But this doesn't mean everyone needs or should build everything from scratch, he adds.
“The first experience [building the proprietary back office system], where we tried to give everything in one thing ourselves, taught me that actually that's not the best way.
"The more open it is and the more you're able to have open architecture, so you can bring in the best [third party providers], the better system you'll build. And the better thing you have.”
Asked about his message to the 'doubters', he says he finds it “astonishing” that portals and apps are still a novel thing for some advisers.
“There is an assumption that ‘my clients won’t use it’. We have an amazing level of usage from our member base and interaction too. Around 86 per cent of our members interact in that way,” he says.
He makes clear technology is the future for the advice sector.
“If you're in this business and in this sector now, and you want to be in it in the future, then you need to accept that you need to be more technology driven, mobile first, and arguably change the way you think about how your future clients want to engage.
“The reality is that's where the world is going. We're all on mobile first. And that's how everybody else is communicating with your consumer.
"So we need to, absolutely. It's a necessity to adapt.”
carmen.reichman@ft.com
