Investment, protection and retirement specialist LV= has today fully launched its ‘Platform Services’ option for advisers in a partnership with Embark. This marks the culmination of both providers’ collaboration and the end of a 12-month controlled launch period with a panel of advisers. 

LV= Platform Services uses Embark’s award-winning technology to give advisers using LV= greater choice and access by bringing multiple products together in one place. 

Thanks to the work of the two providers, advisers can now access insured options like LV= Smoothed Managed Funds (SMF), blended with a choice of over 5,000 funds and model portfolios from more than 70 discretionary fund managers (DFMs) available on Embark’s platform in a wide choice of wrappers like SIPP and ISA.  

Embark’s white label platform combines leading-edge FNZ technology with a front end owned by the firm. This means partners can benefit from the latest innovations from the technology partner while also having greater control over adviser and customer digital journeys directly through Embark.  

Therefore, advisers using LV= Platform Services will also benefit from regular updates and integrations on Embark’s roadmap, including features like drip-feed drawdown, which allows clients to gradually withdraw money from their pension pot, taking smaller, regular amounts while keeping the rest invested to potentially grow over time. This is scheduled for the next major platform enhancement package due for delivery later this year.  

In a post-Consumer Duty and FCA thematic review world, financial advisers are placing extra focus on their retirement income advice propositions. The LV= platform is designed to meet this need, enabling them to enhance their centralised investment and retirement propositions with access to LV’s unique Smoothed Managed Funds. These are a range of multi-asset, risk rated funds aimed at capital growth with minimal volatility.  

The unique smoothing mechanism, which boasts over 15 years of unbroken smoothed performance, averages the fund’s daily underlying price over the preceding 26 weeks to establish a ‘smoothed’ fund price, designed to mitigate the impact of sudden market shocks on the portfolio.  

It is also backed by the financial strength of Lloyds Banking Group with a ‘Superior’ rating from AKG, one of only four platforms in the market with this score. 

Most recently, LV= Platform Services received a 5 Star Rating from leading financial product and market intelligence business, Defaqto.