From this month Skandia are no longer accepting paper application forms for their Selestia Investment Solutions platform.
On the surface this is a bold move – but one that if it is accepted by the industry will give them a cost advantage, which ultimately can be passed on to clients. Many Insurers and Fund managers have invested millions in platforms to gain cost savings but until everyone moves to using Ecommerce they are left running two parallel processes and racking up two sets of operating costs. Given the cost savings of removing one of these processes will be substantial and that Skandia says that 70% of advisers already only submit forms online it may be less of a gamble than first meets the eye.
Of course beneath the bold headline of paper being abolished it is accepted some products are not yet fully automated. These primarily are their Corporate/Trustee/Pension cases and their Offshore Collective Investment Bonds. In addition some applications will require additional paperwork. In these cases, the application will need to be processed online and the supporting paperwork posted to Skandia, this will include:
• Collective Investment Account Irrevocable Account Designation Form
• ISA Transfer Authority Form
• ISA Re-Registration Authority Form
• Collective Retirement Account Transferring Scheme Authority and relevant Discharge Forms
• Collective Retirement Account Expression of Wish Form
• Collective Retirement Account Benefit Crystallisation Event Request Form
• Third Party Payer Form and Employer Payer Form
• All Power of Attorney cases
• Re-Registration of a Collective Investment Account
It will interesting to see how many other financial institutions switch off paper in the coming months as well.
