HUB24 and Netwealth continue to outrank major platforms

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

24 February 2023

HUB24 has emerged on top of the latest investment platform rankings released by Investment Trends which is as interesting for the companies which did not make the top 5 as those that did.

According to the Investment Trends 2022 Platform Benchmarking and Competitive Analysis Report the following represent the top 5 platforms ranked according to their functionality.

1. HUB24 (overall score of 91.5%)
2. Netwealth (90.7%)
3. Praemium (89.9%)
4. BT Panorama (84.7%)
5. Mason Stevens (83.3%)

Colonial First State (CFS), now owned by KKR, is outside the top 5, probably because its new platform offerings were launched in November last year, too late to impact the rankings, while Macquarie Wrap was also outside the rankings and BT Panorama ranked fourth despite the fact that it has been on the sales block for nearly two years.

According to Investment Trends, all platforms delivered a significant breadth of new functionality over the 12 month period, with the report noting that for a second consecutive year Mason Stevens posted the largest relative increase in score.

Commenting on the data, Investment Trends director, Paul McGivern said all platforms had particularly sharpened their focus on the investment menu.

Managed accounts continue to appeal to advisers for the benefits they provide to both clients and advisers, and platforms have significantly expanded the number of models and managers they offer, as well as editing and tax optimisation tools to enable greater adoption.

The research report said that ESG was another area that had received a great deal of attention.

“This year, several platforms have introduced new integrations with third-party ESG ratings and analytics providers, as well as reporting and other resources to support the provision of ESG advice,” McGivern said.

“Last but certainly not least, retirement income has been at the centre of a range of initiatives by a number of platforms,” added McGivern. “This has translated into a material step up in the range of annuities, capital-protected funds, and longevity protection funds added to the investment menu, as well as the development of new retirement calculators and modelling tools.

When it comes to cybersecurity, all signs point to the fact that platforms are adopting a staged approach.

“2022 saw all platforms implementing multifactor authentication (MFA), but we believe this is only the beginning,” McGivern said.

“Some providers are already exploring behaviour-based alerting to improve their cybersecurity measures – this will certainly be an interesting area to continue to monitor.”