abrdn.com
Helping you become the
business you want to be
A due diligence guide to Wrap
For adviser use only.
Welcome to our due
diligence guide to Wrap
Helping you make the right platform choice
Making the right platform choice is one of the key decisions
you'll make as a business.
It's imperative, therefore, that you have all the facts in front
of you.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is placing more
focus on due diligence than ever before. Assessing
a platform's suitability now involves more scrutiny.
That means it's more time-consuming too.
To help you complete the due diligence process more quickly
and easily, we've created this guide to Wrap. In it, you can read
about everything Wrap does, with all the information grouped
around the FCA's nine main considerations.
But we hope the guide will also help you answer some
more fundamental questions too. Is a partnership with
abrdn right for your rm's long-term future? Will we
support you not just to grow your clients' wealth, but to run
a more efcient and protable business? If you choose to
work with abrdn, will it help your business thrive and your
clients prosper?
More than 2600 advice rms have decided that the answer
to those questions is yes. We hope this guide helps you decide
that we're the right t for you too.
Noel Butwell
CEO, abrdn Adviser
2Helping you become the business you want to be
Contents
Section 1 The provider 6
– Company background 7
– Security, Resilience and Protection 13
– Governance 16
Section 2 Corporate sustainability 18
Section 3 Terms and conditions 21
Section 4 Consumer duty 23
– Vulnerable customers 24
Section 5 Charges 27
Section 6 Products 31
Section 7 Investments solutions 36
Section 8 Functionality 44
– Online functionality 48
Section 9 Access 52
– Adviser access 53
– Client access 54
Section 10 Tools and reporting 55
– Tools 55
– Reporting 58
Section 11 Support services 61
For more information, please speak to your usual abrdn contact to nd out how
Wrap can support your business and help you to meet your clients’ needs.
If you’re new to abrdn or unsure who your aligned contact is, get in touch with
our Business Development team.
Email: business.development@abrdn.com
The value of investments can go down as well as up, and could be
worth less than originally invested.
Tax and legislation are likely to change. Tax treatment depends on
individual circumstances.
Information correct as at May 2024 unless otherwise stated.
Remember, this guide isn’t an exhaustive list of what you should
be looking at in your due diligence.
As you work through the ten sections, you’ll probably start to
think of other topics that are important to you and your clients.
If you need more help, we’re here.
3Helping you become the business you want to be
Drawdown options
Help your clients take their money in the
most tax-efcient way. Our drawdown
exibility includes the option of one
payment, across all products, on a date
to suit them.
Clear pricing
Our tiered structure sets rates at a
sustainable level to support long-term
nancial planning. And there are no exit,
switch, or hidden charges.
Enhanced reporting
See consolidated key client data on a single
page with striking visuals. Choose how
you view it and how you present it to your
clients, including adding your own branding.
Pre-funding of investments
We pre-fund new investments, fund
switches, tax relief and rebalancing with
our money while your clients’ funds are
clearing. This means your clients’ money is
invested faster and for longer.
Financial strength and stability
You can rely on us to keep your clients’
money safe. We process around 25 million
orders every year for your clients, worth
around £50bn. We continue to invest to
deliver an even better experience for you
and your clients.
Better use of time
Our technology gives you back the
time you’d spend coming to us for basic
information and processes. So you can
spend more time with your clients, giving
them a service that’s even more valuable to
them and their families.
Wide investment choice
Choose from thousands of funds, including
those that invest sustainably to build a
better world. If you can’t nd what you’re
looking for, just ask us.
Insight and support
We help you learn from how your
business interacts with us, so you can run
more efciently. And we support you to
understand regulatory change before it
arrives.
Ongoing enhancements making it easier to
serve your clients
Continued investment in the solutions
we offer through our Adviser Experience
Programme.
Why choose abrdn Wrap?
A platform that empowers you to do business your way, and to deliver more for your clients to meet their
ever- changing needs.
We’re at the end of the phone
Our dedicated teams within our Client
Engagement Hub can help when you
need a hand getting something done. Our
technology allows the dynamic routing
of calls to the team member with the
right knowledge and skill to provide highly
personalised support.
Hands-on help with co-browsing
When you call our Client Engagement
Hub, we can co-browse on Wrap with
you. It means we can solve your problem,
on your screen.
Tailored investment solutions
Offer the right solution for each client’s
needs. Our open architecture includes
exchange traded assets, access to
discounted share classes, cash solutions
and more.
5Helping you become the business you want to be
1. The provider
Your business is built on the goals of your
clients. Ours is built on your ambition. We are
committed to delivering market-leading
functionality, that helps you offer a more
personalised service to your clients.
We will understand your needs to support
you and your clients, helping you to increase
efciency in your business. We will continue
to leverage our scale and capabilities to put
our strength to work for you.
Company background - introducing
abrdn plc
abrdn is a business of 4,500 people, managing £495bn in
assets for clients in 80 countries as at December 2023.
Our purpose is to enable our clients to be better investors.
abrdn is a global investment company that helps clients
and customers plan, save and invest for the future.
We are structured around three businesses - Investments,
Adviser and Personal - focused on the changing needs of
our clients.
By diversifying the group, we are positioning ourselves for
growth in a changing investment landscape. Our focus on
four strategic priorities enables us to meet the needs of
clients across a range of markets.
Investment
£366.7bn Assets Under
Management
Our capabilities in our Investments
business are built on the strength
of our insight - generated from
wide-ranging research, worldwide
investment expertise and local
market knowledge.
Adviser
£73.5bn Assets Under Management
and Administration
Our Adviser business provides
nancial planning solutions and
technology for UK nancial advisers,
enabling them to create value for
their businesses and their clients.
Personal
£66bn Assets Under Management
and Administration
Our Personal business, which includes
interactive investor, the UK’s second
largest direct-to-consumer
investment platform, enables
individuals in the UK to save and invest
in the way that works for them.
1. The provider
7Helping you become the business you want to be
Can you share your board of directors and
individual team structures?
Please nd information about our board of directors and
leadership team.
We don't share detailed organisational charts but would
be happy to discuss any particular questions you may
have about functions.
Do you publish your annual and half-yearly
company results?
Yes, abrdn plc full company results including our Adviser
business results are available to view in our nancial library.
Are abrdn plc currently making a prot?
Yes, the group made an adjusted operating prot of £249m
as at December 2023.
*
Is your platform solution proposition the core
business for the owners of the platform?
Wrap delivers signicant benets to abrdn plc as the
primary method for reaching UK consumers with
signicant assets to invest and who have a need for
sophisticated products. This segment can only be served
with high-quality advice, making supporting advisers and
their clients through the development of Wrap critical to
the ongoing success of the UK business.
If sufcient business is placed on the platform
am I entitled to shares?
Advisers are unable to buy or hold shares in abrdn's
platform business, as this is a subsidiary of abrdn plc.
Your clients are, however, able to benet from discounted
pricing terms that are available where the adviser rm
holds a certain level of assets within Wrap. Please speak to
your Relationship Manager for further information on this.
*
Adjusted operating prot before tax is the Group’s key APM. Adjusted operating prot includes the results of the Group’s three businesses: Investments, Adviser and Personal, along
with Corporate/strategic.
Figures as at December 2023.
Combined
platform net
ows of
(
£2.1bn
)
in the last 12 months
31 December 2023
Combined platform
assets under
administration
£73.5bn
(includes platform AUA Wrap, Elevate
& Fundzone) and inclusion of AUM
of c£2.6bn relating to our Managed
Portfolio Service (MPS) business.
Working
with around
2,600
adviser rms
Circa
420,000
Customers on
our platforms
£494.9bn
Group assets under
management administration
8Helping you become the business you want to be
1.1 Who’s the provider?
Wrap is provided by Standard Life Savings Limited, a wholly
owned subsidiary of abrdn plc. The group continues to
invest a signicant amount in the business to support
regulatory, legislative and propositional developments.
abrdn continues to support a vibrant adviser market in
the UK with ongoing investment in platform solutions
including delivering a range of enhancements to support
your centralised investment and retirement propositions.
Wrap gives you access to tax wrappers as well as products
provided by the Phoenix group.
Combining service excellence, technology and tools in
platform solutions that empower you to help you achieve
good outcomes for your clients. Our dedicated, expert
service teams can help with your business needs, ensuring
you can access the information you need, when you need it.
We listen. So we can understand what matters most to you
and your clients. And so we can recognise your challenges
and respond to what you need. We’re committed to
supporting you over the long term. We’re continuing to
enhance our platform solutions to support good outcomes
for your clients. We continuously analyse how you use
our solutions so we can optimise and evolve for the way
your business works. We have the scale and capability to
support the solutions you want to offer.
1.2 Companies House & FCA Number:
Standard Life Savings Limited (SC180203), provider of
the Wrap Platform, Wrap Personal Portfolio and Wrap ISA
is registered in Scotland at 1 George Street, Edinburgh,
EH2 2LL; and authorised and regulated by the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA 188796). It is a member of abrdn
group, which comprises abrdn plc and its subsidiaries
(SC286832).
Phoenix Life Limited, trading as Standard Life, the provider
of the Onshore Bond for Wrap and the Standard Life Self
Invested Personal Pension Scheme, is registered in England
and Wales (1016269) at 1 Wythall Green Way, Wythall,
Birmingham, B47 6WG, and is authorised by the Prudential
Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA 110418) and the Prudential
Regulation Authority.
Standard Life International dac, registered in Dublin, Ireland
(408507), is the provider of the Wrap International Portfolio
Bond. It is a designated activity company limited by shares
with its registered ofce at 90 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2.
Standard Life International dac is authorised and regulated
by the Central Bank of Ireland.
Phoenix Life Limited, Standard Life Trustee Company
Limited and Standard Life International dac are all part
of the Phoenix Group (Phoenix Group Holdings plc and
its subsidiaries).
1.3 How nancially secure is your platform?
Our business has been awarded an ‘A’ rating for nancial
strength by AKG. We were the rst business to receive this
rating. Our business is protable and sustainable. We’re
committed to it – and we’ll continue to invest in it.
9Helping you become the business you want to be
1.4 What ratings do you currently have?
Standard Life Savings Limited has an ‘A’ AKG rating.
Agency Rating Last reviewed
AKG A Wrap and Elevate Platforms September 2023
1.5 How would you describe the scalability of your platform solution?
Wrap has a demonstrable track record in scalability. Since launch in 2006, growth has been rapid. Our platform solutions
are currently used by over 2,600 adviser rms to support around 420,000 individual clients.
As a result of our growth, and with the support of a protable parent company, we can continually invest in our business
demonstrating commitment and ongoing sustainability.
Aside from the day-to-day requirements of handling large volumes of trades or managing corporate actions, the protection
of client money and the efcient allocation of capital are all prerequisites for a well-run and sustainable platform.
3
Over 4.6 million trades processed
each month, 99.9% of which are
straight-through.
3
In 2023, we received approximately 38,000 pieces of mail.
3
We support over 2,600 adviser rms
helping around 420,000 individual clients
on our platform solutions.
1.6 Do you own your own platform technology?
Wrap utilises a number technology components. These components are provided by abrdn plc and FNZ (UK) Ltd.
Much of the technology is owned by the FNZ (UK) Ltd, but we have intellectual property rights in certain functionalities
specically in place for our clients and customers.
The combination of FNZ’s leading technology and our in-house expertise provides agility, scalability and stability.
In 2020 we entered into a new, 10-year relationship with FNZ, moving away from a one-year rolling agreement.
The new agreement offers access to a wider range of technology and services that could benet clients and
customers. We will leverage some of these new benets through our planned programme of enhancements.
10Helping you become the business you want to be
3
Wrap figures as at 31 December 2023.
1.7 What support and expertise are there
to help develop my platform proposition?
Your feedback helps drive key enhancements to our
platform solution, shaping developments that are
important to you, improving the service you offer
your clients.
Wrap is more than a technology solution. With a range
of tools and services designed to support you in running
your business more effectively, improving the service you
can offer your clients and help to build long-term value in
your business.
We’ve also a number of development phases over
the coming years to help ensure Wrap can meet your
changing needs.
