Who are Alliance Trust Savings?

Feetup

My IFA is recommending Alliance Trust Savings as my savings 'platform', yet a search on here gives almost no information. I understand from press coverage at the time, that they were bought by Interactive Investor in July 2019 and sold on to Embark Group 3 months later. ATS lost £19.3m in 2017, but recovered to turn a profit of £1.1m in 2018, says the Dundee Courier. ATS are slated on Trustpilot as being slow or unresponsive and given 1 out of 5 stars in 33 of the 35 reviews.

Should I avoid them like the plague, or do you have a good experience of them?

coyrls

I don't understand. ATS no longer exists as a platform, retail clients have been migrated to Interactive Investor and advised clients to Embark (as you said), so you don't have the option of using them.

Malthusian

coyrls wrote: »

ATS no longer exists as a platform, retail clients have been migrated to Interactive Investor and advised clients to Embark (as you said), so you don't have the option of using them.

Not true - yet. Alliance Trust's advised platform still exists although it is due to be transferred to Embark later this year.

I am surprised that the adviser wants to recommend them, given that a) Alliance Trust is rubbish and has been for years b) the uncertainty over future charges, service standards etc after the transition to Embark, but it's a free country.

Peter314

I am with ATS, having been advised to use them by an IFA who did a DB transfer for me. I've been happy with them and their fixed charges, which work out much better than a percentage fee.

I'm aware they are being/have been taken over by ii, but the platform I'm on is still branded as ATS.

https://adviser.alliancetrustsavings.co.uk/composerweb/com.infocomp.composerweb.gwt.ComposerWebATS/login.jsp

Albermarle

I'm aware they are being/have been taken over by ii,

This is only the retail side - people who do not invest via financial advisors .

Peter314

Albermarle wrote: »

This is only the retail side - people who do not invest via financial advisors .

Thanks - the IFA did the work on a transactional basis so I am (now) a retail client but - apparently - on the FA-based platform.

jaybeetoo

Malthusian wrote: »

Alliance Trust is rubbish and has been for years

I was with ATS, before moving to ii, and I was very happy with their service.

Feetup

Im wondering if ATS offer incentives to IFA's who place business with them and whether this is a factor in my IFA steering me towards ATS?

Chino

Feetup wrote: »

ATS are slated on Trustpilot as being slow or unresponsive and given 1 out of 5 stars in 33 of the 35 reviews.

Which just goes to show what an unrepresentative impression review websites can give. I was with ATS and found that, on the rare occasion I had cause to contact them, they were very quick and efficient.

SonOf

Feetup wrote: »

Im wondering if ATS offer incentives to IFA's who place business with them and whether this is a factor in my IFA steering me towards ATS?

That would be illegal.
No they do not.

It is quite possibly that the IFA has all the functionality they need and desire with ATS (the IFA version) and as platforms are a bit like supermarkets, they prefer to "shop" at ATS

Doc_N

I was with ATS but moved away from them because of their high charges and appalling service levels.  Hargreaves Lansdown is proving substantially cheaper and better.

Incredibly, ATS have just written out to a number of ex-customers telling them that income has arisen on post-closure accounts (more than two years after the event) but not been paid out.  Worse still, they're saying they'll pay it to a charity of their choice if there's no reply within 11 days from the date of the letter.

ATS clearly continues its old path - shockingly bad customer service and appalling inefficiency.