Netwealth has acquired Xeppo, a data management and analytics tool, to create greater workflow efficiencies for financial advice businesses.
In an announcement on 2 September, Netwealth confirmed it has purchased 100 per cent of Xeppo. The tool is designed for wealth management, accounting and mortgage firms, and connects their existing enterprise systems to harness efficiencies, remove duplication and improve business intelligence.
The wealth management technology firm first announced a strategic partnership with Xeppo in September 2020 when it purchased an initial 25 per cent equity stake in the company.
According to Netwealth research, the majority of advice practices use upwards of 15 different technologies within their business. The acquisition aims to address the concerns that arise from workflow inefficiencies, heightened cyber security risks and governance pressures.
“Our acquisition of Xeppo aligns with one of Netwealth’s strategic goals of having data at the heart of everything we do. Xeppo is at the forefront of data management and analytics, and by adding the Xeppo capabilities to Netwealth, it accelerates our strategy and prepares us even better for an AI-driven future,” Matt Heine, Netwealth chief executive and managing director, remarked.
By enabling advice firms to bring together their client systems, Heine expects the deal to help advisers and licensees unlock the power of big data through a single source of client information. In turn, this will drive client relationships and the analysis of real-time data to support business and revenue growth.
“It is clear that the Xeppo solution has been designed not only for the professional firm of the future, but also the licensee of the future, who can now use a single source of data for increased oversight and governance and better understand risk.
“Netwealth and Xeppo combined will offer wealth management firms the ability to unify client data and systems, which we believe is the cornerstone of any future-orientated advice practice and licensee,” the CEO said.
Specifically, Xeppo’s key features include access to more than 25 business software connectors, ranging from financial services, accounting, wealth, banking, compliance and self-management super fund (SMSF).
It offers industry-specific reports and dashboards, alongside tools constructed to help connect, manage and control client data.
Netwealth also announced its FY24 results last month, with its funds under administration up 25 per cent to $88 billion. This was helped by net inflows of $11.2 billion, up from $9.9 billion a year ago, and positive market movement of $6.5 billion.
“2023 was a pretty tough year, we recorded good inflows but a lot of transitions that we had won were paused. These have really started to gather pace in FY24. So the backlog of opportunity and business transition from FY23 has kickstarted,” Heine said in August.