Adviser Experience Programme
Our simple aim is to be the easiest platform for advisers
to partner with. We have launched our ambitious
Adviser Experience Programme, which is a signicant
commitment of investment we’re making to provide
best-in-class experience and functionality.
Our Adviser Experience Programme is a transformative
programme of work upgrading our platform technology
and user experience, as well as our operating model
– to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our
adviser partners and clients, both now and in an ever
changing future.
The programme is designed to help you deliver an
increasingly personalised advice service to more
clients, more efciently. We will continue to enhance the
capability of our solutions and the exibility of our offering,
differentiating ourselves from our competitors through the
content and experience we offer.
We launched Phase 2 of our Adviser Experience
Programme in February 2023 and we now move to
launch the next phase:
Phase 3
.
New SIPP with fully online drawdown.
Puts you in control of your clients’ pension planning with
faster quotes and pre-populated new business journeys.
Money is invested quicker with faster payments out
when clients need it. Junior SIPP is also being added.
Available initially to all new clients, and your existing
clients will subsequently be switched over.
Phase 4
.
Improved Junior ISA journey
.
Third party Personal Portfolio
.
Improved online Offshore and Onshore Bond capability
.
New stockbroking solution providing enhanced trading
capabilities more cost effectively.
More information can be found here.
adviserOS
adviserOS is a new approach to wealth management
platforms that will set a new standard for experience of
partnering with abrdn. It will help you do more, in less time,
with better news. We will share more exciting news on this
approach soon.
11Helping you become the business you want to be
1.8 How would you describe your service reputation?
The commitment to customer service and the reputation developed and maintained by the company sets us apart from
our competitors.
We believe it’s important to offer a range of service options for clients. We offer support to enable you to give your clients a
great experience.
All adviser and customer facing services for all products (excluding the International Bond, which is provided by Standard
Life International dac) are delivered by Standard Life Savings Limited, wholly owned by abrdn plc.
We believe our service reputation can best be demonstrated through the number of awards, and ratings we’ve received:
Adviser Asset
.
Platinum Rating – 2016-2024
Professional Adviser
.
Best Platform for Discretionary
Management (Highly Commended) –
2022
.
Best Client Engagement (Providers) –
2021
Defaqto
.
5 Star Rating – 2016-2024
.
Gold rating for Platform Service –
2019-2023
The Paraplanner Awards
.
Best Overall Service – New Business –
2018, 2019
.
Best Overall Service – Existing Business
– 2022
UK Platform Awards
.
Best Platform Provider- 2014-2022
.
Leading platform for model portfolio
services – 2019-2021
.
Leading platform for discretionary
management – 2022
12Helping you become the business you want to be
1.9 What supplier due diligence is in place?
We carry out extensive due diligence on all our key third-
party suppliers and providers, such as fund groups and
discretionary managers, to ensure they’ve robust systems
and controls in place. This process applies to both new
suppliers and on an on-going basis.
New providers
Our approach to due diligence investigations spans all
relevant aspects of the past, present, and predictable
future of the supplier’s business and is conducted using
a risk-based approach. The intensity of due diligence
required in selecting or retaining a supplier is proportionate
to the identied risk.
On-going due diligence
On-going due diligence ensures that any previous area
of concern has been addressed and that continuous
assurance of the supplier is obtained. This is completed at
intervals, determined by the supplier’s contract duration,
but with a minimum of an annual review.
1.10 Describe your business continuity and
disaster recovery plans?
Our Business Continuity Programme is aligned with
standards, industry best practice and the regulation
governing our operations. In addition, our Business
Continuity Management System is accredited to the
global standard ISO 22301:2012.
The objective of our Policy and embedded approach
to Business Continuity (BC) is to protect our client
and corporate assets. We achieve this through our
BC Programme.
The BC Programme is sponsored by the Chief Executive
with direct reporting to a member of the Executive
Leadership Team and Enterprise Risk Management
Committee. Our BC Programme is actively managed
and reviewed in line with relevant factors in our internal
and external environment.
Each programme activity has a senior manager
responsible for the strategy, delivery and review.
Responsibilities are delivered in accordance with the
Enterprise Risk Management Framework.
This is assured through:
.
Policy
.
Control Self-Assessment
.
Internal and External Audit
.
Regulator review
.
Internal and Supply Chain Due Diligence
We’ve got a well embedded approach to Business
Continuity, Incident Management and Disaster Recovery.
Including clear accountability for implementation,
maintenance, testing, rehearsing, and monitoring.
This assures our capability to maintain business operations
in the event of an incident.
The same approach is used to review and manage our
supply chain.
We’ve also got full data backup and recovery processes
in place to facilitate both data recovery and a full disaster
recovery. Along with the Primary Data Centre, we’ve a
Secondary Data Centre.
Our secondary site is a fully functional data centre with
sufcient systems and processing capacity to support all
business-critical services.
Should a major incident occur, the recovery processes
ensure that critical services (including key elements of the
Wrap service) can ordinarily be restored and active at the
Secondary Data Centre within 24 hours.
The Primary Data Centre and Secondary Data Centre
mirror data from all systems and platforms.
This provides recovery as at the last backup for some
essential services.
Operational IT who own, manage and govern the Disaster
Recovery Process was accredited by the ISO 20000 IT
Service Management standard, which is still current.
Security, Resilience and
Protection
13Helping you become the business you want to be
1.11 How do you ensure data and
system security?
The relationships we have with our customers, clients and
nancial adviser community are our most valuable assets.
The security of your information is always of paramount
importance to us. We will always act in your best interests,
making robust risk decisions that protect your data.
Like all nancial services companies, we operate in a
challenging, constantly evolving cyber-crime environment.
We have a strong commitment to our security and IT
capabilities, including long-term security programmes,
partnerships with third party specialists and a dedicated
internal IT function.
These are designed to protect our customer assets and
information from misuse, the effects of crime and the
impact of a signicant disruption to our operations.
We adopt a defence-in-depth approach to cyber security
whereby we utilise layers of controls across a breadth of
security domains, in order to protect both our perimeter
and our internal assets.
Any personal data collected, recorded or used in any
way, whether on paper, online or any other media, will be
processed in line with our obligations as published in our
Privacy Policy. We’ll ensure that appropriate safeguards
are applied to ensure compliance with the relevant data
protection regulation/legislation.
Security controls and practices
Various controls and practices are used to secure the
services provided by the Wrap.
These include:
.
Strong authentication mechanisms to manage access
to the platform
.
Multiple rewalls to monitor and control trafc in and out
of abrdn and third parties.
FNZ infrastructure
.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) to ensure the secure
transmission of data between us and FNZ
.
Monitoring of our network to detect possible intrusions
.
Dedicated Cyber Intelligence, Cyber Response and
Financial Crime teams to effectively deal with emerging
cyber threats and criminal campaigns. Our response
plans are tested regularly
.
Regular internal and external penetration testing and
vulnerability assessment is carried out on both abrdn
and FNZ
.
Digital certicates to verify each branded platform as
a trusted website
.
Mandatory training for all of our staff (permanent
and contract) to ensure they’re aware of their
responsibilities around the protection and security
of personal/sensitive data.
1.12 Where can I access Wrap’s
privacy notice?
abrdn plc is committed to protecting your client’s
personal information.
This Privacy Notice applies to Standard Life Savings Ltd
and Elevate Portfolio Services; both part of abrdn plc.
This Privacy Notice contains important information about
what personal details we collect; what we do with that
information; who we may share it with and why; and
your choices and rights when it comes to the personal
information you have given us.
Please see our Privacy Notice
14Helping you become the business you want to be
1.13 Financial crime
Tackling nancial crime is not just about adhering to
laws and regulation, it is also about preventing harm
to people and society. We have a zero-tolerance
approach to bribery and corruption, money laundering,
and terrorist nancing.
We provide colleagues with tools that enable them
to be aware of nancial crime risk, to know what to
look out for, and to understand both their and the
company’s responsibilities.
Internal control systems
We monitor and review implementation of procedures
designed to prevent money laundering and bribery and
make improvements where necessary. Internal control
systems and procedures are subject to regular audits to
provide assurance that they are effective in countering
bribery and corruption.
Training
We provide various training formats for colleagues
including an annual mandatory e-learning module on
nancial crime, tailored face to face training for key
departments, and a hub on our intranet with everything
that colleagues need to know including how to raise any
concerns via our whistleblowing mechanism. We also
have a company-wide network of compliance managers
and local Money Laundering Reporting Ofcers (MLROs)
in each region.
Client due diligence
We verify clients before investment funding is allowed
– this includes certifying documents, and formal
searches against known or suspected terrorist lists as
well as Politically Exposed Persons. PEP lists via external
screening providers. PEP clients are subject to enhanced
due diligence and Senior Management and the MLRO
must sign off PEP clients or other clients from countries,
businesses, and products with the greatest risk of money
laundering or terrorism nancing. We also gather an in
depth understanding of a client’s business and investment
objectives and activity for ongoing monitoring to identify
potentially suspicious activity. If a colleague believes a
client’s activity to be suspicious, they must report this to the
designated MLRO.
1.14 What level of nancial protection do
clients have when investing through your
platform solution?
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS),
established under the Financial Services and Markets Act
2000, has been set up to provide protection to consumers
if authorised nancial services rms are unable, or likely to
be unable, to meet claims against them.
It is important to note that different limits apply to
different types of investment. In some circumstances
compensation may not be available under the FSCS.
The availability of compensation depends on:
.
The type of product or assets invested in
.
The type and structure of the investments chosen with
the product
.
Which party to the contract is unable to meet its claims,
the underlying asset provider, for example: deposit taker,
fund manager
.
The country in which the investments are held
.
Whether the client was resident in the UK at the time
they effected the contract. If the client was not resident
in the UK, they may be eligible for compensation from
an equivalent scheme in the country in which they
were resident.
This guide explains FSCS protection in more detail.
Please also see abrdn’s Investor protection guide for
further detail.
15Helping you become the business you want to be
1.15 How do you keep up to date with
regulatory changes?
Our platform solution is fully compliant with all current
regulations. We have a robust end-to-end Regulatory
Change management process which allows us to keep
ahead of all Regulatory Change, understand what this
means for our customers, advisers and our platforms and
ensures we deliver compliant, efcient solutions for our
customers and advisers on time.
Last year we delivered the following key changes:
.
Tax Year End changes
.
Climate Related Disclosures
.
Consumer Duty – open products
.
Statutory Money Purchase Illustration Changes
.
Competition in non-workplace pensions
We are currently working on the following to ensure a
compliant, timely implementation this year:
.
Consumer Duty – closed products
.
Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and
investment labels
.
Abolition of Lifetime Allowance
We continue to track and assess all other up and coming
regulatory change including: UK funds regime review,
Pensions Dashboards, Value for Money DC Pensions and
Advice Guidance Boundary Review, to understand how
the proposed rules may affect our customers, advisers
and platforms and to allow us to dene and schedule the
changes we need to make to achieve compliance in a
timely manner.
1.16 Are you subject to regulatory
assessments?
abrdn plc has close and co-operative working
relationships with its regulators. We participate in an
ongoing programme of supervision work and are involved
in thematic reviews by the FCA.
Disclosure of costs and an annual statement of costs
Our Charges Information Document (CID) is produced
pre-sale/post-sale and annually via statements and
provide all required costs and charges information.
Our pre-sales charges includes both upfront and
ongoing aggregated costs and charges in £ and %
term, and itemised breakdowns where relevant on
the cost and charges associated with each investment
choice, including a breakdown of the discretionary
managers’ fee. Post sale, these costs and charges will
be disclosed annually.
There is a requirement to disclose transaction costs
of trades in reportable instruments. Transaction cost
information will be received from the fund manager and
disclosed through the ‘Charges Information Document’,
and annually.
Please nd our guide including an example of our Charges
Information Document (CID).
Please also see website for more information.
1.17 What have you done to ensure you are
GDPR compliant?
European Union General Data Protection Regulation came
into force in May 2018. As one of the biggest changes to
UK data privacy law, we want to make sure you and your
clients know what we’re doing.
We continue to manage all data responsibly. And in line
with the new regulations, we reviewed our data processing
approach, updated our Privacy Policy and terms and
conditions and refreshed the communications plan for
your clients.
