Midwinter lays out digital advice strategy

Speaking at a lunch in Sydney yesterday, Midwinter managing director Julian Plummer said financial planning licensees have plenty to gain from expanding into digital advice.

"At the front office you’re getting larger amounts of customers, and you’re getting more seamless customer acquisition," Mr Plummer said.

The system Midwinter is developing will allow clients to escalate issues through different channels, he added.

"In the back office [there is] reduced costs of advice delivery. The marginal costs of these things is very low because it’s all hosted in the cloud," Mr Plummer said.

When it comes to Midwinter's digital advice development 'road map', the company is taking an 'agile' approach as opposed to the typical 'waterfall' approach, he said.

In other words, the digital advice system will be rolled out in five fully functional stages this year rather than in one go.

"The first release will be on 30 June this year. We’re hoping to have simple super contributions, savings plans and insurance ready to go," Mr Plummer said.

The second release on 21 August 2015 will include transition to retirement capabilities, debt reduction, and a 'mortgage versus superannuation' optimiser, he said.

"[The third release on 25 September 2015] will allow people to transact on any ASX-listed equity/warrant/option, and it will also include mFunds," Mr Plummer said.

On 29 October 2015 Midwinter will roll out direct equity portfolios, recontributions and estate planning on the new software.

The fifth and final release on 20 November 2015 will feature SMSF capabilities, he said.