Sesame Bankhall Group heralds new era of comprehensive platform support with the launch of Sesame One

Sesame One, an all-encompassing platform support service, is launched today by Sesame Bankhall Group. The service has been developed to help advisers respond to changes brought about by the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and to capitalise on developments in the market.
Aside from the regulatory changes ahead, investment platforms are becoming increasingly significant within the UK advice market, with many advisers seeing them as critical components of a more efficient and sustainable business model moving forwards.
The launch and development of this proposition will enable Sesame advisers to start to build greater long-term value in their businesses by providing a high quality, value-for-money and compliant investment planning service for their clients.
Sesame Bankhall Group has spent more than a year analysing the marketplace and looking closely at wrap platform and fund supermarket offerings, to ensure that it can provide advisers with the right level of guidance and support to help them make the right choice for their business and their clients.
While advisers across the market are already embracing the opportunities platforms offer, they are doing so with varying levels of success and there has been criticism from the regulator regarding the absence of robust platform selection and adoption processes, including the use of attitude-to-risk tools and general preparedness for regulatory changes.
In response, Sesame One has been designed to provide comprehensive platform support that will:

• Help advisers determine how their business can profitably add value for clients today and in the future.
• Provide the necessary support to operate successfully in an adviser-charging environment, whilst maintaining business levels in the meantime.
• Provide access to a market-leading and competitively priced platform proposition – underpinned by a robust due diligence process – so advisers can provide clients with a high quality, efficient and focused investment advice service.
• Provide a full training and accreditation programme to ensure advisers can fully capitalise on platform business opportunities.
• Help advisers develop strong client propositions that match the diverse needs of their customer base.
• Assist in identifying compliant business opportunities to drive volume business.
• Safeguard advisers’ interests by helping them meet the varied advice / investment planning needs and objectives of their clients whilst operating within Sesame’s compliance parameters.

Keith Gilmour, Business Development Director, Sesame Bankhall Group says of the launch: “Sesame One is not simply a product or proposition – it’s about providing real value in your business and as such it will be embedded at the heart of everything we do, including our comprehensive learning and development programme.
“We’ll be providing practical support on the use of Sesame One, including a new accreditation programme comprising distance learning, guidance and case studies, to verify understanding and advisers’ ability to apply that knowledge to using platforms suitably. This is a huge issue and one that many advisers have until now been pretty much left to figure out for themselves.”