Have a read our Terms and Conditions which tells you how,
where and why we’ll use your clients’ information.
1.18 What is your policy on inducements?
Our platform solution services are designed to enable the
delivery of good customer outcomes. As such, they do not
constitute an adviser inducement. In cases where services
and support we offer to advice rms has no direct benet
to the client, we seek to charge the advice business.
Governance
16Helping you become the business you want to be
1.19 What if I need to make a complaint?
abrdn has a robust complaints process in place which is
fully compliant with all FCA and Financial Ombudsman
(FOS) guidelines (and, for the offshore bond, with the
guidelines of the Financial Services and Pensions
Ombudsman of Ireland). You and your clients can
submit complaints in writing, by email or by calling us.
Complaints are reviewed regularly and feed into the
development of our proposition to make sure we are
continuing to meet the needs of advisers and their clients.
Complaints received in abrdn are dealt with in line with the
FCA’s Dispute Resolution Complaints (DISP). Complaints
are acknowledged in a timely manner (5 working days)
and when a nal written response is provided (within
8 weeks), the appropriate Ombudsman referral rights
and information are included, which allow a customer six
months to refer their complaint to the Ombudsman from
the date of our nal decision. We fully co-operate with the
industry Ombudsman if & when they become involved in
a complaint.
When considering what is fair and reasonable in all the
circumstances of complaints, we will take into account:
1. Terms & Conditions
2. Law and regulations
3. Regulators’ rules, guidance and standards
4. Codes of practice; and
5. (Where appropriate) What we consider to have
been good industry practice at the relevant time,
in accordance with TCF principles
Overall, abrdn’s complaint levels compare favourably
when benchmarked against our industry peers. In fact our
current level of complaints submitted via the FCA 6-month
Gabriel returns do not reach the FCA threshold whereby
they are published on their website.
17Helping you become the business you want to be
Investing sustainably, and making a positive
impact through our operations, means a
better future for our clients, society and the
wider world. We are targeting operational
net zero by 2040 and have set out clear
interim milestones to measure our progress.
2. Corporate Sustainability
2. Corporate Sustainability
2.1 Our Operational Climate Objectives
abrdn is a global business helping our clients to plan, save,
and invest for the future. Our environmental impacts
reect this, as we keep ofces and work exibly to better
deliver for our global clients.
Our operational emissions intensity is comparatively small
versus the intensity of the investments we manage on
behalf of our clients, but we are committed to play our part
in driving meaningful reductions in our reported emissions.
We are targeting operational net zero by 2040 and
working towards a 50% reduction in reported emissions
by 2025 versus our 2018 baseline.
Our emissions target includes Scope 1, 2, and Scope 3
categories – but we still have more to do to collect data
for some material Scope 3 categories, such as emissions
related to our supply chain. We are working to develop a
more complete picture of our Scope 3 data and will report
transparently on our related impacts and progress.
Our Sustainability and TCFD report provide a more detailed
picture of our objectives and reporting methodology.
2.2 Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
Our approach to DEI continues to be hardwired through
all that we do across our business, from who we work with,
the offering we design for clients, to how we consider DEI
through all stages of our employee lifecycle.
We focus on 4 priorities to make abrdn a more diverse,
equitable and inclusive place to work.
1. DEI is part of our purpose
What we say must be what we do. This means
embedding commitment to DEI through our brand,
culture, the suppliers and partners we choose, and the
way we engage with the companies we invest in.
2. Our ways of working are inclusive and equitable
Formalised blended working is our standard way
of working. Our priority is to make sure people feel
connected and involved, that opportunities and
progression are equitable for all, and that managers
lead in a way that builds inclusive ways of working in
hybrid teams.
3. We bring diverse talent into and through our company
Team effectiveness comes from diverse thinking and
experience – high performing people at all career
stages, and from all backgrounds. Companies with
diverse teams and inclusive cultures result in more
innovative and high- performing business outcomes.
We focus on minimising any potential bias or barriers
in our processes, polices, and approach for attracting
and developing diverse talent. We focus on three main
areas where the data tells us that we need to take
action to tackle underrepresentation: gender, ethnicity,
and social mobility.
4. We feel included and valued every day
We focus on building the capability and awareness
to drive conversations and active allyship. Creating
‘safe spaces’ enables colleagues to think about how
they inuence the environment around them, to share
experiences and be curious to learn more about
each other.
Actions to make progress in these priority areas are
agreed by our executive leaders and ratied by our
Board. Our priorities are reected in our corporate targets,
which focus on increasing representation throughout abrdn,
but internally we track a range of measures including how
engaged and how included our people feel. Our executive
leaders are accountable for DEI – with annual people
objectives linked directly to remuneration, as part of our
annual executive director scorecard. Our leadership team
also sets, and publishes, local diversity, equity and inclusion
commitments aligned to the four priorities above, which are
specic to the needs of their business, function, or region.
Learn more about our approach, progress and current
position against our targets in our Diversity, equity, and
inclusion report and Policy.
19Helping you become the business you want to be
2.3 Ethical conduct
Our global code of conduct describes the principles
and standards that we hold ourselves to and ask all our
employees to consider in every decision and action they
take. All our employees receive training on the content
and meaning of the code and are required, at least
annually, to conrm that they have read and agree to
abide by its principles.
Conicts of interest
Effective management of conicts of interest is at the core
of good ethical conduct, and a key aspect of the global
regulatory and legislative conduct risk agenda. We ensure
that all appropriate steps are taken to identify and prevent
any conicts of interest. Our policies and procedures
address conicts that may arise from: personal account
dealing, gifts and hospitality, information exchange,
and through our voting as investors.
20Helping you become the business you want to be 20
3. Terms and conditions
There are important agreements between
us, you, and your clients. Understanding
them will help us all know what we’re
responsible for.
3.1 Where can I access the terms
and conditions?
See our Adviser terms and conditions
See our Client terms and conditions
See our specic products terms and conditions in our
Document Centre.
3.2 Who has to sign terms and conditions?
To use our platform services your rm needs to sign our
Adviser terms and conditions at outset.
Each client on-boarded to the platform needs to sign the
Client terms and conditions which covers all the products
and platform services available. We support documents
signed using approved e-signature solutions which are
available on our website.
3.3 What’s the minimum age for opening a
Wrap account?
The minimum age for opening a Wrap account is 18.
There is no minimum age for opening a Wrap Junior ISA.
3.4 Is Wrap available for non-UK residents?
No, Wrap and the products available on the platform are
only available to UK residents. Other criteria may apply,
e.g. we are unable to accept U.S. connected persons on
the platform.
3.5 Do you require evidence of my authority
to switch investments on the platform?
No, once your client signs our terms and conditions to
open their Wrap account, they enable you to switch
investments for the client without evidence of authority
being given to abrdn.
Providing you have your client’s authority and are acting
with the client’s best interest at heart.
3. Terms and conditions
22Helping you become the business you want to be 22
4. Consumer duty
Our solutions can help you meet your
Consumer Duty obligations. When evaluating
due diligence in relation to the four outcomes
of the Consumer Duty, and focusing on what
is crucial for delivering positive results for
your clients, you will nd that our solutions
fully support all aspects of the Consumer
Duty outcomes.
4. Consumer duty
4.1 How abrdn’s solutions can help you meet
your Consumer Duty obligations?
When carrying out ongoing due diligence or conducting
due diligence on a potential platform partner, you should
still consider which parts of due diligence, through the
lens of the Consumer Duty’s four outcomes, matter the
most so you can deliver good outcomes for your clients.
Here, we look at the Consumer Duty’s four outcomes and
how our solutions can help you meet the rules:
Consumer support
What we offer
Long-term sustainable service: We invest
heavily in state-of-the-art technology to
offer a world-class service.
Service excellence: Our ambition is to
deliver exceptional service and to be the
easiest platform to partner with, so you
can focus on delivering good outcomes
for your clients.
Delivering good outcomes: We’ve always
been here when you need a hand getting
something done. We’ll help you to seize
the opportunities in front of you, serve your
clients better and deliver the nancial
outcomes they desire.
Listen and understand feedback: All
feedback we receive is analysed so we
can learn from it and continue to improve
on our service.
Service status: We offer a service status
web page that provides latest updates on
any impact on service and performance.
Creating capacity: We recruit talent with
the right digital mindset to support you
with our self-serve options. Helping to
create efciencies for you so you can
spend more time with your clients.
Customer understanding
What we offer
Client portal: Allows your clients to easily
engage with their investments.
Online document store: Makes it easy for
you to access the communications we’ve
issued to your clients.
Consumer testing: Helps us to make sure
our communications to your clients are
being understood.
Feedback and data analysis : Enables us to
monitor how we can continue to deliver
good outcomes for your clients.
Advance notice of any communications:
Notifying you in advance of the
communications we’re issuing to your
clients, so you can take action if required.
Price and value
What we offer
A comprehensive and exible wealth
management solution: The exibility and
range of our solutions means you can avoid
the inconvenience and expense of moving
platform as it’s likely we can accommodate
your clients’ needs as they evolve.
Offering more value for your clients:
Simplied pricing structures and price
reductions.
Family linking: When accounts are linked
for family terms, the combined value of the
linked accounts may reduce your client’s
platform charges.
24Helping you become the business you want to be
Drawdown price lock: Clients benet most
from locking in their Wrap SIPP platform
charge when assets are at their highest.
This means charges for their SIPP will
not increase as they take money out if
their pension.
Discounted share price: Available on over
400 funds offering more choice for your
clients.
Pre-funding: Prefunded trading means
nobody’s money is out of the market for
longer than it has to be.
Products and services
What we offer
Full range of core products and trusts:
Enabling you to meet a wide range of
nancial planning needs.
Market-leading investment management:
Offers support for both in-house or
outsourced investment approaches.
Wide range of investment solutions: Access
to funds including many with discounted
share classes, ETFs, shares and a range of
discretionary managed portfolios.
Integrated tax management and reporting
tools: Easy access to the information
you need to deliver your client service
proposition.
Commitment to future development:
We continually invest and evolve our
proposition to meet clients’ changing
needs.
4.2 Supporting vulnerable customers
Through our three businesses, we serve a diverse range of
clients and customers that need access to products and
services that meet specic needs. It is essential for us to
recognise where elements of our products and services
are not inclusive and that our conduct fairly represents the
opportunities and outcomes available.
Our governance framework reects our focus on
supporting all our customers, including those dealing with
vulnerabilities, and our business CEOs lead our related
actions across abrdn.
This starts with identifying groups who need priority care
to ensure none of our customers are left behind. If our
customers are marginalised, or experience challenges
of accessibility related to health, life events, capability
or nancial resilience, it is vital that we are able to tailor
our services appropriately. This reects the fact that
our customers may require access to their savings,
investments, or pension drawdown particularly in response
to short-term events such as the cost-of-living crisis.
We also recognise that not all vulnerabilities are static.
Some customers may have specic short term needs, and
others may require longer term support.
We engage across multiple channels and recognise that a
considerable proportion of our customers value being able
to communicate with us in a number of ways, for example
by phone, in person, and online.
We have built this into our strategy across our
businesses. We have invested in bespoke training to
ensure that our colleagues are equipped to support
and identify requirements for priority care, with specic
focus on colleagues in customer facing or customer
supporting roles.
Our focus extends into our recruitment processes, as
we look to ensure our future colleagues are prepared to
provide inclusive services to all our customers.
It is also essential that all our communications are easy
to understand, and we have controls in place to ensure
that everything we say about our products and services
represents the expected outcomes.
We can support customers’ additional visual needs via
large font or braille updates; alongside sign-language,
language interpretation, and other necessary adaptations,
should they be needed. We are also able to signpost
external support services where appropriate.
25Helping you become the business you want to be
4.3 Where can I nd your statement of
target markets?
Regarding your relationship with abrdn as the provider
of Wrap, as the advice rm you are the distributor as
you advise on, recommend, and arrange for the client
the platform services and the funds and DFMs, abrdn
distributes via Wrap. abrdn are the manufacturer in the
distribution chain of the platform services as we create,
issue and manage that service.
As the manufacturer, we have made our statements of
target markets available. These can be used by you to
complete your own obligations under the duty in relation
to the product and service outcomes as part of your
overall assessment.
