ANZFP to pilot new customer advice software
ANZ Financial Planning (ANZFP) will be the first dealer group to pilot a new total advisory solution, which will allow fee-for-service financial planners to offer clients a private banking experience.
Corepath managing director Trevor Sinclair said the Personal Vault, which was developed during a three-year research program, is effectively “a scaleable private banking model”.
He added: “The rich manage to have someone to look after their affairs and take a holistic view and so on, but there has been nothing out there that does that for the mass affluent.”
The solution consists of a web-based data warehouse and advice process, where an adviser’s customers can store all of their financial and personal information. This includes copies of any documentation, such as trust and property deeds, financial plans, asset and liability statements, birth certificates and health records.
All information relating to the client’s bank accounts, taxation, super, investments and insurance will also be available on the Personal Vault.
ANZFP general manager Mike Goodall said the Personal Vault “filled a need that other systems just weren’t able to do”.
He added: “Rather than the software being aimed at the adviser using it … this is far more client centric. We haven’t seen anything quite like that in Australia, although we have seen some in America.”
ANZFP intends to launch its pilot program with 15 advisers shortly and, should the response be positive, Goodall hopes to undertake a broader rollout across the group.
Sinclair said the solution is being distributed to planners, rather than direct to customers, however, “part of the proposition is that Personal Vault is owned by the client and kept in trust for them, and with express permission for their adviser. But they can then give it to other advisers for selective views”.
Goodall added: “It captures a total view of a client and leads the planner through a very logical process to look at a wider range of needs for the customer than they would traditionally do.”
Sinclair said the benefits for clients include “getting their financial affairs in order and having a tool that allows them to collaborate effectively, because every time they have to go to another adviser, they have to fill out the fact form again, and one way or another, they will be charged for that”.
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