North unveils enhancements to support advice practice efficiency

North has revealed its most recent enhancements to its platform in a bid to drive business efficiencies and improve retirement outcomes for clients.

In a statement on Thursday, the platform outlined a new record of advice (ROA) preparation process to help advisers “save time, improve data accuracy and better show the impact of investment switch transactions”, in addition to uplifting its lifetime super calculator.

Specifically, the new ROA template contains pre-formatted tables and charts detailing current and proposed investment holdings as well as a summary of fees, portfolio valuation and asset allocations, according to North.

Advisers can also now include their clients’ proposed target risk profile when performing an investment switch, while proposed asset allocation can be reviewed against the client’s risk profile to determine if it’s in line with their investment strategy.

Moreover, the platform confirmed it has enabled the simplified ROA process to collate switch transaction information from a single touchpoint.

“The embedded functionality significantly reduces the time required to prepare an ROA, allowing advisers to view proposed tax implications prior to switch execution,” North explained.

Commenting on the upgrade, AMO director of platform, Edwina Maloney, said: “North continues to invest in its award-winning wrap platform with a steady stream of new enhancements. We work closely with advisers to ensure North provides functionality which makes the most meaningful difference to how they operate their practices and deliver advice.”

“It’s why we’ve prioritised an uplift to the ROA process – because we know it makes a significant difference to practice efficiency and allows advisers to spend more time with clients,” she continued.

The platform also announced on Thursday that it has moved to uplift its MyNorth Lifetime Super Calculator, which now allows advisers to recommend strategies to maximise age pension benefits and Centrelink asset test discounts as well as structure capital in the accumulation phase.

“With average life expectancy for Australians reaching 84 in 2022, according to a February report by AMP and leading demographer Bernard Salt, more and more Australians in the accumulation phase will need support to help optimise their superannuation balances in retirement,” North reasoned.

“Our enhanced MyNorth Lifetime Super Calculator also adds further capability to what is already a game changing solution and will further help advisers achieve the best possible retirement outcomes for their clients,” Ms Maloney added.

Additional enhancements to the platform, as per its statement this week, include a new interface, the ability for advisers to now include their own advice fee documents as part of North’s digital consent process, and the availability of historical advice fees.