Count Financial teams up with Midwinter to increase adviser offering

Midwinter Financial Services and Count Financial on Tuesday, announced a partnership that enables Count’s adviser network to leverage Midwinter’s leading financial advice software.

Following a four-month pilot program, during which some of the licensee’s flagship practices trialled Midwinter’s software, Count said it selected Midwinter due to its strong client engagement tools and market-leading modelling capabilities.

“As a licensee, we are committed to providing our advisers with access to the leading providers in the advice software space. We are delighted to be partnering with Midwinter and giving our community more options in how they deliver quality financial advice to clients,” said Reg Gabila, head of licensee systems at Count Financial.

The partnership is set to greater flexibility and competitive IT ownership costs for Count practices through a choice of software provider as well as tailored settings and advice templates.

“We are thrilled that Count has selected Midwinter to provide advice software choice for their network. As a trusted partner, Midwinter is committed to working with Count to support the technology needs of their business as well as the needs of Count advisers,” said Steve Davison, chief commercial officer at Midwinter.

Midwinter has recently been praised for reinventing itself through significant development to its product.

Count too has been going through a period of transformation, having in 2022 alone appointed 41 new advisers as it continued to focus on strategic growth and acquisitions.

Last year, before launching its acquisitions program, it was revealed that the formerly CBA-owned dealer group had lost more than 80 advisers and tens of millions of dollars in earnings as regulatory change drove more practitioners out of the industry.

But as its business transitioned to a new model without grandfathered revenue, it's advice network reported EBITA of $0.69 million in the first half of 2022.

“Our strong financial position enables us to invest in technology that makes it easier for our members to deliver more advice. In the past year, we have seen a 48 per cent increase in advice documents produced thanks to the simplified templates and digital tools we have introduced,” CountPlus interim CEO, Laurent Toussaint, said at the time.

The business boasted 263 advisers in its national community at the end of December, with growth said to reach 288 by 31 March 2022.