Insignia spruiks ‘power of financial advice’ in new strategy

Insignia Financial said its new business strategy is aimed at becoming Australia’s “leading and most efficient wealth management company by 2030”, focusing on technology and product innovation, cost optimisation and simplification.

In an ASX announcement ahead of its investor day in Sydney, Insignia said its strategy for the 2026–30 financial years will capitalise on the firm’s breadth and reach to maximise the benefits of scale and drive efficiency while “unlocking the value of its brands, building a high-performance culture, becoming an AI-enabled organisation and delivering positive outcomes for customers and shareholders”.

On the advice front, it said this will take the form of building out its Shadforth and Bridges businesses, which Insignia added can help address the unmet advice needs of Australians.

“At Insignia Financial, we believe in the power of financial advice and its ability to improve people’s lives,” Insignia chief executive Scott Hartley said.

“We recognise there are a large number of Australians with unmet advice needs, and as Australia’s largest salaried adviser business, we are well positioned to lead in this space through quality financial advice.”

The firm will also focus on utilising AI to reduce the cost to serve and increase efficiency and profitability while “freeing up advisers to spend more time with more clients”.

Hartley added that the business will target scalable and sustainable growth, along with around $200 million in net cost savings per year until FY29–30.

“Our vision is for Insignia Financial to be Australia’s leading and most efficient wealth management company by 2030, and through the breadth and expertise of our competitive businesses, we will deliver innovative, quality outcomes for customers and drive double-digit earnings growth,” Hartley said.

“We want to shift our focus from building capability through acquisition, unification and simplification to accelerated and sustainable growth through a relentless obsession with our customers.”

According to the CEO, with Shadforth and Bridges in financial advice and MLC, Insignia has “some of the strongest brands within the wealth and financial advice market”.

“Our core beliefs underpin this strategy: we can drive leading customer experiences through data and AI, our shareholder and customer objectives are aligned, collaboration and insights across the group will create value for our customers and shareholders, a genuine obsession with our customers will support innovation and a high-performance culture is essential,” Hartley said.

“Each of our four lines of business are individually strong and well-positioned; our 2030 strategy is focused on how we will build on our strong foundations to leverage economies of scale and position for strategic and targeted growth, driving outcomes for our customers and shareholders.”

Looking to its wrap business, Insignia said it would focus on technology to improve its offering as well as looking to strengthen and grow adviser relationships “following a period of internal focus on migrations”.

“Our wrap, MLC Expand, is currently the third largest platform in market and is backed by contemporary, agile, proprietary technology, which allows us to respond quickly to adviser and customer demands and market dynamics,” Hartley said.

“With MLC Expand, we have a significant opportunity to differentiate the platform, start to build presence in market and get it in the hands of more advisers and clients.”