CFS launches next-gen platform

At a launch event in Sydney on Tuesday, the firm said that CFS Edge will provide “game-changing pricing, greater flexibility and enhanced investment capabilities”.

Speaking at the event, CFS group executive – distribution, Bryce Quirk said the CFS Edge Accelerate Series is the “next evolution in managed account construction” and will drive down the cost of advising clients.

Available later this year, the Accelerate Series will reduce the percentage-based administration fee on CFS Edge to zero where the managed account comprises the Accelerate funds offered only through CFS Edge.

“The Accelerate Series is a game changer. Not only are investments offered with transparent and institutional pricing, but we will also waive the percentage-based administration fee on CFS Edge where managed account comprises only Accelerate investments offered through CFS Edge,” Mr Quirk said.

“CFS is revolutionising managed accounts by offering advisers and clients access to no percentage-based administration fees and doing away with inefficient and clunky rebates. Client funds are always invested, and cash statements are free of confusing rebate arrangements that otherwise need to be explained to clients.

“Through the Accelerate Series, advisers will be able to combine domestic and international equities and over 550 funds in a single account, on a single platform.”

Another new feature includes the ability to “nest” managed accounts, which CFS said would give advisers and their clients the ability to hold a separately managed account (SMA) inside other portfolio types, such as another SMA, a managed discretionary account (MDA), or a model portfolio (MP).

“Advisers have told us that the needs of their clients are evolving, and we are responding at pace to those needs,” Mr Quirk said.

“The breadth and depth of CFS Edge will give advisers the ability to blend simple low-cost solutions with the most sophisticated investment options in a single account, allowing them to service different client segments from a single platform.”

Providing a demonstration of the new features in CFS Edge, David Pritchard, executive director CFS Wrap, said that the fee model doesn’t “constrain your advice strategy and each account you can also create an unlimited number of sub accounts”.

“This is a powerful new concept first to market with this concept in Australia to segregate assets for any purpose, such as bucketing, accounting, or transition to retirement,” Mr Pritchard said.

“Another great use of sub-accounts for example, is a self-managed super fund. You can set up a sub-account for each member of the fund under the SMSF entity. Then Edge allows you to tailor the portfolio at the sub-account level as well as perform reporting and so on. No other platform in the market has this level of flexibility and that’s really built at the core of CFS Edge.”

He added that it is “essential” for clients to have access to a range of investment options.

“We provide you with over 650 quality managed funds and ETFs, domestic equities, term deposits from leading providers and around 100 unique SMA options from 15 leading managers,” Mr Pritchard said.

CFS Edge customers can access international equities across 15 stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ, as well as 10 currencies including US dollars, euros, and pounds sterling.

It also allows for multiple currency wallets, preventing the need to cross back to Australian dollars to trade in foreign markets.

Dean Holmes, co-founder and director at Absolute Wealth Advisers, was among the advisers from 14 practices that helped shape the design of the platform as part of what CFS referred to as the “inner circle”.

At the event in Sydney, Mr Holmes said: “Through the whole process, which was about 18 months, there was a lot of reasoning from the service team to make sure that they feel something that made sense to advisers.”

He added that for advice practices that he works with, finding efficiencies is important, and that CFS Edge would enable them to see more clients as a result of time saved through better processes.

“This is one example that’s going to help that efficiency process in terms of speeding up the back office. But also, the fact that you can use this in front of a client means that you can do things live with the client as well. It’s not a clunky system that you would be somewhat embarrassed to show the client, you can actually show them about the adviser side and what you’re seeing at that level really quickly and easily,” Mr Holmes said.

“The second efficiency is all around investment management. So, that’s a big-time investment for individual advisers or financial planning businesses overall. I really see that that’s going to decrease over time with these with managed accounts and now managed accounts within a managed account.”