Software unlocking adviser efficiency

Software company Midwinter Financial Services believes it holds the key to adviser efficiency and the cost-effective delivery of advice.

The software company today released new functionality it claims will ‘revolutionise’ financial planning in Australia by dramatically cutting the average time taken to produce a full Statement of Advice (SOA).

Until now advisers using Midwinter software for product replacement and strategy advice support were required to output their recommendations – often through cutting and pasting – into SOA templates external to the software.

The group has now created PlanBuilder, which it describes as a full SOA generation system, linking back to the existing product replacement and strategy advice modules of its Reasonable Basis software. The upgrade allows the information collected during the strategy process to be migrated into an SOA template within the software.

PlanBuilder also taps in to another new module called ObjectivesBase – a database of terminology commonly used by advisers to outline client objectives and advice recommendations. Advisers can add to or edit the database but it can also be controlled at a dealer group or compliance manager level.

At a demonstration of the software in Adelaide yesterday Midwinter Financial Services director Matthew Esler asked advisers and paraplanners how long it would take to create an SOA for a couple, implementing superannuation planning, transition to retirement, investment gearing, debt management and personal insurance advice. The replies came in at around two or three days, or longer where the relevant product or research data wasn’t on hand. Esler argued that with Midwinter software that SOA could be created in only hours.

If accurate, such a reduction in the time taken to deliver advice would have significant implications for the revenue generated by advice firms, as well as the types of clients they may be able to service.

“If you can produce a lot more advice, it means your costs can come down. It means [practices] can generate more margin, but it also means they can then target lower-net-worth clients,” Esler said.

That could prove fruitful in an environment where many advice practices are struggling with how to deal with ‘C and D’ clients.

“Some advisers will say: ‘I can’t deal with a client with less than X capital and income because it’s not worth my while. [The client] can’t afford to pay for the advice because the advice takes me so long to produce. If complex advice that now takes two or three days is reduced to one or two hours, that means I could produce [up to] four complex plans each day, rather than one every three days.’”

As well as allowing advisers to reconnect with lower-net-worth clients, Esler said it also means advice practices “can become profitable again”.