Information
Lisa Parrett
Media Relations, BT
M: 0432 933 796
E: Lisa.Parrett@btfinancialgroup.com
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