4.4 Where can I nd your fair value
assessment?
As a platform provider, we’ll conrm at least once a year
that the products we manufacture or distribute provide fair
value to the customer. Please note we can only conrm on
products we distribute if the information is available.
We’ve carried out an assessment for Wrap. Following this
assessment, we can conrm abrdn Wrap provides fair
value for your clients.
We have provided detail on how we carried out these
assessments so you can meet your obligations.
Where Fund managers and DFMs have provided us with
a link to their published Consumer Duty material we also
make this available.
4.5 How will my platform review fair value
assessment on investments and portfolios?
As a platform provider we need to assess that collective
investments (Funds, investment Trusts and Exchange
Traded Funds) and Discretionary Fund Manager Services
have carried out a fair value assessment themselves
so we, and you, as distributors can be condent we are
distributing products and services from others that provide
fair value.
We regularly check these (minimum annually if not
reported electronically) conrm fair value. If not we will
carry out our own assessment and engage with the
supplier to understand why they may have recorded as
not providing value and what plans they have to address
this. If, following this, we decide to withdraw a product or
service that may not be providing value from a third party
we would, where possible, give you advance warning so
you could take steps to adjust client plans, similar to how a
corporate action would be dealt with.
26Helping you become the business you want to be
5. Charges
Our transparent charging structure means
everyone can see what they’re paying for.
We offer full disclosure of costs for portfolio
management, investments, and advice.
Clear pricing means your clients understand
the value they receive, while meeting
regulatory standards.
28
5.1 Describe the platform charging structure?
The unbundled administration and investment charges
allow your client to see clearly what they’re paying for
holding assets on Wrap.
The charging table below shows the platform charge
for all products.
Adviser level discounts for Onshore Bond start when the
rm holds more than £20m assets with Wrap and would
typically result in a reduction of 10bps for the Additional
annual Product Administration Charge shown in the table
above – i.e. a reduction from 0.15% to 0.05% across all tiers.
The Product Administration Charge for Onshore Bond will
be reduced to 0.00% once the rm holds more than £75m
of Platform Eligible Assets on wrap.
There is 0% platform charge for the Wrap Junior ISA until the
Junior turns 18.
5.2 Drawdown Price Lock
Unique to abrdn Wrap, you can choose to lock the SIPP
platform percentage charge when assets are at their
highest and price is the lowest – before taking tax-free
cash or an income.
.
The Drawdown Price Lock means SIPP platform
charge will not change or increase as their pot
reduces during drawdown
.
Flexibility to reset the lock annually (relock up to once in
a 12 month period)
.
Lower fees in drawdown, when customers need it
.
Easier retirement planning – no increase in charges as
funds reduce.
Full details of the charging structure can be found in the
Wrap charging guide.
5. Charges
Wrap Platform standard charges
Value of your platform eligible assets Annual platform charge for Cash Account and wrap
products (deducted for each band)
On the rst £0 - £250,000 0.30%
On the next £250,000 - £500,000 0.20%
£500,000+ 0.10%
The following table shows the Product Administration Charge, levied by Phoenix Group, for Onshore Bond and
International Portfolio Bond.
Product administration charges
Onshore
Bond
International
Portfolio Bond
Value of your platform eligible assets Additional annual product administration charge for
International Portfolio Bond for wrap and onshore bond
for wrap (deducted for each band)
On the rst £0 - £250,000 0.15% 0.12%
On the next £250,000 - £500,000 0.15% 0.12%
£500,000+ 0.15% 0.12%
As at May 2024.
28Helping you become the business you want to be
5.3 What adviser charging options do you
have available on your platform solution?
Both initial and ongoing adviser charging is enabled by
our platform solution. All part of a exible approach.
Initial and ongoing adviser charges can be set as either
a xed monetary or percentage amount and ongoing
charges can be paid monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or
yearly. We also offer regular initial adviser charge for
regular-only new SIPP business.
‘Ad hoc’ adviser charge can also be taken, e.g. to cover
a specic one-off service delivered by the adviser.
Adviser charges can be taken at ‘product-level’.
Adviser charges are paid from the Cash Account.
Where the adviser charge relates to SIPP or International
Portfolio Bond advice, charges can also be taken from the
cash account of the relevant product.
Please note that a payment from the International Portfolio
Bond product cash account may have tax consequences
for your client.
5.4 Do you impose a maximum level of
adviser charge?
We impose no maximum level of adviser charge.
However, we have controls in place to monitor
adviser behaviour.
5.5 Are there any fund manager initial
charges?
abrdn has negotiated discount prices on a range of funds.
The majority of on the platform have no initial charges.
5.6 Am I able to add VAT to any fees charged
to clients?
The platform does not account for VAT within the adviser
charge. Therefore, to apply VAT, you would need to
include VAT in the overall gross charge amount set up on
the platform.
5.7 Do you require my clients to maintain a
minimum holding in a cash account?
No, there’s no requirement for a minimum holding in
any of the cash accounts. However, your clients need
to have sufcient cash available to make investments,
make regular withdrawals and pay any relevant charges.
Wrap does automatically disinvest to pay charges in
certain circumstances, so we recommend holding a small
percentage of any portfolio in cash to act as a buffer.
5.8 What happens if there’s insufcient cash
available to pay charges?
There’s no requirement for a minimum holding in any of
the cash accounts. However, your clients need to have
sufcient cash available to make investments, make
regular withdrawals and pay any relevant charges.
Wrap does automatically disinvest to pay charges in
certain circumstances, so we recommend holding a small
percentage of any portfolio in cash to act as a buffer.
However, should this happen, the platform may move
money between cash accounts or sell investments to
cover the adviser charges.
Please nd link to our Wrap adviser charges and options
guide which outlines the route we would auto-disinvest to
pay charges that are deducted from the Cash Account.
29Helping you become the business you want to be
5.9 What are the charges for re-registration
on and off your platform solution?
Where possible, we are able to fully support the
re-registration of assets both on and off the platform.
We do not charge for re-registering on or off platform.
5.10 Is there a facility to link clients’ accounts
on your platform?
Family linking is available. Wherever a married couple/civil
partnership/cohabiting partners have a combined total of
more than £500,000 in platform eligible assets we can link
their Wrap accounts for the purpose of calculating the
platform charge.
Wrap accounts of close family members
3
can also be
linked providing one member has at least £500,000 in
platform eligible assets.
This reduces the platform charge applied as the platform
charge applied to each client’s account is based on the
combined value of all platform eligible assets held in the
linked Wrap accounts.
5.11 What are the stockbroking charges?
Stockbroking charges will apply according to the product
used. Please see our guide for more information.
5.12 Are there any additional product
charges?
Please see our guide for more details.
Each product has a different charging structure.
Please see our Client terms and conditions and Adviser
terms of business.
5.13 Are there separate charges for cash
solutions?
Holdings in cash deposits are subject to our platform
charge. For cash solutions provided by Bondsmith, a
proportion of the interest (up to 0.10%) that accrues on
amounts placed in cash deposits will be paid directly by
the deposit taker to Bondsmith. It is deducted from the
interest rates before they are displayed, so the rate on the
platform is the rate your client will receive.
3
Close family members includes: parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, spouse or civil partner. It is not inclusive of in-laws.
30Helping you become the business you want to be
6. Products
A platform won’t be right for you unless it’s
right for your client. That’s why we offer
a wide range of products with seamless,
paperless processing. So you can help your
clients take their money in the most tax
efcient way.
6. Products
6.1 Which products can be held in your platform?
This diagram outlines the products available on the platform.
All platform products benet from straight through processing and no paper forms are required once their account
is opened.
Trusts** available on Wrap:
Discretionary Trust
The client can advise who they would like to benet from the Plan, but the trustees have
the nal choice
Absolute Trust
The client species the beneciaries when the plan is set up. These beneciaries can’t be
changed by the trustees.
Flexible Trust The trustees decide who benets from the beneciaries dened in the Trust.
Bypass Trust
A simple way to pay lump sum death benets from a Self Invested Personal
Pension into a trust instead of direct to an individual, giving exibility, asset
protection and potential inheritance tax (IHT) benets.
Wrap
SIPP
Trusts**
Junior SIPP*
*coming soon
Offshore bond
for Wrap
Onshore bond
for Wrap
Personal Portfolio
(GIA)
up to 5
ISA Stocks and
Shares
(Flexi ISA)
Junior ISA
32Helping you become the business you want to be
6.2 Do minimum investment amounts apply?
Yes. Please see our website for details of each product.
Product Minimum Investment
International Portfolio Bond for Wrap £20,000
Wrap SIPP
£10,000 (lump sum or transfer), £300 (regular) to start a SIPP
(No minimum amount for additional single or transfer payments)
Onshore Bond for Wrap £5,000 (£60,000 for a Discounted Gift Plan)
Personal Portfolio
*
(GIA) £500 (lump sum), £250 (additional single), £50 (regular)
Stocks and Shares ISA
*
£500 (lump sum), £250 (additional single), £50 (regular)
Wrap Junior ISA
£500 (lump sum), £250 (additional single), £50 (regular)
*
Minimum investment amounts do not apply if the customers total assets on the Wrap platform are equal or greater than £100,000.
6.3 Is there a cash account available?
Each Wrap client automatically has access to a Cash
Account. The Cash Account is the hub of your client’s
Wrap account. Also, Wrap operates cash accounts at a
product level (except for the onshore bond).
Please see our guide for the current interest rates paid.
6.4 Who provides the products?
Following the sale of a number of Standard Life products
to Phoenix Group in September 2018, the Wrap SIPP,
International Portfolio Bond on Wrap, and Onshore Bond
on Wrap are owned by Phoenix Group. We have simplied
our relationship with Phoenix, announcing that we will
acquire the Wrap SIPP and Onshore Bond tax wrappers.
33Helping you become the business you want to be
6.5 Product features
The following table outlines the products available on Wrap as well as their key features:
Product type Features
Personal Portfolio
(GIA)
With the personal portfolio your clients can hold a range of unwrapped investments.
.
Every Wrap account can hold up to ve personal portfolios, allowing your clients to specify
investment strategies for a particular purpose.
.
Two CGT tools to support advisers when calculating CGT for clients – a CGT report showing
gains and losses of disposals on the platform, and the Capital Gains Tax Scenario Tool allows
you to model the impact of trades on a client’s CGT position based on a range of scenarios.
.
Wide choice of investments are available including mutual funds, exchange traded
instruments and model portfolios.
.
Minimum investment amount is £500 (lump sum), £250 (additional single), £50 (regular).
.
Range of cash solutions including xed term deposits and notice day accounts to suit a variety
of client goals.
Stocks & Shares ISA We offer a Stocks and Shares ISA with extensive investment options.
.
An opportunity for capital growth, regular income or a combination of both.
.
Wide choice of investments are available including mutual funds, Wesleyan With Prots
Growth Fund, exchange traded instruments and model portfolios.
.
Minimum investment amount is £500 (Lump sum), £250 (additional single) and £50 (regular).
.
If you withdraw money you may replace the withdrawal in the same tax year without the
replacement counting towards your ISA maximum subscription limit.
Junior ISA Our Junior ISA is available to existing Wrap clients, offering a tax efcient way to save and invest
for a child (the “Junior”).
.
No minimum age, maximum age 17 years, 9 months; UK residents only.
.
No platform charges until the Junior reaches age 18.
.
Wide fund choice from a variety of fund managers and model portfolios.
.
Access to all the main asset classes, investment styles and risk proles.
.
Minimum investment amount is £500 single, £50 monthly, £150 quarterly, £300 half yearly or
£500 yearly.
.
Maximum contributions - £9000 for the 2023/24 tax year.
.
Withdrawals only allowed once the Junior is age 18 and the Junior ISA is converted into a
standard Stocks and Shares ISA.
.
Flexible remuneration that you can agree with the Registered Contact.
34Helping you become the business you want to be
Product type Features
Self-Invested
Personal Pension
(SIPP)
Gives clients more exibility when investing and managing money or taking an income.
.
A tax efcient way to save for retirement. Individual, employer or third-party contributions
can be set up, as well as cash and in-specie transfers from other schemes.
