Introducing Transfer Tracker

We know that across the industry, transferring between platforms is an adviser’s single biggest pain point. Advisers don’t know the status of transfers, requiring constant phone calls to customer service teams, and then back to clients to keep them updated. It all takes up time which could be much better spent.

In any process where there are multiple players, it can be harder to solve problems. The industry knows it’s got work to do here. We’re hopeful we can create a snowball effect, leaning in to solve these challenges for advisers and leading by example to improve the current experience for the advisers we serve.

Around 70%[1] of transfer queries to Morningstar Wealth relate to where the transfer currently is in the process. That’s a huge time drain and a pain point for firms. This presented a significant opportunity to improve things for all parties. Whilst we acknowledge this is only part of the problem, it’s something we can positively influence.

Advisers are time poor and we want to enable them to spend their time where they can add most value – engaging with their clients. Not chasing for a status update on a transfer.

What can advisers expect?

As soon as we receive the request to transfer a pension onto Morningstar Wealth Platform, it shows on the Transfer Tracker screen in the Adviser Portal, complete with its current status and a date stamp. This visibility of the timeline and progress mean clear expectations at each stage for all involved.

Where actions are required, notifications are issued through our Zendesk service software. In time this will all be automated via APIs.

We’ll monitor accounts to ensure any delays are being addressed and dealt with. We’re also tracking the volume of transfer queries over the next few months, so we can measure the impact of this change.

By starting with the simplest form of transfers we can make sure the end-to-end customer journey works, introducing more complex scenarios once we’re confident we have the basics in place. In this case that’s cash pension new business transfers onto the platform using Origo, which allows for a digital-first approach.

This is just the start of our work on transfers. In time we’ll broaden Transfer Tracker out to cover other products such as ISAs or GIAs, as well as in specie pension transfers which require more manual intervention, alongside enhancements such a notes and search functionality.

Building on good progress  

We have much more planned and will share further updates over the coming months.

Everything we’re working on is made possible by our partners across the advice profession. We’re endlessly grateful to the advisers, paraplanners and administrators who continue to generously share their time, insight and expertise with us.

[1] Source: Qualitative and quantitative research from our contact centre