Benefit Consultant Platforms
All the consultants entering our inaugural benefits platform analysis have achieved highly creditable scores, with the highest and lowest scoring propositions separated by a mere 8 per cent.
The study addresses a wide range of issues that have been identified as important to employers and employees and the strengths of each proposition are identified below, together with indications of areas where they could improve their capabilities.
There are a number of consultants who are conspicuous by their absence from this study despite repeated requests. Some of these make very robust claims about their offerings and based on demonstrations I have seen previously, they might have done well to put themselves up for comparison. Our ratings process remains open for those organisations to request a rating and employers finding their chosen consultants missing from the listing below may wish to encourage them to do so for comparison.
AWD Chase de Vere
AWD recorded the strongest set of marks overall in our survey, demonstrating that they are closely meeting the needs of employers and members. Their key strengths were found in the areas of our survey covering General Information, Benefits Promotion, Scheme Setup, Joiners & Leavers, Behavioural Finance and MI & General Reports where they finished first overall, and this was backed up with three second place finishes for HR Functionality, Implementation & Training and Platform Service Availability. The strengthening of their Group Contributions
functionality in their development plans would be to their advantage.
Bluefin
Bluefin are overall runners up in the study, with a proposition which outclassed their competitors for Provider Integration, where they came top, and also recorded solid results for Online Facilities, Tools, Valuation & Client Reports and Charges. There is still some room for improvement; we would suggest they focus on enhancing their Benefits Selection, Implementation & Training and Platform Service Availability functionality, where they were trailing a number of their competitors, and the inclusion of a Behavioural Finance module would be welcome as only a handful of participants in our study offer this facility.
Lorica Employee Benefits – Cube
A robust set of marks saw Lorica Employee Benefits – Cube take third place overall in our survey. They impressed by achieving joint top marks for General Information, Scheme Setup and MI & General Reports, which were backed up with strong second place overall results for Range of
Benefits, HR Functionality and Platform Service Availability. Additional enhancements to their Benefits Selection, Joiners & Leavers and Charges functionality would be beneficial from an adviser/EBC perspective, and again the inclusion of a Behavioural Finance module should be
considered.