.
A wide choice of investments are available including mutual funds, exchange traded
instruments and model portfolios. Plus, a range of specialist investment options including
external deposit accounts, National Savings & Investments, structured products, and
insurance co. investments.
.
Clients have exible access to their pension fund. Provides benets for dependants
upon death.
.
£10,000 (lump sum or transfer), £300 (regular) to start SIPP (no minimum amount for
additional single or transfer payments).
.
Drawdown Price Lock avaiable. Please refer to section 8 for more information.
Onshore Bond Our tax-efcient Onshore Bond gives your client access to a wide choice of insured funds.
.
A lump-sum, non-qualifying, whole of life, investment linked life assurance contract.
.
One-off or additional single payments can be made.
.
Available to individuals and trustees.
.
Eligible to UK residents age 18 to 89.
.
Minimum investment amount is £5,000 (£60,000 for a Discounted Gift Plan).
Offshore Bond
International
Portfolio Bond for
Wrap (IPB)
Offshore Bond aims:
.
To provide your client with a tax-efcient way to invest over the medium to long term.
.
To give clients access to their money via tax-efcient regular or one-off withdrawals.
.
To allow you to choose from and switch between a range of investment types to match their
investment objectives.
It is a lump sum, non- qualifying, whole of life, offshore investment linked life insurance bond.
It gives your clients the opportunity to invest a lump sum (or a series of lump sums) in a wide
range of investments available from the Wrap Platform.
The bond is made up of 100 individual policies or ‘segments’, although you can request a
different number if required.
While invested in the bond, you won’t normally pay tax on any growth. Instead, tax may be
payable when you take money out of the bond and will be based on your circumstances at
that time. You won’t pay tax if you switch your investment between different investments within
your bond.
There may also be withholding tax payable on certain investment funds. This is a tax that some
countries deduct from dividends and interest payments. It is not possible to reclaim withholding
tax. Also, in some circumstances, if you invest in a net fund, we will reclaim tax within the fund
where possible.
A bond can also be held in trust. Holding a bond in trust can help with wealth protection and
inheritance tax planning.
Laws and tax rules may change in the future. Your personal taxation circumstances also have an impact on tax
treatment. The future tax position of the International Portfolio Bond or your own tax position may alter.
35Helping you become the business you want to be
7. Investment solutions
We’ll help you manage investment complexity.
Whatever your preference, we can help you
efciently bring together in-house or external
investment experts, in any combination.
At abrdn, we’ve a best execution policy for
buying and selling investments and we’ll
always try to achieve the best possible result
for your clients.
Our target customers in the wealth market are typically
those who have complex savings, investment and nancial
planning needs, require regular advice and need a variety
of solutions to produce good outcomes. Wrap is designed
to do exactly that. With a full breadth of Centralised
Investment Proposition support, in-house models,
Discretionary manager outsourcing and discounted
share classes, whatever your preference, we can help
you efciently bring together investment experts, in any
combination, to suit the needs of your clients.
The award-winning Investment Hub enables the clear
segregation of portfolio management and advice, allowing
advisers to apply specialist investment and nancial
planning expertise for client benet in a scalable manner.
Funds
7.1 How many funds are available and do
you offer clean share classes?
There are more than 4,000+ mutual funds on our Wrap
platform. Over 400 of these are super clean share classes.
Insured fund investments are available for Onshore Bond,
SIPP and International Portfolio Bond.
On a regular basis, new funds are being added and old
funds subjected to corporate actions. As a result, these
numbers are subject to change.
Please refer to our fund options where you can see all the
funds available, this is updated monthly. Please note the
amount of funds available can go up or down.
7.2 How many fund managers are there on
your platform solution ?
Our platform offers mutual funds from over 180
fund managers.
7.3 How do you select the funds you offer?
Our fund selection is client-driven and based on demand
from advisers or discretionary fund managers.
A thorough due diligence process is then undertaken to
ensure the fund and fund managers are compatible with
the platform, and which includes regulatory, operational,
corporate and legal considerations.
Before a fund can be made available there are certain
criteria to be met, including:
.
Fund must be daily dealing and daily priced
.
Must be a UK domiciled mutual fund authorised and
regulated by the FCA or a non-UK domiciled UCITs
scheme (SICAVs, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg).
We also accept NURS domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg
.
Fund must be GBP denominated
.
Fund must deal electronically
.
Fund must not be a PAIF, TIF or Charity-based
investment, e.g. charibond/charifund
.
Fund must be deemed eligible for the specic product
offered on the platform.
7.4 Is the fund range consistent across
all products?
The vast majority of funds are available across all products
(subject to legislation). However, the onshore bond offers
insured funds only.
The Wesleyan With Prots Growth Fund is available on
our Stocks and Shares ISA and Junior ISA.
7.5 Are there unwrapped unit trust/OEIC
funds?
Yes, any unwrapped OEIC funds or Unit Trusts are held in
the ‘Personal Portfolio’ which is provided by Standard Life
Savings Ltd.
7. Investment solutions
37Helping you become the business you want to be
7.6 Are non-daily priced dealing funds
available, e.g. hedge funds?
No, these aren’t available on the platform.
7.7 Are passive funds available on the
platform?
Yes, a full range of passive funds is available. Please visit
our website for full details.
7.8 Are Key Investment Documents (KIDs)
and Key investor information documents
(KIIDs) available?
Individual KIDS and KIIDs are available for all traded funds
offered by Wrap, in a PDF format.
7.9 Do you have a best execution policy?
Yes, we do. Please see our Order execution policy.
Other investment options
7.10 What investment options are offered across the various products?
The following table summarises the investment options that are offered across various products available via Wrap:
Investment Type SIPP Personal
Portfolio(s)
Onshore Bond International
Portfolio Bond
Stocks and
Shares ISA
Wrap Junior ISA
Cash
Insured Funds
** **
Unit Trusts
OEICs
Investment Trusts
*
ETFs
*
Hedge Funds
*
(off platform
only)
Listed and traded on the LSE
UK Equities
Dual Listed Securities
Gilts
Commercial Property
(existing customers only)
Structured Deposits
(deposits and investments)
(deposits only)
Deposit accounts
Gold Bullion*
(existing customers only)
Bespoke Discretionary Portfolio
* Subject to assessment.
** Wesleyan With Profits Growth Fund is available on our Stock and Shares ISA and Junior ISA
38Helping you become the business you want to be
7.11 Are Exchange Traded Investments (ETI)
such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs),
investment trusts and equities available on
the platform?
Yes, the platform gives access to a wide range of ETIs via
our execution-only stockbrokers HSBC and Winterood,
provided we receive the necessary information for your
client as required by the relevant regulations.
7.12 Do you provide access to structured
products? For example, medium-term notes?
Structured products are available as an off-platform
investment option for the SIPP and International
Portfolio Bond.
7.13 Does your platform offer a range of cash
solutions including xed term deposits?
Yes, Wrap gives you and your clients access to a range
of different xed term deposit and notice day account
providers, who offer a variety of interest rates and
xed terms.
This means you can work together with your clients to
choose the interest rates and xed terms that best suit
their needs.
Our partnership with Bondsmith, means we can offer
a range of competitive cash solutions that are fully
integrated on Wrap and available through the
Personal Portfolio.
Fixed term deposits are also available as an off-platform
investment option for the SIPP and International Portfolio
Bond.
7.14 Can I trade equities on the platform?
Yes, you can trade equities on the platform, i.e. those listed
on the LSE or a recognised US stock exchange and which
settle via a commercial settlement system such as CREST.
7.15 Can I trade AIM-listed shares on the
platform?
Yes.
7.16 Do you have a range of Investment
Trusts?
Yes, we offer a variety of investment trusts, providing
they’re listed on the LSE or a recognised overseas stock
exchange and settle via a commercial settlement system
such as CREST.
7.17 Do you offer multiple currency share
classes?
At this time, Wrap only offers access to sterling
denominated investments, so only GBP priced share
classes are available.
7.18 What do you do to ensure the
integration of ESG (Environmental, Social and
Governance) investment processes on your
platform solution?
Wrap takes ESG and the credentials of the managers on
the platform in this space seriously. ESG forms part of the
due diligence the platform performs on managers, with
an annual survey to help Wrap understand the stance
managers take.
7.19 On what basis do you offer Investment
Pathway Solutions?
Investment Pathway is only available for non advised
drawdown clients.
39Helping you become the business you want to be
Outsourcing – Selecting an
external DFM
7.20 Can discretionary managers be
appointed to manage assets on the
platform?
Yes, you can recommend to your clients to appoint a
discretionary manager permissioned to manage assets
on the platform. There’s straight-through processing for
payments, withdrawals and switches into and out of the
model portfolios, with the exibility to mix and match
model portfolios, hold model assets and non-model
assets all within the same product.
This is supported by a full live valuation and look through
capability and integration with on platform reporting and
quarterly COBS compliant statements.
Discretionary managers can also be appointed to
manage assets held off-platform in a Wrap SIPP or
International Portfolio Bond.
7.21 Is your platform’s discretionary fund
manager solution available to all nancial
advisers?
Yes, subject to appropriate agreements being in place and
the discretionary managers granting you access to their
models. Please contact your relationship manager for
more information.
7.22 Which discretionary managers can be
appointed?
You can nd details of the discretionary managers
available on here or by speaking with your account
manager. We can look to add discretionary managers
that you wish to use, at our discretion and subject to due
diligence requirements.
7.23 Are there any additional charges for
accessing discretionary manager portfolios
in any product?
There are no additional platform or product charges for
managing or investing in models via the investment hub.
If a separate investment management fee is being applied,
this will be fully disclosed and is taken as a distinct charge.
Managing your own models on an
advisory or discretionary basis
Your centralised investment service must feel seamless
to clients. So your processes must be delivered efciently,
regardless of the complexity. You must always feel
condent that all your regulatory responsibilities are
fully supported in a robust, efcient and timely way.
Your investment proposition can be a key differentiator
for your business and a key part of your client
proposition. Whether you manage portfolios on an
advisory or discretionary basis, you can now access
our award winning Investment Hub to support your
investment proposition. The model portfolio functionality
enables you to create and maintain portfolios on Wrap
on an advisory basis. Portfolios can be set up based on
risk ratings and by products if required. Asset classes
and weightings can also be selected and populated with
individual funds or equities.
For rms with the relevant regulatory permissions we may
also offer our Investment Hub technology. This enables
discretionary managers or advisers with discretionary
permissions to take central control over the portfolio
management process with bulk rebalancing, automated
rebalancing and a range of other specialist capabilities.
7.24 Does the platform offer investment
management technology, allowing rms to
manage their own model portfolio services?
We’ve specically developed the Investment Hub to offer
specialist investment management capability, for rms
to manage their own model portfolio services on both a
discretionary or a non discretionary basis.
40Helping you become the business you want to be
It includes discretionary model portfolio management
capability, the ability to charge a separate investment
management fee (if you have discretionary permissions),
auto and manual rebalancing, the ability to trade in
bulk and at individual client level, production of specic
COBS compliant statements, a range of Investment
Management Information reports to support your
investment managers and low cost aggregated bulk
trading of exchange traded instruments.
If you have discretionary permission and wish to offer
a discretionary investment service to clients of other
nancial advisers, the model portfolios that you offer
via the Investment Hub can be made available to other
nancial advice rms who use Wrap.
7.25 Is bulk portfolio management available?
Yes, bulk processes are in place for rebalancing models
and in addition, the ‘active edit switch’ allows you to edit
the target allocations of a model portfolio and only trade
across the assets that have been edited. Our bulk trading
includes exchange traded assets.
7.26 Is your model portfolio technology fully
integrated with Wrap?
Yes, the Investment Hub is a fully integrated proposition
supporting straight through processing on all payments
and withdrawals and a fully integrated reporting suite.
You can easily mix and match models within products,
rebalance between portfolios or attach and detach
assets to models to avoid any out of market time or
realising gains.
7.27 Professional Portfolio Manager
Wrap Professional Portfolio Manager is a unique feature
delivering the centralisation of specialist investment
functions and process automation allowing advisers to
scale their business and reduce risk in the manual process.
Allowing advisers to spend more time with their clients.
