Iress unveils new software to improve advice practice efficiencies

Iress has announced the launch of Advisely, a new platform for advisers, paraplanners, and practice managers.

According to the firm, the creation of Advisely was in response to increasing pressure on margins within advice practices coupled with Australia’s growing advice demand.

Kelli Willmer, Iress executive general manager for wealth, said Advisely’s launch is an opportunity to share industry insights and form a professional community.

“Advice can often be a very lonely pursuit, and it can be hard to know where to get help,” Ms Willmer explained.

“This is why we’ve created Advisely, to bring the financial advice community closer together, surround it with the right expertise and support; and collectively elevate the advice profession to prosper and grow in order to meet the needs of more Australians.”

Ms Willmer noted that, through conversations with clients, Iress has learnt that the biggest area of opportunity for advice professionals is the ability to boost productivity through smarter ways of working.

“We believe advisers could shave as much as four hours off the advice delivery process of every client by streamlining a number of aspects of the advice process – from client attraction and onboarding to advice creation and execution,” she said.

As such, the platform offers the Advisely Index, a benchmarking tool for advisers, paraplanners, and support staff to understand how they compare to peers across key advice delivery metrics.

Users will also be able to connect with experts and a network of peers, in addition to gaining access to technology hacks and hints.

According to Ms Willmer, the launch forms a key part of Iress’ refreshed strategy to double down on its commitment to its Australian clients and the broader wealth industry.

Speaking on a recent episode of the ifa podcast, Kerry Ong, Iress general manager of customer wealth, said Iress is realigning its focus on its core offering following the sale of its MFA business in October.

“We recognise the role that we play and what we wanted to do was relook at our business and work out, ‘OK, well, where do we add the most value within the financial services industry?’ And a lot of what we say is we’re refocusing back on the core,” Mr Ong told ifa.

“What refocusing back on the core means is we’ve made that commitment to reinvest back into our clients in Xplan, one of our core offerings within the advice world, and we’re committed to continuing that support to the financial services industry and, in particular, making advice more accessible.”