Revamped Asgard software expected at year’s end

By Zoe Fielding

Upgrades to AsgardWealth Solutions’ planning and practice management software will be rolled out to advisers in the last quarter of 2006, the company has announced.

The software development program was flagged in September last year, when chief executive Geoff Lloyd revealed details of the St George-owned fund administrator’s three-year strategy. This included plans to focus on adviser solutions rather than products, and phase out the Assirt brand following the sale of Assirt Research to Standard & Poor’s in February 2005.

“After much research and development, our project to integrate and upgrade our current software offering for advisers has now entered the implementation phase,” Lloyd said last week.

He said the project — dubbed Tropicana — would see the company integrate its adviserNET platform software, which is actively used by around 5,500 advisers, with the 1,200-user Assirt financial planning software. Relationship management, workflow and portfolio planning tools would also be integrated into the system.

Enhancements to the direct equities trading functions would also be incorporated into the first release, with other asset classes such as mortgages and insurance to be added in further updates in 2007.

Lloyd said the views of many advisers had been canvassed in designing a blueprint for the system and the company was committed to investing around one third of its annual budget for information technology in the project.

“We are confident we can build on this solid foundation and deliver a next-generation software solution for advisers that will rival the best in the market.”

Lloyd said the project was another step towards achieving one of the company’s stated goals of ‘enabling advice’ by providing planners with a range of products and services to support them in delivering advice to investors.