Through a separately controlled user interface with gated
access, Professional Portfolio Manager provides clear
segregation between nancial planning and investment
management processes.
Features include automated mechanical rebalancing with
an efcient process for excluding clients from individual
rebalances while retaining them in the model portfolio
and avoiding portfolio proliferation. Professional Portfolio
Manager provides nancial planners with the ability to use
multiple portfolios to match a client’s goals and needs, such
as retirement income or inter-generational wealth transfer.
7.28 What MI reporting is available to support
my investment management?
There’s a wide range of reports to choose from to support
your compliance, business management and marketing
needs. As an investment manager, reporting is available
through Wrap, and from the Investment Hub. Your rm
controls the access.
There is a range of nine MI reports that you can run directly
from the Investment Hub. You can choose to run these
across all model portfolios or for a specic model portfolio
across a selected date range. All reports are produced in
excel format.
41Helping you become the business you want to be
The reports available from the Investment Hub are:
Report Description
Assets under administration
Shows overall AUA across all models or by model portfolio including a
breakdown at client account level.
Deferred activity report
The Investment Hub operates a queuing system when there are multiple
trade requests, so there is no need to re-enter a trade if one is already in
progress. This report shows any accounts that have pending activities, either
withdrawals or rebalances.
Holdings by account Shows a full breakdown of all holdings at client account level.
Holdings by investment
Shows the total aggregated overall holdings for each investment.
Model cashow report
Shows total money in and out over the selected reporting period.
Model fees report
Shows total investment management fees paid over the reporting period,
broken down at client account level and showing VAT included in the payment.
Negative cash balances report
Shows any accounts with a negative cash balance in the portfolio cash account.
New accounts report
Shows any new accounts opened over the reporting period.
Tolerance violation report
Lists out by investment, by client any breaches of the tolerance limit set-up.
For details of the range of reporting available via the Wrap platform, please see section 10.
42Helping you become the business you want to be
7.29 Can I mix and match managed
portfolios?
The Hub gives advisers the exibility to invest all or a
proportion of their clients’ assets in model portfolio
solutions. They can mix and match managed portfolios to
meet multiple needs and objectives of their clients, whilst
remaining in control of the client relationship.
7.30 What rebalancing options are there?
The Investment Hub technology offers four different
rebalancing options:
.
Manual
.
Tolerance based (automatic)
.
Frequency based (automatic)
.
Combination of tolerance and frequency (automatic)
You are able to rebalance at a model portfolio level or
individual client account level if required.
This includes the ability to exclude specic client accounts
when rebalancing at a model portfolio level.
7.31 Can a specic investment management
fee be applied?
Yes, for rms with discretionary permissions a portfolio
manager can be applied to the models. The portfolio
manager fee is paid from the portfolio cash account.
Each model set up on the Investment Hub will have an
allocation to cash, held as ‘portfolio cash’. This is separate
to the Product and Cash Accounts on the platform. Adviser
charges and platform charges are paid from the Product
and Cash Accounts, depending on the product.
7.32 Are there any investment restrictions?
We offer access to over 4,000+ investment types
via the Investment Hub including unit trusts, OEICs,
Investment Trusts.
However, we don’t allow direct equities for Wrap
Offshore Bond.
7.33 How do you select the funds you offer?
Our fund offering is client driven and based on demand
from advisers or discretionary fund managers. A thorough
due diligence process is then undertaken to ensure that
the fund and fund manager are suitable for the platform,
including operational and corporate due diligence and a
legal agreement.
There are some operational criteria which need to be met
before a fund can be made available as follows:
.
Fund must be daily dealing and daily priced
.
Must be a UK domiciled mutual fund authorised and
regulated by the FCA or a non UK domiciled UCITs
scheme (SICAVs, domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg).
We also accept NURS domiciled in Ireland or Luxembourg
.
Fund must be GBP denominated
.
Fund must deal electronically
.
Fund must not be a PAIF, TIF or Charity-based
investment, e.g. charibond/charifund
.
Fund must be deemed eligible for the specic wrap
product offered on the platform
(e.g. ISA eligible, SIPP eligible etc.)
Please refer to the Wrap Platform Order execution policy
for more detail.
43Helping you become the business you want to be
8. Functionality
Functionality plays a big part in
platform choice.
We’ve built our platform solution using
leading technology.
This provides you with everything from
current online valuations to illustrations
to bulk trading and rebalancing.
8.1 Is there a portfolio rebalancing facility?
When required for a client the rebalancing facility
can be used on either an individual or bulk basis.
The rebalancing tool will automatically calculate the
orders (buys and sells) required to bring the client back
to their agreed target asset allocation. The rebalancing
facility places the buy and sells orders at the same pricing
point to limit out of market time. The orders can be
reviewed by the adviser before placing them.
The platform supports you to gather client consent
enabling you to instruct orders. Regular payments can
be redirected to the new allocation if the target asset
allocation has changed.
This process enables you to review the rebalancing before
placing trades and consider any impact relating to CGT,
market timing, fund performance etc.
The rebalancing tool also redirects any regular payments
into the new investment selection within the same process.
When using the bulk rebalancing functionality, you can
rebalance clients with different target asset allocations
and not simply those invested in model portfolios.
The Investment Hub supports manual and automated
rebalancing. Rebalancing can be automated by frequency
and tolerance. Manual rebalancing can be instructed
in bulk on a model portfolio basis or on an individual
client basis.
Frequency rebalancing can be set up to automatically
rebalance a model on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly,
quarterly, 6 monthly or annual basis.
The discretionary manager can set a tolerance for each
asset in the Investment Hub. If using tolerance based
rebalancing, when an individual account breaches a
tolerance that account is automatically rebalanced.
A minimum number of days can be set between
automated rebalances.
Tolerances can be set for each asset without using
tolerance based rebalancing, this would enable the
discretionary managers to review any accounts
that had breached tolerance by using our Tolerance
Violation report.
8.2 Is bulk switching available?
Yes, our bulk switching tool enables you to simultaneously
switch multiple clients from a single fund to one or more
funds. Within the same process, the tool also enables you
to redirect any regular payments to the new fund selection
and can provide Excel outputs of client email and address
details helping you to easily obtain client consent before
completing the switch.
8.3 Does the platform take advantage of
straight-through processing?
The platform facilitates straight-through processing for a
range of processes such as:
.
Purchase/sale of assets
.
Switching and rebalancing funds (including bulk
rebalancing)
.
Real-time dealing
.
Withdrawals
.
Opening tax wrappers
.
Payments
.
Adviser charging
8.4 Can we update historical cost data for
existing investments on the platform?
Yes, this can be added to the platform for use with
CGT calculations.
8.5 Can the platform give me an aggregated
charge calculation based on products,
Wrap products, advice, investments and
any discounts?
Yes, abrdn recognises advisers like to present the total cost
of investment and advice to their clients. That’s why our
reports show the aggregated annual charge, including
any discounts.
8. Functionality
45Helping you become the business you want to be
8.6 Do you support re-registration of assets?
Yes, where possible, we support the re-registration of
assets both to and from our platform solution. We also
facilitate electronic re-registration for mutual fund
investments in our Personal Portfolio, Stocks and Shares
ISA and Junior ISA when an external provider/platform can
support this.
There’s no charge for re-registering mutual funds to or
from our platform solution.
For listed securities (and any other non-mutual fund
investments) there are charges for re-registering in SIPP.
There are no charges for ISA/Junior ISA/Personal Portfolio.
abrdn is a member of STAR. STAR is the cross industry
initiative, galvanising and driving market participants to
dene and shape recognised, industry-wide standards to
promote good practice in transfers.
8.7 Is there a phased investment option for
my clients?
Yes, the platform offers a phased investment facility over
the following periods/frequencies
.
Monthly
.
Quarterly
.
Half-yearly
.
Annually
.
Ad-hoc
8.8 What client reporting is available on
the platform?
The client portfolio report enables advisers to share a
modern, easy to understand and engaging view of their
clients’ portfolio. It shows a simplied snapshot of the
valuation, performance and money movements.
There is a range of other adviser MI reports accessible on
the platform. Please see Section 10 for more information.
8.9 Will my clients have online access to their
Wrap account?
The client portal helps advisers deliver a high quality
experience for their clients, using the latest digital
standards. Advisers stay in control of access while clients
have the reassurance they can self-serve high level plan
information. Partnering with leading access management
rm, Okta, the portal delivers the latest authentication
security for clients when they login to their Wrap account.
8.10 Can I add my adviser rm branding to
the platform?
You can add your adviser rm logo to the platform, and this
will pull through to key client facing outputs.
8.11 Are there any additional set-up options
available on the platform?
Yes, you can adapt the platform to meet your own
requirements; add enter/check stages for certain
processes (for existing rms only), set access levels
within your rm, add pre-set adviser charging options
and adviser specic model portfolios.
8.12 What documentation do my clients
receive and when?
Wrap is an adviser-led platform. However, there’s also a
legal relationship between us as platform provider, and
the adviser’s client (as well as between the relevant wrap
products providers and the adviser’s clients). As a result,
we may contact customers directly, for example for legal
or regulatory reasons. The documents the client may
receive could include (but aren’t limited to):
.
Statements
.
Tax certicates
.
ISA declarations
.
Wrap Junior ISA maturity letter
46Helping you become the business you want to be
8.13 Can the platform be set up to have
compliance steps added to processes?
Yes, the platform has functionality which allows you to add
‘compliance steps’ to some of the processes. For example,
before submitting certain instructions, they must be
authorised by specic individuals of your rm.
8.14 Do you offer a bed and ISA facility?
Yes, we offer this functionality. Money can be moved from
a Personal Portfolio straight into an ISA.
8.15 What’s the speed of processing
investment instructions allowed by the
platform (execution only)?
For more information, please consult the Order
Execution policy.
8.16 How and when are investment
instructions actioned and at what
valuation point?
Subject to our Wrap client Terms and Conditions, dealing
instructions received via Wrap will be placed within three
business days of the day we receive them. This is as
long as there’s sufcient clear cash in the relevant cash
account. It may be quicker, but timescales vary depending
on the type of investments and the cut-off point offered.
8.17 Does the platform offer pre-funding?
All our products benet from pre-funding to ensure we invest your clients’ money without delay meaning their money is
in the market for longer. Your client has certainty and consistency regarding when rebates are paid and tax due.
New investments For purchases linked to cheque and DD payments, abrdn places the deals immediately,
rather than waiting for conrmation of cleared cash and it sweeps cash to ensure that
there is sufcient money to pay for the purchases on the settlement date.
Regular contributions Wrap will make the investment trades requested on the date each regular contribution
is expected. By pre-funding investment purchases, there is no need to wait while money
clears and clients are not disadvantaged if there is a delay with a direct debit payment
being made to Wrap.
Switches We place the buy trade at the next valuation point after the sell trade has been conrmed.
We’ll pre-fund the buy trade if there’s non-receipt of funds from the sell trade or the buy
trade has a shorter settlement cycle.
Rebalances On platform rebalances we place the sell trades and buy trades at the same pricing
point meaning there’s no out of market time. We’ll prefund buy trades where the
proceeds from the sell trades haven’t yet been received.
Tax relief On personal pension contributions – tax relief on contributions made into the Wrap SIPP
are pre-funded so relief is applied at the same time as the net contribution. We apply the
tax relief at source and reclaim from HMRC later.
47Helping you become the business you want to be
Online functionality
8.18 Can I transact new business and
top-ups online?
Yes, you can. In addition to switching investments, the terms
and conditions signed by your client also enable you
to add/move money between products and/or invest
money into new products and carry out rebalances or
transactions online, subject to the relevant investment
disclosure information being provided to your client.
8.19 Does the platform provide an online
audit trail?
Yes, the platform has comprehensive audit trail tools which
an adviser can control. These include functionality such as:
.
History of screens viewed
.
Range of pre and post-sale validations which can
be customised
.
Online document library for each client with the ability to
scan certain documents into this and track
.
Correspondence with clients
.
Ability to track all transactions, re-registrations/transfers
and new business applications
Details can be ltered by client, by product, by fund and by
the provider.
8.20 What regular payment frequencies
are available?
