Like other platforms, James Hay has had to quickly adapt and make changes to support advisers during the coronavirus crisis.
The company’s chief executive tells Money Marketing that he hopes some of the implemented processes will become the new norm for platforms.
As the current situation prevents advisers from having face-to-face meetings with clients, platforms have been trying to offer alternative solutions to ‘wet signatures’.
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James Hay says it already had “some journeys” which did not require a hand-signed document from investors such as its modular iPlan Sipp, Isa and general investment account applications which uses technology for an electronic signature.
To assist advisers and their clients during the Covid-19 pandemic the platform has also arranged “alternative methods” to facilitate other requests for investors managing their pension funds.
This includes changes to its transfer-in process, Isa subscriptions and investment manager applications.
But while the company has around 600 people working from home it does still require approximately 50 people to attend its Salisbury office, which it says is to maintain “critical processes”.
This includes dealing with the post which needs to be “scanned onto the system” to be assigned for departments to work on.
The company says the change to a lot of processes will help reduce the paperwork coming in and it is working with advisers to get them them to use the digital methods.
James Hay chief executive Alastair Conway tells Money Marketing: “We’ve made some changes that we’d like to retain for the future, and not just immediately revert back to ‘the old ways’.
“As long as these changes provide the best outcomes for customers, and are as smooth as possible, then they’ll be the new normal, and we suspect that other platforms in the market will feel the same.”
The company revealed it has suspended its contact centre for a “short period”, while it works on redirecting its telephony system to mobile phones.
It has urged people to make enquiries through its online secure message service instead.
A spokeswoman for the company says: “We’ve put more resources on dealing with online queries, however we do have a dedicated phone line in place for any direct investors that need additional support from us because of health, wellbeing or any other life altering situation.”
They add: “We’ve built on the existing, robust controls we have in place, and we’re confident that our enhanced process will not create additional exposure to fraud, as we’re working closely with advisers to ensure their clients are supported and protected during what are already testing times.”
James Hay says it has put safety precautions in place for those still working in the office and social distancing guidelines are being followed.
People are spread across four floors and are not all in the office at once and others are only having to go in for a short time.
The spokeswoman says: “We still have people in the office for those critical processes as defined by the government. We do believe we’re providing an essential infrastructure in financial services from making the payments and getting customers their retirement income during these strange times.
“If we could physically have everyone working from home, we absolutely would.”
They suggest some other platforms and providers will also be keeping skeleton staff in offices for similar reasons.
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