The importance of independence

Prompted by two events in the last two weeks, the FSA's paper CP10/29 and Standard Life's acquisition of Focus Solutions it's worth considering the importance of independence and objectivity in the provision of front office and financial planning tools.

For advisers. In the words of the FSA in CP10/29 “It remains … important that an adviser carefully considers the objectivity of any tools provided as they are responsible for the advice provided to the client.” As the UK’s leading provider of financial planning tools and front office technology, DT’s reputation and success has been built on our ability to deliver high quality, objective solutions. We won 16 PPP ratings in the F&TRC's recent evaluation of financial planning tool suppliers, more than any other supplier. We feel it is important that our clients and the advisers that use Dynamic Planner can trust the objectivity of the tools they use. This has been the case since founding the business in 2003 and certainly the case when the FSA itself used our technology back in 2004. Our plans as a company, board and management team are to continue to build DT and our products, successfully and independently, supporting high quality, objective financial planning, sales and servicing to the benefit of our clients.

For financial services companies. Independence is not just important from the advisers' point of view. Our clients need to know that they will have a strong voice at the table in helping set DT's product road map and priorities. As an independent and privately owned company we pride ourselves on our ability to put our clients' needs first. At the end of each month for example we complete a 'health check' asking each client on a scale of 0 to 10 would they recommend us? Over the last 8 months since starting this I am delighted to say that this Net Promoter score has moved up and up as we have focused more and more on this measure of client success. For November we scored an average of 7.8. We understand that all financial services companies are facing great challenges (as well as opportunities) in the transition to RDR and we are working with clients from across the industry to deliver powerful and innovative solutions that will help them grow and succeed beyond 2013. We are very excited by the product releases we have planned for 2011 from our forthcoming Winter release in January onwards.

For platforms and providers. Lastly as an independent supplier our programme of integrations with leading platforms and providers will mean that we can support our advisory clients with integrations to a platform of their choice. We know that leading advisory businesses want best of breed when it comes to their front office and investment platform combination and DT's programme will mean that our clients can have exactly this.

Ben