This year, the Schroders UK Platform Awards dinner will be held on 19 September at the London Hilton on Park Lane. This will be the 17th 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 14th year running.
Thank goodness, platform upgrades are no longer the nightmare that kept so many platform people awake at night. Today’s main issues are adviser platforms and microservices. As we see more consolidation in the adviser arena, more are tempted to go the whole hog and become their own platform manager or maybe just opt for a white label solution. We expect to see entries from such providers in the Strategic Platform Partner award entries. More and more advisers are looking to find the best provider of services such as cash flow, ATR, CRM et al, and are opting to plug and play such products with open APIs, rather than go for a one stop shop solution as was common in the past. Again, we will see super entries in the Leading Digital Platform award and Leading Innovation award entries.
Sustainability remains an issue, albeit some see the significant, but utterly predictable, rise in stocks of carbon fuel producers and travel related businesses as a reason to ditch ESG and sustainable stocks. We disagree, as climate change will not go away, nor will proposed legislation and regulation. As such, we will have an award for the Leading adviser for sustainable investment and there is a question on sustainability in every platform submission form.
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:
Leading investment research, ratings, and data provider
Advisers wishing to vote, please click here
Voting will close on 28 July.
If you wish to attend or are considering sponsorship, please email here
Once again, we will be supporting a very deserving charity - the hospice that looked after our wise old friend and colleague, Ian Taylor, the founder, and inspiration behind Transact, without which this event would never have been held, in his final days.
Just a reminder that last year, we raided over £90,000 for Beautiful Inside and Out - far, far, more than any similar event raises.
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 2023
Please click on award title to view criteria
This award will go to the intermediary platform that the judges deem to have made the greatest advance or been the most innovative in 2023 but that also demonstrates consistency over a period, as platforms are for the longer term.
Judging process: Submission followed by interview of the six finalists by our expert and independent judges, chaired by Keith Richards, in the City of London.
This award is for the platform that best supports advisers (and their clients) using model portfolio services (MPS) from discretionary fund managers.
Awarded to the platform given the highest marks in a survey of leading discretionary managers by NextWealth
For the larger adviser business 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
Judging process: The judging process will be in two stages. Stage one is in the form of a submission to the judges. The three entrants receiving highest scores will go through to an interview with the judges.
For the adviser practice business 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
Judging process: The judging process will be in two stages. Stage one is in the form of a submission to the judges. The three entrants receiving highest scores will go through to an interview with the judges.
A firm with all the best adviser qualities as itemised above together with a leading sustainable/ESG proposition matching their chosen target market.
Judging process: The winner will be adjudicated by the judges from the six adviser finalists following the interviews.
The award will go to the platform, or the core component behind a platform, that is a leader in the employment of technology that improves the quality of guidance or advice and that shortens and eases the customer journey, one that customers find easiest to use.
Judging process: The award will be judged by submissions to the judging panel.
The award 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
Judging process: The award will be judged by submissions to the judging panel.
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
Judging process: The award will be judged by submissions to the judging panel.
The award for the journalist that covers the platform sector with a true understanding of what is going on and why and who pens original articles.
Judging process: The award will be judged by submissions to the judging panel by the editors of trade publications who recommend their journalists for this award
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.