The 2024 Building a Future Ready Investment Firm report co-sponsored by Deloitte and ThoughtLab found 34% of investors had recently switched wealth providers, while the other two-thirds (67%) were considering switching within the next three years. This figure rose to 79% for younger Gen Y and Z investors, according to the Deloitte edition of the report.

Accordingly, “getting reporting right” is important for advisers and advice groups and not just the required wave of reports at this tax time of year. 

New technology means reporting can not only be undertaken faster but can also add more value to client interactions, even win new clients.

As such, advice practices which invest in reporting capabilities stand to improve their ability to retain clientele and deliver a point of service difference. 

By contrast, having to manually work across fragmented platforms to consolidate data and produce reports is not only costing advisory practices time and money but curtailing the growth and limiting their scalability, potentially at the expense of being able to adapt to and seize strategic opportunities. 

Cut costs, improve productivity and boost engagement

Integrated reporting can also deliver a boost to client engagement. Timely access to ‘at or near real time’ information enables advisers to be more responsive to client requests and can provide improved transparency and trust.  

The above-mentioned Deloitte paper also identified that “35% of Australian Wealth Providers have generated above average cost savings (from investing in productivity improvement) but only 20% have seen above average productivity improvement compared to global peers at 37%”. 

The ability of modern platforms to digitally integrate with other platforms and consolidate data into reporting may support advice groups in delivering on these productivity improvements in numerous ways:

• Reduction of manual reporting - providing time and cost savings
• The ability to focus time savings on additional client engagement and acquisition/retention
• Help support education of next generation investors and transfer beneficiaries
• Support client satisfaction via delivering on their expectations of technology gains
• Reducing manual errors associated with reporting, time and cost of compliance 
• Improve overall operational efficiency and practice productivity
• Supporting scalability of adviser services

An increasingly strategic investment decision

The Deloitte research also found that 49% of Australian adviser respondents were looking to move up the investor wealth curve, with only 25% interested in moving down. In addition, 65% indicated their intentions to move into the Ultra-High Net Worth segment.

When it comes to high-net-worth investors (HNWIs), according to Investment Trends data cited in a paper produced by Praemium titled Advising the Affluent Australian there are currently 635,000 individuals in Australia who collectively control $2.98 trillion in investible assets. The same research found half (51%) use a spreadsheet to track their investments, often due to their inability to get a consolidated view of their wealth. 

The World Wealth Report 2024 by Capgemini also revealed that HNWIs had a higher tolerance for risk than the prior year, shifting from “wealth preservation to growth objectives” (as seen from their increasing allocations outside of cash and cash equivalents). The same report from 2023 found that 65% of APAC HNWI survey respondents were looking for more value-added services. Better-quality portfolio reporting powered by modern technologies which consolidates data may support advisers to deliver to these demands via improved monitoring of risk-assets in real time.

The challenge to seizing the HNWI opportunity however is time. The Deloitte research found advisers are spending an average of 60-70% on non-advisory activities (according to the Deloitte research), with portfolio management and administration accounting for 18% and 12% respectively within this total. 

AUSIEX Portfolio Reporting Service 

AUSIEX’s new Portfolio Reporting Service (PRS) is designed to simplify performance and tax reporting for adviser’s clients’ investment portfolios. 

The service includes portfolio set up, seamless data feed integration and a range of portfolio administration tools designed to reduce the time associated with producing, managing and reviewing equity portfolios. 

These tools include:

• Capital gains tax optimisation: Tracks and optimises capital gains tax (CGT), with tax calculations accounting for all corporate activity and distributions. This can include a disposal allocation method for each portfolio.
• Tax reports: Monthly, quarterly or annual tax reports detail all investment related transactions including breakdowns and allocations of complex tax distributions from listed trusts.  
• Online tax and performance reporting: Accesses a range of customisable and comprehensive investment performance and tax reports through a central Adviser Portal.  
• Holdings and transaction summaries: Provides a consolidated list of clients’ executed trades, making it easier to determine clients’ capital gains, capital losses and transaction costs.  
• Cash and holdings reconciliation: Performs daily cash, holdings and transaction reconciliations to ensure financial advisers and their clients have access to the most up-to-date information about their investments.  
• Corporate action monitoring: Actively monitors a variety of sources for upcoming corporate actions. Following the dispatch of units and/or cash, a full reconciliation is performed, and tax parcels and cost bases are updated in line with the appropriate tax treatment.  
• Affordable solutions: The standard package starts from only $40 + GST per portfolio, per month. 

For more information, please contact us.

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