The latest news on investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients. 

This week, TrustQuay has launched a Software-as-a-Service enabled fund administration platform to support trust, corporate and alternative fund services providers.

The new fund administration product is part of TrustQuay Online, an end-to-end cloud-native SaaS platform specifically designed for corporate services and trust administrators, the firm said in a statement.

Supporting alternative fund structures such as private equity and real estate funds, TrustQuay Online’s new fund capabilities provide a platform spanning trust, corporate and fund services lines. 

Available 24/7 from any device with a browser and internet connection worldwide, these new fund administration capabilities offer a reduced total cost of ownership compared with on-premise software and most other alternative fund administration solutions available in the market today, the firm said.

Research from TrustQuay has shown significant interest in fund administration within the sector. In a recent survey, the firm said that nine out of 10 respondents said that alternative fund administration will be a growth opportunity for the industry. 

At present, 41 per cent of trust and corporate services providers say they offer fund administration and a further one in five said they plan to do so in the future. 

Private equity funds were seen as the top growth area, cited by two-thirds of respondents, with real estate funds coming in second, chosen by half of those surveyed, the firm said. Debt funds and venture capital funds came in joint third position, named by a third of respondents.

Welcoming the findings, Keith Hale, executive chairman of TrustQuay, said: “The growth in alternatives globally has led to more and more trust and corporate services providers identifying the opportunity in illiquid fund administration. However, the increasing complexity of fund structures and investment capabilities means that providers are looking for more agile and more cost-effective solutions.”

“We’ve always helped our customers manage the underlying fund entities and SPVs, and I’m excited by these new capabilities in TrustQuay Online that allow us to serve our customers and other underserved fund administrators better,” he continued. 

“This new SaaS fund administration platform from TrustQuay offers a frictionless end-to-end solution from onboarding to lifecycle management, at a significantly reduced total cost of ownership,” he said.

TrustQuay specialises in technology for the corporate services, trust and alternative fund administration industry. 

Serving more than 360 customers and 26,000 users in over 30 jurisdictions, TrustQuay has 11 offices around the world, including Australia, Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Third Financial
Third Financial, a UK investment platform used by wealth managers and IFAs, has developed a two-way integration with intelliflo office, to help advisors modernise, simplify and scale their businesses.
 
All clients and plans opened and maintained in intelliflo office are electronically updated to the platform in real-time, eliminating dual keying, the firm said in a statement.
 
Third Financial’s platform allows advice firms to gain operational efficiencies by consolidating their multiple platform relationships into a home for all their clients and under their own branding, the firm added.

intelliflo works with 2,500 financial advice firms across the UK, helping them with a personal finance portal, electronic signatures, management information reporting, lead management, and fact finds.

The leading IFA Foster Denovo partnered with the Third Financial platform in 2019.
 
Welcoming the move, Amir Hakim, proposition director at Third Financial, said: “Our well-established integration with intelliflo is part of our ongoing effort to modernise advice businesses.”  

“Naturally, we want to attract new firms to our platform, but the wider mission is to help advisors simplify and scale in a sector that is prosperous and efficient for both clients and advisors,” he added. 

“The advisor segment lags behind other financial services. Advisors are well-aware they need to follow suit, with too many advice practices still running their business across multiple platforms. To date, they have lacked an obvious single alternative to turn to but we are now providing that alternative,” he said.
 
Helen Lovett, chief operating officer at Foster Denovo added: “We worked with Third Financial to design and build the intelliflo office interface. The two-way interface has removed data rekeying between the systems and enabled us to onboard clients and process advice administration far more efficiently.”
 
Ian Partington, group chief executive officer at Third Financial, said: “The advice sector is facing manifold challenges including fee pressure, rising costs, and further layers of regulation.” 

“As margins are compressed, the best course of action is to reduce the long-term administrative burden, leaving more time for IFAs to engage with clients and grow their business. As the market and client demand changes, it is much easier to adapt if you have a simplified operating model,” he added.