Product providers are turning to software solutions to help them get new investment products to the market ahead of legislative changes, according to Bravura head of product Darren Stevens.
The desire to launch products quickly is being driven by a combination of the Government's Future of Financial Advice and Stronger Super requirements, which Stevens said is encouraging financial advisers to move up the value chain and focus their services on high net worth individuals.
"What that means from a system perspective is that the end providers need to have a more sophisticated offering – they need to have a broader range of assets, they need to have stronger tax engine capabilities, and they need to be able to compete with a lot of the functionality you're seeing in self-managed super funds today as a means of retaining that book of business.
"What people are looking for is a utopian administration system that allows them to have a long-term solution for their legacy business, which means having broad product coverage to reduce the compliance burdens that they're covering, but also allowing them to move rapidly to market," Stevens said.
According to Darren Speirs, Bravura Garradin product manager, fundamental to the Australian market is for a portfolio administration system to have a strong tax engine.
Stevens added that he has seen increased requests for this tax capability from international asset managers, and this demand could be further amplified by the potential impact of the United States Government's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act on the Australian market.
