FundsNetwork puts investment trusts listing on hold

Another announcement from FundsNetwork - and another target missed! I wonder what the more pressing platform developments are? It would be good if they could tell us (for a change).

The problem is that advisors remaining independent will now have to find another platform if they are to consider and use Investment Trusts. Fidelity have known about this requirement for some time and whilst everyone has more important things to process, is it a turn they are now taking to placate the restricted community or to build a tie with another life company/bank.

How hard can it be to simply put a range of investment trusts on the system?

And somewhat unfair to advisers to suggest that they would be including them, thus helping maintain Independence ... and then not ...

This highlights that due diligence on platforms should be based on what they actually offer rather than what they promise.

This is not the first time that a supermarket has failed to deliver the promises.

Citywire article...January 2010.....Skandia will have cash accounts, ETFs and investment trusts!

What shocks me most is that when you research the ability to hold Investment Trusts on Synaptic and Adviser Asset - many platforms say will take Investment Trusts when they do not!

How many advisers are justifying their choice of Investment Platform on false information?

If you only use one of the big three plaforms, Skandia, Fidelity and Cofunds, then this decision only goes to reinforce the FSA comments in its Platform Guidance Factsheet - "that it is likely to be very rare. if possible at all, that a firm could use one platform for all clients and meet the independence rule".

We used to use all 3 of these platforms but realised last year that we could not cover all of our investment proposition through using them and that they were probably not going to deliver what we wanted in time!

As we did not want to go down the Restricted advice route we now have one of the big three and then two other lower cost platforms with wider investment choices to compliment this, mainly to use with other clients outside of our normal investment proposition.

We have even considered actually using some of the Investment Trusts available, some of which have performed significantly better than their OIEC cousins!

More and more of them will be coming out with a "guaranteed no discount to NAV" to attract more IFA business.

Interesting comments here, and to reinforce platform due diligence is important. Its a good idea to have an idea beforehand what you are looking for a platform for AND for which set of your client bank (they are likely to be different). Make sure the provider does what they say they do and check it works for you. See what actual IFA users think by reviewing the Platforum User Leaderboard aka Trip Adviser. If you don't want to talk to any computers just give PAT a call!!

I wholeheartedly agree with Gillian Cardy. We invest into Closed End Funds on a regular basis and placed some new business with Funds Network on their commitment to make them available on the platform by the end of 2012.

Having being told that there were pressing RDR requirements, we have now been told that Closed End Funds are delayed again and have now contacted the clients to move the funds onto an unfettered platform. Fortunately the transfers can be done in specie, at no cost or loss to the client, but it does call into the question the relevance of having "several" platforms to meet the FSA's independance requirements