The move is aimed at delivering a better and more comprehensive solution for their clients.
1st currently provides its ‘Adviser Office’ system to over 1,400 intermediary firms (11,000 users) including tied, multi-tied and Independent financial advisers and wealth managers. They will be working with Prestwood to create a link between 1st's Adviser Office product and Prestwood's financial planning programs, 'Truth' and 'Professional'.
On completion, this will enable 1st clients to take advantage of Prestwood's more detailed cash flow forecasting and also will enable users of Prestwood to take advantage of Adviser Office's comprehensive client management capabilities, with single data entry between the two applications.
The integration is now being piloted with Grant Thornton and assuming successful feedback, will be made available to all clients of both organisations.
Firms will require a licence to use both applications to take advantage of the integration but there will be no additional charge for the integration.
Mik Cons, managing director of 1st, said: "We believe in giving our users the widest choice in the applications they use. Adviser Office provides the most comprehensive view of client data available and the work done to allow users to aggregate data electronically from the majority of providers and platforms, also makes it available to the other applications they use. Bringing together the strengths of two highly successful systems, not only ensures our users have the freedom of choice to derive maximum benefit from technology – but they also benefit from optimum efficiency with improved accuracy in reporting."
Philip Congrave, managing director of Prestwood, commented: “Our emphasis has always been on helping advisers provide high quality services to their clients and few organisations can rival Prestwood's experience in financial planning. We are delighted to be working with 1st, who share a common goal to deliver freedom of choice of the best possible solutions available, with systems designed to connect in order to improve the overall user experience.”
Neil Messenger, partner at Grant Thornton, added: "We have been using 1st's Adviser Office for over two years now and the system is allowing us to continually improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of the administration aspects of client service. It is invaluable to have a single set of data we can rely on across our business. A key tool for our highly qualified team of financial planners, when advising clients, is the detailed cash flow planning available within Prestwood. We are delighted to have two of our key business partners working together to help us further improve the efficiency of our process, therefore creating more time for tailored advice.”
