It's hard to know what to make of this year. The headlines don’t get any easier to deal with, from the awfulness of the war in Ukraine, to the cost of living crisis and the new winter of discontent.

Advice professionals continue to remain resilient, and to help clients through where they can.

Looking at our most read articles this year, there are a couple of themes that come through.

The platform market has continued to shift and evolve (so business as usual then), with no less than three platform rebrands and four platform repricings. So it stands to reason that a number of our top 10 articles are geared around keeping up with the pace of platform change, and what the latest developments mean for your firm.

Some are centred around wanting to do right and do better by clients - interpreting and getting ready for Consumer Duty has been an inescapable focus this year. And we hear some eloquent planner and paraplanner voices on priorities both professionally and personally.

So without further ado, here’s our list of the Analyser articles that have piqued your interest the most in 2022.

10. The adviser reality on tech and provider processes

For all that home working has forced the issue on getting digital processes to a better place, the way that advice firms, providers, platforms and tech companies integrate still leaves a lot to be desired.

Our Fragmented World report (kindly supported by Benchmark Capital, GBST and Wealth Wizards) looks at what's changed on adviser tech and integration, what's stayed the same and some potential solutions to make day-to-day processes that much slicker.

There's a summary of our findings linked above, plus a link to the full report if you're so inclined.

9. Adviser briefing: Why the latest platform stats make for hard reading [Analyser subscribers only]

The platform market got off to a bad start this year, and it proved to be a sign of things to come.

In fairness, year-on-year comparisons were always going to be tricky thanks to the pent-up demand seen in 2021, but nevertheless our adviser briefings chart how markets and platforms have been tested this year. The sector's relatively new shareholders may have been equally tested.

8. What’s new in Analyser: Performance, comparisons and more

An Analyser-specific one, this relates to developments we brought in in October, mainly concerning the MPS side of the software.

This post outlines changes we've made to carrying out MPS comparisons, providing access to underlying MPS performance data and extra business analysis information, as well as separate changes to shared log ins.

As always, if there are any updates or developments you'd like to see, just let us know.

7. The trouble with MPS performance on platforms

The thing about launching products is you find yourself wandering into debates and conversations you may not have had to participate in before.

So it was with the launch of Analyser for MPS, prompting as it did some earnest conversations about how to calculate MPS performance on platforms, and the nuances of where performance differs and why.

Mark neatly sums up the issues at play here, and how Analyser seeks to navigate them.

6. From fees to platform reviews: Your SOTAN snapshot [Analyser subscribers only]

Ahead of wave five of State of the Adviser Nation dropping into your inboxes in the not too distant future, it's worth a revisit of what we found last time around.

Here we pull out some of the main findings from the last report, including how firms charge for advice, and if and why they're changing their platform. There's also some useful pointers for questions you might be asking in light of Consumer Duty.

5. Price vs service, and the new platforms dilemma

In this article, our good friends at Plan Works Nathan Fryer and Siân Davies Cole discuss the dilemma of what to do about new entrants to the platform market.

Do you take a punt on an exciting new platform that isn't weighed down by old tech and legacy business? How important is criteria such as financial strength? And if you do decide to move, when is the right time to do so?

Nathan and Siân explore some of these challenges, and how they deal with platform market noise.

4. How to set up your client proposition

Some firms choose to segment their clients, other have a core proposition. However you work with clients, this short guide shows the simple steps to adding this to Analyser so that it can be built into future due diligence reports.

Showing your rationale for why you pick the platforms and investments you do is all part of the Analyser service.

3. State of the Platform Nation: A good year for platforms? [Analyser subscribers only]

For the uninitiated, State of the Platform Nation includes an assessment of each platform we cover, and of the underlying health of the platform market overall.

There's a pricing review (obvs) and round-ups in graph form of platform market change, who does what on vertical integration, market size and performance (™ the lang cat insight team). Plus all the platform heat maps and data tables you could possibly want.

2. Phil’s farewell to a 40-year career in advice

We always love it when we get the chance to have in-depth chats with planners, and this conversation with Perceptive Planning's Phil Billingham is no exception. Those who know Phil will know he's a legend of the profession.

In this interview Phil talks about starting to chart a path away from his advice career, the changes he's seen during his 40-year tenure, and where he thinks financial planning could go next.

1. Why we need the Consumer Duty: A planner's view

It had to be Consumer Duty didn't it? The top spot for our most read article of the year goes to Helena Wardle, of Smith and Wardle Financial Planning.

It's fair to say Consumer Duty isn't something that's universally popular among advisers and planners (that may be putting it mildly). But others, including Helena, choose to see things differently.

For her, it's about acknowledging that treating customers fairly is a concept that's worth strengthening. It's about resetting the way firms talk to clients as standard, and staking a claim on what people can expect from all the good financial planners out there.

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For more on Consumer Duty, we have a host of articles and resources that can help. Here's a taster:

Consumer Duty: Your cut out and keep guide

Where should advisers start on Consumer Duty? [Analyser subscribers only]

Consumer Duty: Time to get real