This report covers eSignature adoption by advisers and document submission practices for platforms. It comes a year after we published our original report in April 2020.

The ability to submit and conduct business electronically became business critical through Covid-19 and in our regular interviews with financial advice firms, we heard that ease of doing business is becoming an increasingly important factor in platform selection.

This report forms part of NextWealth’s Adviser Tech Stack series. It’s a subscription service that offers regular in-depth updates on adviser tech, covering adviser reviews, market share and proposition of key providers. Areas covered include:

• Adviser reviews of adviser tech providers
• Document submission approaches for platforms and use of eSignatures
• Integrations matrix, security protocols, charging models and functionality offered
• White-labelled platforms
• Spend by financial advice businesses on tech, in aggregate and by size of firm

Methodology

NextWealth collected data from 23 platform providers on 85 distinct processes to publish the most comprehensive picture available of document submission requirements.

The data in this report is valid at 25 March 2021.

Along with this an online survey of 218 UK financial advisers was conducted between 19 February 2021 and the 3 March 2021.