Synaptic

Issue 4, July 2009

www.synaptic.co.uk


	Welcome New group email Please note that the general email address for the Synaptic research team has changed to financialsoftwareresearch@capita.co.uk. Our individual email addresses are unchanged. Did you know... ...that since the start of 2009 research conducted by IFAs for structured investment plans has increased month-on-month, with June volumes being more than 50% higher than January. The average case size during June was just short of £25,000. (Source: Synaptic Insight based on rolling quarterly statistics and adjusted for licence increases). What would you like to know from our Synaptic Insight data? For further details, please contact Anita White, Provider Business Development Manager, on 07826 875982 or anita.white@capita.co.uk. In this edition... Hints and tips Helping you with competitor analysis As a product provider, you can benefit from the data export facility in Synaptic Research allowing data tables to be customised and exported to Microsoft Excel. This service allows you to obtain full contract data for all of your competitors in one simple grid! There is no easier way to get your hands on this level of detail. The image below shows where this functionality exists in Synaptic Research. If you would like this data export facility but do not have access to Synaptic Research, please contact Anita White on 07826 875982 or anita.white@capita.co.uk, who will be happy to arrange this. Alternatively, if you would like us to produce data tables for you for a small cost, please contact financialsoftwareresearch@capita.co.uk. Back to the top Team news Mark Davis is moving on to pastures new and will leave his post as Research Analyst on 17th July. For those of you currently liaising with Mark for your product maintenance, we will provide details for your new point of contact on the team shortly. In the meantime, please refer any enquiries to financialsoftwareresearch@capita.co.uk. Good luck, Mark!! Back to the top Synaptic data developments Locum cover insurance We are aiming to launch a locum cover insurance area in Q3, which will sit within the health module. This type of cover is strictly for medical professionals (and similar occupations; vets, chiropodists, chiropractors etc) to cover the costs of finding a replacement should they be unable to work due to illness or accident. These plans have developed somewhat over recent years as they now offer additional benefits such as jury duty cover, personal possessions, etc. This appears to be an increasingly popular area amongst advisers and one provider reporting that their IFA business for this type of cover increased by 160% last year! We will be supporting this launch with relevant contributions from providers in our next edition of Connection magazine. If you are interested in publishing some educational content in relation to this topic (at no cost) or would simply like to include an advert (at a heavily reduced rate) please contact sean.casey@capita.co.uk. Equity release We have been busy expanding our product and provider coverage in this area over the last few months. As part of this expansion we are also now including products from providers who are not members of SHIP (Safe Home Income Plans). We fully recognise what SHIP represent in terms of consumer protection when considering equity release and our resource centre continues to offer a direct link to their website. However, we also recognise that schemes that are offered by other regulated providers now offer suitable safeguards for consumer protection and following some demand from our IFA user base, we took the decision to also include non SHIP members within this research category. To facilitate this change, we have made appropriate amendments to the software including the addition of a new suitability report template with paragraphs appropriate for non SHIP providers. Please forward any ideas to the team by e-mailing financialsoftwareresearch@capita.co.uk. Thank you for your feedback. Back to the top In the news *New report profiles the UK bond market* Withdrawal options were one of the most commonly sought features by investors buying bonds in 2008, according to a new report published by Capita Financial Software. The report which looks at more than 10,000 searches made by independent financial advisers (IFAs) during 2008, identifies the most important product features, to highlight those products best suited to the market requirements. It found that withdrawal options were the most popular non-demographic feature sought in almost all types of bond. The feature ranged from 50% in the case of distribution bonds to more than 51% on protected benefits products and nearly 53% among unit linked bonds. Commenting on the results, Ellen Ashcroft, Research Manager at Capita Financial Software, said: "The report which provides invaluable data about customer preferences for product providers and IFAs alike, was produced using Synaptic's Insight tool. In 2008 it captured 10,214 pieces of onshore bond research by IFAs of which 85% involved the IFA selecting features on his or her clients' behalf. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given recent market uncertainty, the option to withdraw funds scored particularly highly with clients. "We also saw big changes in the asset mix of investments in to bonds. By the end of the year the unit linked investment bond requests for the UK Equity Fund had fallen by 60%. In contrast, popularity of Money Market Funds remained level throughout, being requested in 10% of bonds. UK real estate and corporate bonds also scored highly with 8.5% of searches, while searches for Asia Pacific based bonds comprised less than 3% of the total." In addition to looking at product features the report also looked at the demographics of clients for whom the searches were conducted. Unsurprisingly the majority of searches (48%) were conducted for clients aged between 56 and 70. But 5% of searches were conducted for clients aged between 21 and 40 and a further 1% between birth and 20, suggesting that these are not seen solely as a retirement product. There was a fairly equal split between single males, single females and joint cases – of the joint cases being written we saw that 5% were for same-sex couples, a figure that may rise with the legalisation of civil partnerships. The report also looks at typical amounts invested. Almost 60% of searches were conducted for amounts of £50,000 or less with the most popular amount being £40,000 to £50,000. Back to the top Send this to a colleague This service is supplied exclusively to product providers. If you would like us to add any colleagues to this distribution list, please use this link and complete the form provided. Back to the top

	Capita Financial Software Eaton House, 1 Eaton Road Coventry CV1 2FJ Tel: +44 (0) 2476 632884 Fax: +44 (0) 2476 839701 Email: financialsoftwareresearch@capita.co.uk Web: www.synaptic.co.uk © 2009 Capita Financial Software. All rights reserved. Capita Financial Software, Eaton House, 1 Eaton Road, Coventry, CV1 2FJ. Registered in England number 3136234. Registered office: The Registry, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, BR3 4TU. Part of the Capita Group Plc.