This year, the Schroders UK Platform Awards dinner will be held on 24 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. This will be the 18th platform awards ceremony. Once again, we will celebrate the very best of platforms and technology in retail investment and financial planning. The wonderful Kate Silverton will host the event for the 15th year running.
The platform sector continues to evolve. One expert has forecast that platforms will cease to exist in 5 years’ time! What nonsense. There will always be some form of technology between the product – share, fund, ETF or whatever, and the customer. One day that might have blockchain at its core, with AI around the edges. Platforms will continue to evolve.
We are now seeing platforms with new cloud-based tech battling for market share with established platform with older, maybe more proven, tech. We are seeing platforms buying distribution, as are asset managers, whilst some advisers are becoming platform managers whilst others are manufacturing products; or both!
This is all happening with Consumer Duty in the background, or perhaps foreground. How does a platform demonstrate value without a price war driving service to the floor?
The role of the Schroders UK Platform Awards is to keep up with these trends and identify which platforms, etch providers and advisers provide the best products and services and value to their clients.
This year, the adviser awards will have a greater focus on their tech stack. We believe that it is near impossible to give clients top class advice on financial planning without great tech - hence our decision.
To enter an award, please click here
Adviser Voting
As you will see from the awards categories criteria, four of our awards are decided by the votes of financial advisers. The categories are:
Advisers wishing to vote, please click here
Voting will close on 26 July.
If you wish to attend or are considering sponsorship, please email here
As a global asset and wealth manager, Schroders delivers a broad range of investments designed to meet the diverse needs of institutions, intermediaries and high net worth individuals.For over 200 years we have built principled partnerships with our clients, putting them at the centre of everything we do. They trust us to deliver sustainable returns through times of economic prosperity and of uncertainty.We are a global business, managed locally. Our international presence supports us in understanding the needs of our clients and delivering them the right expertise from across the business.
As an active investment manager we believe that we have an important role to play in driving better outcomes for our clients and society as a whole. We bring together people and data to identify the trends that will shape the prosperity of individuals, businesses and future generations.
We employ over 4100 talented people worldwide operating from 37 offices in 27 different countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, close to the markets in which we invest and close to our clients.
These are the awards for 2024
Please click on award title to view criteria
For the best smaller adviser firm with up to 10 advisers, with a first-rate customer offering, demonstrating great value for money, supported by the platform(s) and systems for processes such as research, cashflow, model portfolios, benchmarking, reviewing and reporting.
This award quite simply celebrates innovation, whether a platform (conventional retail, robo or hybrid), planning tool or application that makes life better for platforms, advisers or investors, that breaks new ground in novel ways at a lower cost for the client or the adviser.
This award is for vertically integrated platforms providing integrated asset management and/or financial advice/planning capability. The judges will be looking for a proposition that offers a straightforward solution that meets the requirements of target customers and offers great value for money.
The judges will be looking for the most innovative and effective workplace platform, platform component, or use of innovative technology; the proposition that meets the needs of members (most crucially), employer and adviser (where appropriate) and that offers a broad range of benefits and demonstrates success in gaining employees’ awareness and participation.
The winner will be a regulated institutional platform that provides access to liquid and illiquid funds (primarily*), and ETFs and securities, over a wide jurisdiction, enabling specifically retail platforms and also wealth managers and third-party providers to access and trade funds.
The winners of the awards will be found by adviser votes or through the wisdom and skill of our judges. The judges have been selected for both their expertise and their independence.
The judging panel will be chaired by Keith Richards, chair of the Financial Vulnerability Taskforce. The process of selecting the winners varies by award (see awards criteria) to ensure the best outcomes. A team of judges has been selected for each of these awards based on expertise and independence.