Hartley’s technical team approached us to discuss the possibility of helping them to create a client portal to help them revolutionise the way SIPPs are bought and managed. They wanted to investigate the potential to move the administration of these complex pensions away from being such a paper and office-based to a system to something where IFAs and private clients could have online access to their pensions in order to administer, invest and drawdown from their SIPPs.

To deliver this project, we brought in our technical partner, Newicon, a local software development team and collaborated with them to take the Hartley team through an intensive architecture phase in order to determine the parameters of the portal, the desired outcomes and the functionality and technical specifications. From there we were in a position to start designing what these processes should look like and working out what that user experience should be. Some of the key features of this portal include the ability to manage SIPP and investor details online; View investment summary (with clear and easy-to-understand graphics); View bank transactions; Secure Messaging for reliable, secure communications; Full automation of the drawdown process

An interactive prototype was created, showing how each screen would look for each part of the process and every function required. This rapid prototyping enabled the Hartley team to quickly visualise how the portal would work and provide immediate feedback and technical input in terms of how the pensions would need to be administered.

The portal allows IFAs, their clients and execution-only clients to set up, administer and take benefits from their SIPPs all in one place. The simple and easy process allows users to start and complete applications online in a matter of minutes.

We are delighted to help shape a revolutionary client portal for Hartley Pensions that goes well above and beyond current industry standards. We worked closely with Newicon and Hartley in the early phases to workshop, plan and design the portal. We’re really happy that the attention to detail and thorough planning helped create such an exiting product for Hartley Pensions and we are excited to see the improvements the portal will have on the industry. Hartley Pensions now have a SIPP portal that provides functionality that simply can’t be rivalled by its competitors. It will revolutionise the pension industry, serving to meet client needs with a functional, modernised interface that is also seamlessly responsive for desktop, tablet and mobile.

With this new portal, Hartley Pensions has achieved full automation on all common pension administration requests and ensures accessibility and ease of use. The tool will certainly help advisers and their customers during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown period.