PLATFORM UPDATES

We’ve improved how the Platform handles investments when a Direct Debit is cancelled and the regular contribution is already in flight.

If a Direct Debit is cancelled and the regular contribution is already in flight, we are unable to stop that contribution. Previously, this amount was left in cash inside the account. Now, the contribution will be invested in line with the existing investment strategy. Additionally, the next regular contribution will not be collected.

We recognise you want to see the charges that have been taken, charges that could apply and any accounts that are linked for charging. We’ve made improvements to the screens you use to view client charges to help you see all of this at once.

Tax relief is now displayed in a separate column alongside both net and gross amounts, allowing you to easily see if this applies to a contribution.

On the customer dashboard, you can now see cash available (cash available to transact with that day) and total cash value (cash available to transact plus uncleared funds). Helping you identify what available cash your client has both now and once trades have been settled.

You can now easily see any users associated with an account (i.e. Registered contact or Power of Attorney) via a new section on the customer dashboard under ‘my documents’. This new section is called account roles.

Remaining ISA / JISA allowance is now shown underneath product value on the customer dashboard. Once in the product dashboard, you’ll see a further breakdown of utilised allowance, withdrawals, and remaining allowances for the ISA / JISA you are viewing.

Payments will now be available in your client’s bank account on the same day as it leaves the platform and when this falls on a non-working day (i.e. a weekend or bank holiday), the payment will be brought forward to the previous working day.

The platform has been updated for the Lump Sum Allowance changes that were introduced at tax year end. This will mean that you can stop sending in the paper form on crystallisation as the platform will now gather all the relevant information.

To ensure that PCLS can be paid on the same day and to avoid having to rekey the wizard for price movements please ensure that all crystallisation wizards are submitted by 3pm.

The new data items on the screens are shown here.

We have continued to respond quickly to Adviser feedback in relation to Client Report and are pleased to confirm that all Internal Account Transfer movements will reflect correctly within the Snapshot section of the Report. Account Transfers will no longer present as Money In/Money Out movements making the Snapshot section more transparent and easier to understand.

We have listened to the feedback we have received on the Charges Information Documents produced for top ups and understand why the method of calculation we used when displaying the total charges as a percentage of the top up amount was causing confusion for some of your clients. We have now updated the method used to calculate the pound amount charge on top ups, so it is only based on the top up and not the total value of the account. This will ensure that the corresponding percentage quoted is also only based on the additional charges associated with the top up.

We’ve made the following enhancements, making it even easier to key withdrawals as well as a new inter-account transfer journey.

Simplified withdrawal journeys allowing for a more intuitive experience.

We’ve separated the one-off and regular withdrawal journeys, creating a journey that’s easy to use and dynamic based on selected choices throughout the journey, meaning no unnecessary screens and less clicks throughout.

New standalone inter-account transfer journey

Making it easy to transfer money from GIA from ISA and vice versa.

The following inter-account transfers can be keyed using this journey:

We have delivered a range of functional enhancements to the Scottish Widows Platform, many in direct response to discussions with our adviser partners. We’ve improved functionality in the following areas:

In response to feedback from Platform users, more Client Report fixes and enhancements have been deployed into production. We are pleased to confirm that where Reports are run to today’s date, Model Portfolio holdings will now be separated out from the date of migration and listed within their own ‘Model Section’ within the valuation and performance sections. Where the date range selected ends prior to today’s date, the report will list out all funds without the model splits. We are working on further improvements to ensure that the model splits present in all date-range scenarios.

We have also resolved the following issues.

• The prevalence of some negative book costs and inflated performance figures impacting some investments within the Investment Breakdown section.
• References to erroneous Pension ‘payments in’ within the Arrangement section.
• Performance %’s within the Return Performance graphs not matching performance figures stated elsewhere within the Report.
• Erroneous tax-relief ‘type’ showing against either single or regular contribution types.
• Data gaps appearing in some historical Benchmark data.

Please note, the Report will not highlight any values within the Account Transfer boxes and these will always be zero. Any internal account transfers will be included in the Money In/Out figures associated with the individual products.

