Fourth Line has announced internal leadership changes amidst its plans to fully automate the financial advice assurance process through artificial intelligence.
David Travers, Fourth Line’s chief executive who founded the company in 2019, would transition into the newly formed role of executive chairman. His position would focus on delivering a leading-edge technology roadmap that would automate advice assurance.
The current chief operating officer, Joel Ronchi, was promoted to chief executive and would oversee new client acquisition and service delivery.
“Joel is the natural choice to lead the company through this next growth phase. He is passionate about the importance of high-quality, independent financial advice and has dedicated his career to making it more accessible and affordable,” Travers commented.
Moreover, Paul Rogan, financial services executive and fintech founder, would become the non-executive director of Fourth Line.
Rogan held 25 years’ worth of executive experience at MLC/NAB and Challenger. He additionally founded two fintech startups, including robo-adviser SuperEd. Currently, Rogan is a non-executive director at both HUB24 Limited and EQT Superannuation.
The executive restructure underpinned the firm’s technology roadmap, which would include the planned acquisition of proprietary software and the integration of large language models such as GPT-4.
Travers noted that Fourth Line’s first-generation robo-assurance software captured a 13 per cent share of the advice assurance market in less than three years.
“Fourth Line 2.0, the next evolution of our ‘outsourced compliance brain’, will incorporate
the latest advances in generative AI and machine learning technologies, meaning our system
will be able to read, understand and evaluate all forms of unstructured data, from fact-finds
to file notes,” he said.
The software would teach itself to identify, assess and code minor variations between advice files created by human advisers.
“This will not only drastically reduce the workload of compliance officers but will also bulletproof licensees’ advice processes and lift the standard of advice to the benefit of consumers,” the chairman continued.
Travers would collaborate with Professor Dan Hunter, the company’s co-chief technology officer and generative AI expert.
“Since inception, we’ve focused on business-building basics, that is, providing tangible value to clients by delivering our core regulatory IP using existing software technology with human oversight.
“With a talented team, a rapidly growing client base and proven market demand, we have the firm footing needed to support a technological step-change that will revolutionise advice assurance,” Hunter said.
