Important Update - Discussion document on the addition of Digital signature capability to the Application journey

Modified on Fri, 28 Jun, 2024 at 12:56 PM

Discussion document – Potential integration of digital signature to an application journey

Purpose

A discussion document to explore the viability of the addition of digital signature capability to the Application journey in the Adviser and the Non-advised (D2C) portal.

This document seeks feedback from partner firms, which will be used to make further decisions.

Background

We have investigated the demand and viability of adding a digital signature capability in the Application journey.

The potential objective being that the portal generated documents can capture digital signatures for Transfer Authority; Fees, Target Market, Origo Declarations; and Direct Debit Mandates.

We received mixed feedback so far:

Adviser Portal- Platforms who have tried to incorporate Digital Signatures have not done so successfully, as there are many variables which we have detailed in the Limitations/Concerns section.

For D2C journey – the digital signature has been perceived as a desired part of the full digital journey, however, we have not seen any evidence of this across the other D2C offerings.

Approach – if we progressed

The IFA firm will submit the application for digital signature at the end of the account opening journey and the account will be incepted as usual.

The Application PDF will be digitally signed by the investor, and a relevant declaration and signature field added in the Illustration PDF to state that the investor has understood and agreed to the Illustration.

Employers could receive a digital signature request- for contributions via Direct Debit to review and approve, and those who do not support the digital signatures would be handled manually.

Once the documents are signed, copies will be captured and stored for the IFA and investors to view in their portal.

Where digital signatures are not completed it will be the responsibility of the IFA firm to follow up with the investors.

D2C journey - the digital signature capture will be for the investor only as we do not currently support employer contributions.

ISA, GIA and SIPP wrappers will be supported.

Limitations/Concerns

Feedback gathered from the adviser firms:

Joint Accounts, Trusts, Trustees, CADs could be too complicated for digital signature capture.

Multiple documents are often collated & sent from the IFA firm – the Platform application form is just one element.

Transfer Authority Forms - some ceding platforms do not accept digital signatures and so the process would revert to wet signature capture.

Employer direct debit mandate forms, some employers do not support the digital signatures.

Parmenion incorporates digital signatures and handles checking and chasing, however, they do not incept the account until signatures are in place. This differs from the current Hubwise approach to account opening where we can incept the account whilst signatures are being obtained. We understand the latter approach to be preferable.

How to provide feedback

Please provide your comments by 30/06/2022.

1. By email to customer.services@hubwise.co.uk using the subject line ‘Firm name - Digital signature feedback’

2. Raise a Freshdesk ticket using the below format.

Subject line - ‘Firm name - Digital signature feedback’

Ticket Type - Other
Ticket Subject - Digital signature feedback
Account Type - All