Regular payments into tax wrappers can be made at
different frequencies:
.
Monthly
.
Quarterly
.
Half-yearly
.
Annually
8.21 What payment methods are available?
Your clients can pay into their Wrap account via bank
transfer (CHAPS/BACS), direct debit or cheque.
8.22 Is there an option for my clients to have
paperless accounts?
Yes, clients can choose to receive document by post or
online. With instant access to documents, clients can view,
print and save.
For those that choose to opt for paperless, Wrap has an
automated alert system that noties clients via email
when they’ve important documents to review. This solution
balances both your clients and your needs with our own
regulatory obligations.
For security reasons, certain documents will be sent by
post including details of a client’s change of address and
any withdrawal conrmations.
48Helping you become the business you want to be
8.23 Do you accept e-signatures?
For our most frequently used documents, including new
business and client instructions, e-signature can now
be used.
We have an approved list of e-signature solution providers.
Note: we are not party to the licence with the approved
e-signature provider. Advisory rms will need to use their
own licence.
We also offer a fully integrated online e-signature solution
on individual new business journeys on the platform for
new and existing clients. There is no charge for this service.
The service fully complies with the Electronic Identication,
Authentication and Trust Services (eIDAS) regulation.
We will still require wet signatures for Trust Deeds and
Powers of Attorney as these documents need to be
witnessed for legal reasons.
We will also need wet signatures for External APS Forms
(APS30 and APS33) as we need to send them to external
providers (we cannot guarantee they will accept an
e-signature) requesting the APS transfer and this is an
HMRC requirement.
Additionally, the process for submitting Dened Benet
transfers remains unchanged. It is a process where
we must still receive wet signatures and original
documentation because of the requirements of
ceding schemes.
To nd out more view our E-signature quick guide.
8.24Are there notication tools to help me
manage my client accounts?
There are a number of notications available to you. We
offer mandatory and non-mandatory notications. Please
note that Mandatory notications cannot be switched off.
Non-mandatory notications can be congured to be set
up at Firm Level (all advisers) or Adviser Level (selected
advisers). Please note that Firm Level is only offered to
permissioned Admin users. Adviser Level is set/managed
by the individual user.
Asset Status Change
An Asset Status Change notication is triggered when a
change has been made to an instrument’s status within a
model or an account portfolio.
Auto-Disinvestment triggered due to insufcient cash
to pay charges
An Auto-Disinvestment due to insufcient cash to pay
charges notication is triggered when the platform has
tried to deduct a charge from available cash and invokes
disinvestment. This is applicable for all charge types -
platform, adviser and discretionary investment manager.
Cash Balance Below 1%
A Cash Balance below 1% notication is triggered,
per sub account, when the value of a client’s portfolio
cash account falls below 1% of the total portfolio value.
Notication only sent once for each time the cash falls
below 1%.
Cash Balance Below 2%
A Cash Balance below 2% notication is triggered, per
sub-account, when the value of a client’s portfolio cash
account falls below 2%, but is more than or equal to 1%
of the total portfolio value. Notication only sent once for
each time the cash falls below 2%.
Deal Cancelled
A Deal Cancelled/Rejected notication is triggered if an
order status is changed to rejected by a platform user
manually rejecting a trade through the platform.
49Helping you become the business you want to be
Deal Complete
A Deal Complete notication is triggered for a client
when an order placed against their account has its status
changed to complete.
Deal Expiry
A Deal Expired notication is triggered if a market order
in an Exchange Traded Fund Instrument expires and is
not fullled.
Deal Instructed
A Deal Instructed notication is triggered when a buy,
sell or switch order has status changed to placed.
Deal Requested
A Deal Requested notication is triggered when a buy,
sell or switch order has status changed to authorised.
Direct Debit Failure/Cancelled/Not Received
A Direct Debit Failure/Cancelled/Not Received notication
is triggered if a direct debit instruction cannot be accepted
by the bank.
Direct Debit Form
A Direct Debit Instruction notication is triggered when a
bank account is nominated, but platform operations has
yet to receive the direct debit form documentation.
E-Signature
An E-Signed Document notication will be triggered
when an e-signed document is received into the
document library.
Failed Adviser Charge
A Failed Adviser Charge notication is triggered when a
charge has been outstanding for greater than 30 days and
has now failed.
First Regular Withdrawal
A First Regular Withdrawal complete notication is
triggered when the rst withdrawal of a regular payment
out has been completed for an account.
Gone Away
A Gone Away client notication is triggered when an item
of correspondence has been returned from the current
address and the gone away marker against the record is
updated to yes.
50Helping you become the business you want to be
8.25 What are the withdrawal options?
Your client can choose to take fund specic withdrawals
or withdrawals in proportion across their investments.
This enables the asset allocation to remain in line with the
client’s attitude to risk.
.
Single
.
Regular (Monthly, Quarterly, Termly, Bi-Annually
& Annually)
.
Date 1-28
.
% or xed
.
Per fund, per combination, proportionate, cash
We pay all Tax Free Cash payments by CHAPS and
Income by BACS (3-5 working days).
8.26 Drawdown Price Lock
You can choose to lock the SIPP platform charge when
assets are at their highest and price is the lowest – before
taking tax-free cash or an income.
.
The Drawdown Price Lock means the SIPP platform
percentage charge will not change or increase as their
pot reduces during drawdown
.
Flexibility to reset the lock annually (relock up to once in
a 12 month period)
.
Lower fees in drawdown, when customers need it
.
Funds reduce
Full details of the charging structure can be found in the
Wrap charging guide and the Client terms and conditions.
8.27 What’s the process for an individual
converting from capped drawdown on your
SIPP to FAD?
Flexi-access drawdown is available to new and existing
SIPP accounts in full or partial drawdown. The SIPP offers a
range of income options with the facility to set-up one-off
or regular payments.
You can take different initial and on-going withdrawals.
Plus, generate tax-efcient income using regular
PCLS payments. It also provides capped drawdown
functionality. If multiple arrangements already exist
(because of transfers in), benets will continue to be held
in separate arrangements until they’re converted.
Arrangements can be converted using our straight-
through, on-platform process.
8.28 Is there a limit on the number of
withdrawals for UFPLS or limit on the size
of withdrawals?
No.
51Helping you become the business you want to be
9. Access
We offer 24-hour access to the platform,
enabled by sophisticated integration,
comprehensive online features, and the
ability to move assets on and off the platform
efciently. Any updates are delivered outside
of business hours, and we ensure to notify
you well in advance.
Adviser access
9.1 When is the platform accessible to me
We aim to make the platform available 24 hours per
day, every day. Technology enhancements are released
quarterly and scheduled on a Saturday night from
11.00pm to 07.00am on Sunday morning. Occasionally
ad hoc releases are required; these are typically done
midweek outside of business hours and you are always
given advance notice of this, via email.
9.2 Can I change my client’s details online?
Client details such as name and address can be updated
online. However, other details may have to be changed by
our client servicing teams for security reasons.
9.3 Does the platform provide access to
client documents?
Yes, it does. The platform maintains a document
library for each of your clients which retains all relevant
documentation, e.g. valuations, review reports.
You can also scan certain documents and add these to
your client’s document library.
9.4 What levels of adviser access does your
platform solution offer?
Wrap offers exibility regarding access levels both for
advisers and clients.
These can be set up and administered by an appointed
person within the adviser business.
There are ve levels of access:
Read-only The ability to access all information on the platform, but with no ability to amend.
Transact As above, plus the ability to enter and edit client data.
Management
Management access enables a user to view all data on the platform solution including all
management information (MI) reports, but not to set up or maintain portfolios.
Administrator Read and transact capability, plus the ability to amend data to Wrap users within the
business, e.g. staff proles and access levels plus adding/deleting users and also setting
up access for clients. The administrator is also able to set up and maintain any model
portfolios, but not access MI.
Administrator, plus MI As above, plus the ability to obtain management information.
9. Access
53Helping you become the business you want to be
Client access
9.5 What different levels of access are available to clients?
Your clients can access their Wrap account online, and this is controlled by you.
There are three levels of access:
9.6 Can my client obtain their valuations
online?
You can agree with your client that they should have view-
only access to the Wrap client portal.
You can also customise the information they access from a
wide range of options. Including valuations, performance,
asset allocation, fund information, and document library.
9.7 Can my clients place any transactions
themselves online?
No, clients are unable to place any transactions
themselves online.
Client Standard
Valuation summary,
documents, investments
(including insights) and
performance
Client Basic
Valuation summary
and documents
Client Advanced
Valuation summary,
documents, investments
(including insights),
performance and
transaction history
54Helping you become the business you want to be
10. Tools and Reporting
Our suite of adviser tools help you meet your
clients’ investment needs with enhanced
exibility, analysis capabilities and access to
third-party services. We also offer enhanced
reporting, so you can see consolidated client
data on a single report.
Tools
10.1 How exible are your asset allocation
models?
For each risk level there is the potential for some portfolios
to be produced based on:
.
Existing assets (if added to the platform)
.
Length of time to invest
However, you’ve the exibility to amend the asset
allocation weightings in the suggested portfolio
for your client, review the outcome and then use that if
deemed appropriate.
10.2 What portfolio and fund review tools do
you have available?
The MyFolio look through tool has been developed
by Financial Express to enable you to track fund and
portfolio performances. It allows individual or composite
benchmarks to be created or selected from a pre-
dened range.
The tool shows asset, sector and geographical information
for the portfolio. It also shows top stock holdings in addition
to cumulative and discrete performance for each fund
within a portfolio.
You can save your own portfolios within the tool for quick
analysis. Alternatively, any model portfolio created on
Wrap can be analysed simply by the click of a button.
10.3 Are your platform tools provided by
third parties?
Yes. Third parties provide many of the tools available on
our platform. To select third-party providers, a thorough
due diligence process is undertaken.
Third party provider and Service:
.
FNZ – Platform Infrastructure Supplier, custody,
trading and nominee services
.
Financial Express – KIIDs, Fund Factsheets, Fund
data provision
.
Origo – Unipass Identity Provider, Origo Transfers
Service, Integration Hub
.
Okta – Identity Management
.
HSBC & Winterood – provide abrdn Wrap with
stockbroker services to buy and sell any of the
securities which we make available on the Wrap
Platform. HSBC also provide certain custody services.
.
Bondsmith - provide services to enable customers to
deposit funds in deposit accounts held with a number of
banks or building societies.
Currently, FNZ provides Platform Infrastructure Supplier,
Investment Selection tool, Rebalancing tool, Bulk trading
tools, Wrap User Interface, and Appointed Nominee back
ofce trading.
10.4 Which back ofce service providers
does Wrap integrate with?
Current functionality allows users of all the main adviser
software systems, e.g. IRESS (Adviser Ofce and XPLAN),
Intellio, Focus Solutions, Distribution Technology,
Time4Advice, Plum Software, Capita, and Creative
Technologies to receive valuations (including funds,
unit holdings etc.) and where relevant also adviser
remuneration data (commission, fees and Adviser
charge).
We also have new business two-way integration available
with IRESS (Adviser Ofce and XPLAN) and Intellio. We’re
committed to helping advisers transform their business
with integration being a key part.
10.5 Who are your Banking Partners?
The main bankers for the Wrap platform are HSBC, all day
to day operational banking goes via HSBC. We also use
Standard Chartered Bank and Citi Bank as diversication
banking partners to enable the platform to spread the
total client money over 3 banking partners.
10. Tools and Reporting
56Helping you become the business you want to be
10.6 Do you have a CGT calculator?
abrdn can provide information from the platform to
support you when calculating Capital Gains Tax for
clients. Wrap offers two CGT tools to support advisers.
The CGT report shows the gains and losses of disposals
made on the platform, while the Capital Gains Tax
Scenario Tool (CGST) allows you to model the impact
of trades on a client’s CGT position based on a range of
scenarios. Trade instructions can then be given directly
from the CGST.
10.7 Does the platform generate pensions
illustrations?
Yes, products illustrations are produced online based
on a combination of inationary factors and standard
investment growth. All illustrations generated are stored
in the client document library.
10.8 Are there any extra costs?
There are no additional charges for use of our tools as
they are an integral part of our service proposition and
key to supporting good client outcomes through your
advice processes.
