New ‘first of its kind’ tool claims to cut SOA production time in half

DASH (formerly WealthO2) has launched a “first of its kind” goals-based advice cash flow modelling tool which the company claims cuts statement of advice (SoA) production time in half.

The advice software and platform solutions provider said the new product, Archer, will enable financial advisers to optimise and calculate advice strategies with the ability to see how far off a client is to achieving their goals and the fastest way to get there.

DASH CEO Andrew Whelan said the advanced algorithms and optimisers of Archer is the key to cutting down SoA and modelling time.

“Archer is the first real innovation that I have seen over the last decade which makes goals-based advice central to the client value proposition,” Mr Whelan said.

“At DASH, we are very excited about the launch of Archer and how it will help financial advisers in 2022 and beyond.

“We wanted to help advisers easily engage in meaningful goals-based conversations with their clients and stop focusing their reviews solely on investment performance. Best of all, Archer allows advisers to quantify the value of their advice purely from strategic recommendations and separate to portfolio return.”

The launch of Archer comes after Whelan argued that the technology for a digital SoA is “already there” during a recent episode of the ifa Show podcast.

“Any Word document can be converted to a piece of software that an adviser can present more in a more engaging fashion,” Mr Whelan said.

“When it's digital, you can time how long people are in certain sections. So, there's all these extra compliance features that a Word document won't give you. It gives you version control if you make changes. You can have in room chat, like an SoA chat room, so you don't have to be there and then if you make changes, it updates.”

Listen to the full podcast with Mr Whelan here.

The SoA has been a contentious talking point in the industry for some time; founder and CEO of WOW Women’s Group Tracey Sofra recently slammed the SoA process as “horrendous” and “a complete waste of time”.

Last year, the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) revealed it was working on a digital SoA alongside ASIC that would “effectively have no paper involved at all”.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.