More information to help you generate and customise reports and understand the content can be found in the user guide.

We have made the following enhancements to our digital journeys.

Improvements to new business illustrations: Users will no longer need to key two transfers where funds contain both crystallised and uncrystallised. Users can now also specify an amount to be crystallised upon receipt instead of assuming 100% or none.

Improvements to withdrawal journeys: Users can now set up both a regular sell to cash and regular withdrawal (from cash) at the same time. Prompts have been added in these journeys to ensure its clear to the user what they can and can’t do.

Work in Progress: When keying a top-up, if a draft instruction already exists for that client a pop up will appear to notify user and give them the option to:

• Ignore unsubmitted instruction and carry on with new instruction.
• Delete unsubmitted instruction and carry on with new instruction.
• Go to unsubmitted instruction in WIP queue and exit new instruction.

Work in Progress: Account ID filter added to work in progress queue, giving users more options to find the draft piece of work they are looking for.

Click here for additional details of the release.

Ongoing Adviser Remuneration: A fix to prevent Ongoing Adviser Remuneration changing from monthly to quarterly when processing a residual transfer payment has been implemented.

Regular income payments: When a decumulation pot is exhausted we will no longer make income payments that create a negative balance. Going forward, where the decumulation pot doesn’t have sufficient cash available we will cancel the Income payment and any future payment instructions to prevent unauthorised payments.

Ad-Hoc and regular statements: We have made an enhancement to reduce the number of requests that fail.

Forgotten password reset process: Previously we could not send a reset email to a user who had a username with more than 16 characters, this limitation has now been removed.

Regular Initial Adviser Charge: We have rectified an issue where charges were not being deducted from client accounts and paid to advisers as scheduled.

Contribution amount on illustration: In some cases where a contribution was being keyed on a Personal Pension the tax relief was showing twice on the illustration and therefore overstating the investment amount. This has now been rectified.

Joint account documents: These will now be produced in the joint name of both parties, previously was only the first named on account.

User Interface Update

Our latest platform update allows users to:

• Set up regular disinvestments within products, helping you ensure there is always cash available when you need it.

User Interface Update

Our latest platform update allows users to:

• View Deal History within the client dashboard, this includes a status box which shows the current status of the deal.
• See a new action tile called ‘Work Submitted’ under Client Management. This will show any work items that have created on behalf of a client.
• View Assets Under Management at firm level on the Dashboard, with the ability to filter by relevant Adviser.

Rebrand to Scottish Widows Platform

• Embark Platform has successfully rebranded as Scottish Widows Platform. It continues to be administered by Embark Investment Services Limited (EISL) meaning no alterations to your Terms of Business or to your clients’ Terms and Conditions.

Client Reporting

• Our client reporting tool is now available to all advisers. It enables you to generate customised reports for your clients and allows you to personalise the cover page, contents page, add specific commentary and even your firm’s logo.
• We have developed a supporting user guide that explains how to generate and customise reports.

Security user enhancement

• When a security user unlocks another user’s account, they can now identify the specific reason behind the account being locked. For example, incorrectly entering a password or pin multiple times.

Consumer Duty

• Demonstrating our commitment to the FCA’s Consumer Duty, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive review of our outputs and have implemented improvements to enhance consumer understanding.

Service Enhancements

• AML Verification: We will no longer request ID documentation to be sent to us following a failed anti-money laundering check. Instead, an automated adviser email will confirm the AML check will be passed within the next working day (on the basis the IFA has completed their check). This means no further action is required; greatly streamlining the process.
• Bank Account Verification: If a new Bank Account fails verification, the automated communication will now state that you can reply to confirm you have completed the verification without attaching documentation.
• Network Model Portfolio Rebalancing: Clients invested in Network Model Portfolios that rebalance at set frequencies will each be rebalanced based on the day the individual’s account was opened, not the date the Network Model was created. This avoids all clients in the same Network Models being rebalanced on the same day, potentially causing platform performance issues and fund levies.

Performance Enhancements

• We have also addressed identified challenges and implemented bug fixes to enhance the Platform’s stability and overall performance.