The long awaited re-platforming at Old Mutual Wealth went live this morning (February 24) with the company moving a relatively small number of clients to its new platform over the weekend.
Quilter, the company that owns the platform, said the move of 100 advisers, accounting for about 10 per cent of assets, had gone as planned and that it had support teams in place should any issues arise around technology for advisers.
The rest of the client book will be moved across in the coming months.
A representative of the company said: “Our teams have been working hard throughout the weekend to complete the migration and I’m pleased to confirm our new technology platform is now live for our advisers and customers in our first phase.
"As with all programmes of this size and nature certain areas requiring some extra attention may appear over the coming weeks and we have monitoring and support in place to identify and manage these. We are focused on ensuring our customers and advisers are well supported every step of the way and we will provide an update on our progress in our full year results in March 2020.”
The journey to re-platforming has been long and costly for Quilter. The company has spent about £360m on the project since it began in 2014.
In May 2017, the company replaced IFDS as the technology provider on the project and hired FNZ. At that time it said it had spent £200m on the project.
In its most recent trading update, published on January 29, company chief executive Paul Feeney said that adviser nervousness about the re-platforming had led to outflows in the final quarter of 2019.
Re-platforming woes have been a feature of the market in recent years, with both Aegon and Aviva’s attempts to move to new technology resulting in waves of complaints from disgruntled advisers angry at the loss of functionality.
david.thorpe@ft.com
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