FPA launches digital SOA guide
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has launched a statement of advice (SOA) guide to help advisers produce more accessible, personalised, and meaningful SOAs for clients.
The ‘Future of the SOA: An interactive guide’ was created by the FPA’s Future of the SOA working group that aimed to create a vision of what the future SOA could look and feel like.
Last month, the working group concluded that digital SOAs that included video, audio, imagery, infographics, graphs, and quizzes were key to improving the advice experience.
The guide includes a video series that covers topics related to digital SOA production and delivery, and six sample digital SOAs created by fintech providers.
FPA chief executive, Dante De Gori, said: “As we approach 2020, this guide really represents a starting point for the next decade of financial planning.
“We must start to ‘break paper’ and utilise the full breadth of digital, tech and communication modes available to allow advice delivery to be more accessible, personalised and meaningful for clients.
“The audience for the SOA must be the client, not the compliance manager of our licensee. Research shows only 8% of consumers have a preference for the written paper-based documents we produce today. The other 92% of clients learn best by watching, listening, engaging and testing to come to their understanding of their financial plan.”
The guide includes topics such as:
- The evolution of SOA
- How can we help our clients digest information from an SOA?
- What are the next stages in our evolution?
- What happens when the technology evolves?
- Aims of the example interactive SOA
- Design and layout of the interactive SOA
- Will my compliance team come on board?
Recommended for you
ASIC was active in the first quarter of 2025 with several financial adviser bannings and court action, while the FSCP also handed down outcomes to advisers.
With a joint venture announced between WT Financial and Merchant Wealth Partners, the firm may have a US background, but partner David Haintz has a long history with Australian financial advice.
The big four bank is set to see $40 million per annum in cost savings as it continues to migrate customers from its Asgard wealth platform to BT Panorama by FY26.
AMP North has added three new managers to its range of managed accounts for financial advisers and also extended its existing partnership with Betashares.
