The onboarding system of London-based startup Advicefront, which describes itself as “the new way to deliver financial advice”, will be the first of three advice tools to be rolled out.
Advicefront’s co-founder and chief executive, Jose Supico, says it will allow advisers to have a “fully integrated and collaborative experience with their clients, from engagement to data collection, advice recommendations and execution”.
Supico expects to launch the next two new modules over the spring and summer, with ongoing updates to the system and ‘development sprints’ where new features are introduced twice a month.
The next modules will encompass the provision of advice recommendations, suitability reports and financial planning and straight through processing of investments directly via wrap platforms, client reporting and regular client reviews.
White label
FNZ (First New Zealand) provides technology and service platforms to global banks, insurers and asset managers, handling £50bn ($69bn €56bn) in assets under advice.
Standard Life Wrap, Axa Wealth, UBS and JP Morgan are among its clients.
FNZ was founded in Wellington, New Zealand in 2004 and offers an outsourced, wealth management platform service via the internet, which combines the software-as-a-service model with trade processing and asset custody.
Analysts have since tipped FNZ as one of a handful of players poised to disrupt the platform industry.
Advisers paid sooner
FNZ’s investment has put Adrian Durham, the firm’s chief executive, on Advicefront’s board of directors alongside its co-founders Supico and Andre Costa, who is also chief technology officer.
“The goal is for advisers and clients to be able to breeze through the account opening process,” Supico told International Adviser of the onboarding launch.
“The advantages for advisers are getting paid sooner and spending their time on high-value tasks instead of drudge work.
“We’re removing the paper and wet signatures from the process and replacing it with an intuitive and collaborative client-adviser interface.
“We expect this will save one or two face to face meetings between advisers and clients, save on commute costs and drastically decrease the time it takes for a client to be ready to invest their money.”
Advicefront’s digital onboarding capabilities are initially only available in the UK but Supico told International Adviser there are plans to extend it to other jurisdictions rapidly.
Advicefront integrates with Voyant, Finametrica, Oxford Risk and GoCardless, and Supico plans to increase the number of integrations over the course of 2018.
Backers
Now based in Edinburgh, FNZ made a strategic investment in Advicefront in December last year.
FNZ’s investment joins money from Faber Ventures, which specialises in providing seed funding and support to software-based firms.
Lisbon-based Faber’s portfolio of investments includes the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs.
Other notable founder shareholders include former Bloomsbury chief executive Jason Butler and Tilney director Charles MacKinnon.