10.9 Can the platform notify me if my client’s
cash balances are low?
You can produce a regular cash balance report via
the platform highlighting clients whose account has a
low balance.
The platform will also send an alert to you if there’s an
outstanding charge or insufcient cash to pay charges, for
example, platform/product charges or adviser charges.
Should the balance reduce to zero and charges are
due, the platform may sell investments via our auto-
disinvestment functionality.
57Helping you become the business you want to be
Reporting
10.10 What client reporting do you offer?
The platform can produce client reports at overall Wrap account level, product level and consolidated for single, joint or
trust accounts. Plus, you can add your adviser rm logo to the platform, and this will pull through to key client facing outputs.
To o l Description
Adviser Remuneration
Report
Shows clearly the adviser charges that have been deducted from a client’s account in
a given date range.
Capital Gains Report Advisers can generate a report of transaction gains and losses enabling them to
calculate a clients’ Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liabilities ofine. You can also record the
original book costs of assets transferred onto the platform to allow a more accurate
CGT calculation.
Cash Transactions Shows all cash transactions for a selected period.
Client Portfolio Report This is a comprehensive report that includes account details, “snapshot” information
such as opening & closing values, money in & out, return, valuation, performance,
insights and transactions.
Client Review Includes valuation, performance and transaction statements.
Investment Transactions Shows all investment transactions for a selected period.
Performance Summarises the main changes to a client’s portfolio over a selected period. It shows
opening and closing values and the return on the client’s portfolio both before and after
tax and charges. The data is also shown at portfolio level.
Valuation Summarises the client’s investments by product and asset class, and shows the value
at the date selected.
58Helping you become the business you want to be
10.11 What Management Information (MI) reports do you offer?
There’s a wide range of reports to choose from to support your compliance, business management and marketing
needs. Your rm controls the access. All Wrap MI reports are easy to analyse and can be exported.
To o l Description
Adviser Charges Report This report brings together Paid, Outstanding and Pending Adviser Charging in one
segregated report which helps advisers actively manage cash should they not wish
to utilise auto-disinvestment to cover adviser charges. The reports also enables
reconciliation of adviser charges with back-ofce systems. The information contained in
the reports includes Adviser Name, Customer Account Number, Account Name, Product,
Type of Adviser Charge, Due Date, Expected Adviser Charge, Source Payment Amount,
Product Payment to be deducted from, Cash Account value and Product Cash Value.
The individual reports included are:
.
Outstanding Adviser Charge Report
.
Pending Adviser Charge Report
.
Paid Adviser Charges
Adviser Dealing Helps you identify what deals have been booked, lled or cancelled over various periods
of time. It complements the Track Orders functionality that’s available on the platform
at an individual client level. This shows for each deal: User (i.e. who entered the deal);
the adviser name, client number, client name, product name, model portfolio indicator,
fund code, fund name, deal reference, date and time deal entered, deal type, deal value
and deal status.
Adviser Remuneration We’ve four reports available on the platform which help you actively manage cash on
Wrap if you don’t wish to use auto-disinvestment to cover adviser charges. The reports
also enable you to reconcile adviser charges with your back-ofce system.
The information contained in the four reports is: adviser name, customer account
number, account name, product, type of adviser charge, due date, expected adviser
charge, source payment amount, product payment to be deducted from, Cash Account
value and Product cash Value.
The reports are:
.
Outstanding adviser charge report
.
Pending adviser charge report
.
Paid adviser charges
.
Failed and cancelled adviser charge report
Adviser Remuneration
Report
Gives more details on those clients paying commission including Product, Inception Date,
Value, Type of Commission, Rate, Total.
Asset Allocation Summarises the weighting in each asset class – both in monetary terms and as a
percentage at product level. You can produce this for any time period to carry out a
side by side comparison. This shows product by product, the aggregate value of each
product as at a given date and the allocation of each product to the various asset classes
shown on the platform.
Cash Balances Shows total client cash holdings and a client by client summary of total funds under
management. This report is useful for monitoring low or high cash balances and viewing
the total funds under management.
Client Listing Allows you to identify all clients on the platform providing all the relevant client contact
data such as name, account number, address, phone and email address. This report is
most useful for preparing client mailings for marketing purposes.
Commission Paying
Accounts Report
Listing any clients still paying commission.
Customer Terms Report Showing current client terms including product and platform charge. For each client it
shows: Client Account, Account Name, Business Writer, Product Administration Charge
Current Terms and Platform Charge Current Terms – this also includes % charged.
59Helping you become the business you want to be
To o l Description
Failed and Cancelled and
Adviser Charge Report
This shows a list of all payments that have failed to be paid and those that have
been cancelled.
Income and Withdrawal
Instruction Report
Showing all active regular pending instructions.
Income and
Withdrawal Report
Showing historical income and withdrawals over a specied date range.
ISA Subscription Allows you to identify which clients have a current year ISA, on Wrap. If they have a
current year ISA, the amount subscribed shows with details of any regular contributions.
This shows Adviser name, client name, client number, current year Stocks and Shares ISA,
regular Stocks and Shares ISA payments, Cash Account balance, Personal Portfolio cash
balance and Personal Portfolio value.
MyFolio Holdings Lists out all clients that have a holding in a MyFolio fund and the value of that holding.
Single Asset Listing Full fund details and includes available Mutual & Insured funds, Equities & ETFs, Gilts and
Bonds and Model Portfolios. This report shows Asset Class, Instrument Type, Instrument
Name, Fund Manager, Clean Share Class, CITICODE, SEDOL, ISIN, MEX ID, Income/
Accumulation, AMC, Tradability Status and also which product it is enabled for.
SIPP Detail Helps you to efciently manage your clients’ pension arrangements. The report details all
your clients’ pension holdings including the current value; the cash value, % held in cash
and whether your client is in drawdown or not. It also shows the drawdown type; pre and
post pension value, the level and frequency of income being taken and the value of tax
free lump sum still available.
Total Holdings Shows all investments for all clients, and is sorted by product. You can search by adviser,
product, IMA sector, fund manager, asset class, date and fund. For each holding, it shows
adviser name, client number, client name, product name, fund code, fund name, fund
manager, share class, asset class, IMA sector, number of units, and value of units.
60Helping you become the business you want to be
11. Support services
Our commitment is to support you through
a comprehensive suite of services.
This includes assistance from our highly
skilled professionals who are ready to
address any enquiries on our Wrap platform,
as well as specialised consultancy in
pensions, tax, and wealth transfer.
We provide dedicated contact points, access
to thought leadership, and CPD learning
modules to enrich your experience with us.
11.1 What online support do you provide?
abrdn Adviser is our website giving support in many key
areas and providing access to:
.
‘How do I?’ guides
.
Training guides
.
Product information
.
Fund information
.
Regulatory information
.
Wrap developments
A full literature library is also provided on the Wrap
platform which has copies of all the terms and conditions,
key feature documents, and other Wrap literature.
11.2 Do you have a regional sales team?
Yes we have local Account Managers, Platform
Consultants and a telephone based service. They’re
responsible for helping you, your business and clients
maximise the benets of our platform solution.
They can assist in areas such as client segmentation,
developing client value propositions, client communication
strategies and asset migration.
11.3 Do you have a team of phone-based
consultants?
We do. The Client Engagement Hub is available from
9am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. They can respond to
phone enquiries at 0345 279 1001.
11.4 Do you have a team dealing with day to
day nancial adviser queries?
Our Client Engagement Hub can deal with your phone
and email enquiries while our Platform Consultants and
Account Managers offer face to face support.
Account Managers also have personal support
consultants who assist them, and each of their accounts.
11.5 What does a typical implementation
process for a new adviser look like?
The key implementation steps for new advisers are:
.
Engaging with your business, offering a platform demo
and an opportunity to understand your business model
.
Project planning to set expectations and agree who is
responsible for key tasks
.
Business consultancy and planning to ensure the rm is
prepared for changes to their business model
.
Reviewing and providing best practices on processes
.
Workshops and tailored training master classes held to
inform advisers of key functions
.
An implementation review allowing us to assess areas of
strengths and where further training is required.
11.6 Do you have a team devoted to
helping advisers implement Wrap within
their business?
Yes, our experienced team of Platform Consultants
assists with the implementation of the platform in your
business. They’re responsible for managing the delivery
of any bespoke requirements of our platform solution
such as branding and will build the appropriate training
programme for your staff.
11.7 What trust and tax planning support do
you offer advisers?
Pensions, tax and wealth transfer, is available through
our Techzone website. We provide insights to help you
understand the latest changes and what it means for
your clients. We also keep you up to date with new
legislative changes.
11.8 Do you have a team of pension technical
specialists?
Yes, there are specialist pension technicians available
within the SIPP servicing team and also in our dedicated
Technical Consultancy team to support you at
techzone.abrdn.com.
11. Support services
62Helping you become the business you want to be
11.9 Do you run local seminars for nancial
advisers?
Yes, we hold seminars and forums throughout the
year for adviser rm principals, advisers, paraplanners,
and administrators.
These provide both relevant content and topics for
discussion, but also enable rms to share their experiences
and best practice with peers. A number of these are
CPD accredited.
11.10 Do you provide any tools to help me run
marketing campaigns for my clients?
Yes, the platform can supply client data allowing you
to pinpoint appropriate segmentation for campaigns.
After which you can use mailing or email details to
produce and issue campaign content.
The Account Managers and Platform Consultants can
also provide assistance and expertise for this activity.
11.11 How can I get involved?
You can get involved and share your feedback on our
Adviser Community. You can play a key role in testing, to
ensure solutions are proven, robust and ready for your
business when we launch.
Members of the Community will help us to develop and
shape new solutions such as adviserOS as well as other
exciting initiatives. You’ll get a chance to be involved in a
variety of different opportunities and give feedback ahead
of launch.
63Helping you become the business you want to be
The support we provide
Dedicated, single point of contact
Responsible for helping you, your business and your clients
maximise the benets of the platform.
Assist in areas such as client segmentation, developing
client value propositions, client communication strategies
and asset migration.
Highly qualied in process development and
planning
They will integrate the Wrap platform into your business.
To help maximise functionality, they will plan and deliver
expert face-to-face tailored training to suit your needs.
Expert pensions, tax and wealth transfer
consultancy
We provide a range of technical support, with all advisers
having access to our website techzone.abrdn.com and
CII/PFS accredited CPD modules. Our Technical
Consultants are highly skilled and qualied in nancial
planning, taxation, trusts and estate planning.
24/7 online support
Support website for advisers.
Dedicated, easy access helpline for Wrap
Our highly trained experts can help in submitting client
assets on Wrap or other operational queries.
Dedicated local
Account Manager
Expert technical
consultancy
Online support
An integrated and efcient support service
Dedicated Platform Consultant Adviser Support team
64Helping you become the business you want to be
Thank you for taking the time to read this guide.
The ten sections we’ve covered will form a good basis for
your due diligence process.
Not only will they help you decide what you require from
a platform, they’ll also help you understand any additional
support you may need.
Due diligence isn’t just a tick box exercise.
It requires detailed work.
Done correctly, not only will you satisfy the regulator,
but you’ll also add real value to your business.
Of course, platforms must be suitable for clients,
rst and foremost.
But they should also suit you.
We rmly believe abrdn’s comprehensive Wrap platform
solution can support your business model and make day-
to-day business more efcient.
And best of all?
It can help to take off the pressure. Now and in the future.
We hope you’ve found
our guide useful
65Helping you become the business you want to be
abrdn.com STA0624611840-001
For more information visit abrdn.com/adviser
Standard Life Savings Limited, provider of the Wrap platform, is registered in Scotland (SC180203), 1 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 2LL
and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Standard Life Savings Limited is part of the abrdn group, which comprises
abrdn plc an its subsidiaries. Standard Life Savings Limited is part of abrdn group (abrdn plc and its subsidiaries).
WRAP163B 0624 ©abrdn plc 2024. All rights reserved.
Please speak to your usual abrdn contact to nd out how Wrap can support your business and help you to
meet your clients’ needs.
If you’re new to abrdn or unsure who your aligned contact is, get in touch with our Business Development team.
Email: business.development@abrdn.com
