Creation of Executive Chairman role

Founding Chief Executive Officer, David Travers, will move to the newly created position of Executive Chairman, with specific responsibility to deliver a leading-edge technology roadmap that promises to automate advice assurance to a level previously thought impossible.

Appointment of new CEO

Meanwhile, current Chief Operating Officer, Joel Ronchi, has been promoted to CEO, and will continue his focus on new client acquisition and service delivery. Travers said: “Joel is the natural choice to lead the company through this next growth phase. He is passionate about the importance of high-quality, independent financial advice and has dedicated his career to making it more accessible and affordable. Joel has unrivalled subject matter expertise and exceptional industry relationships”.

Appointment of new Director

In addition to the Travers and Ronchi promotions, financial services executive and Fintech founder, Paul Rogan, has joined the Fourth Line Board as both an investor and Director. Paul spent 25 years in senior executive roles in MLC/NAB and Challenger Limited, before founding and exiting two successful start-ups, and leading pioneering robo-adviser, SuperEd. He is currently also a director of Hub24 Limited and EQT Superannuation Ltd (Equity Trustees). 2

Implementation of Advanced Technology Roadmap

As part of the strategic leadership transition, Fourth Line’s Board and Executive Team upgraded the company’s advanced technology roadmap to include the planned acquisition of proprietary software and the integration of large language models like GPT-4.

“Our first-generation robo-assurance software is the core of our peerless ‘bionic’ file review service, which in less than three years has captured a 13% share of the highly fragmented advice-assurance market,” David Travers said.

“Fourth Line 2.0, the next evolution of our ‘outsourced compliance brain’, will incorporate the latest advances in generative AI and machine learning technologies, meaning our system will be able to read, understand and evaluate all forms of unstructured data, from fact-finds to file notes. “It will teach itself to identify, assess and code the subtle variations between and within financial advice files prepared by human advisers. This will not only drastically reduce the workload of compliance officers but will also bulletproof licensees’ advice processes and lift the standard of advice to the benefit of consumers”.

Travers will collaborate closely with Professor Dan Hunter PhD, Fourth Line’s co-CTO and a world-leading, generative AI expert. Professor Hunter is the Executive Dean of the law school at King’s College London, has extensive experience in technology startups, and is a highly published author in the fields of technology and law. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University in Cognitive Science & Legal Reasoning, a Master of Laws in AI & Law from Melbourne University, and degrees in both Computer Science and Law from Monash University.

Executive Chairman David Travers said: “Since inception we’ve focused on business-building basics.

“That is, providing tangible value to clients by delivering our core regulatory IP using existing software technology, with human oversight. “Now, with a talented team, rapidly growing client base and proven market demand, we have the firm footing needed to support a technological step-change that will revolutionise advice assurance”.

The post Fourth Line restructures leadership team to execute new technology roadmap to AI appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Fourth Line CEO David Travers commented, “Joel brings a tremendous amount of ‘real world’ experience to the team. His engagement will help strengthen Fourth Line’s ability to services its clients and to provide practical advice on implementation. Our approach is uniquely bionic in that it combines state of the art Artificial Intelligence (AI) with high-calibre personal oversight from industry professionals, such as Joel.”

Fourth Line recognises that rising regulatory compliance demands pose a significant threat to licensees and advisers. Fourth Line’s bionic compliance approach enables complex, subjective, principle-based advice legislation to be addressed systematically in conjunction with human oversight. Fourth Line’s focus is on helping Licensee and Adviser compliance teams improve the overall quality of advice.

“Our philosophy is that the compliance team becomes a coaching team. The reality is that each piece of advice for each client represents a risk to a Licensee. This is an onerous task for compliance officers to check through manually. It becomes a reactive, almost adversarial approach, to Adviser management. No-one wins.” Travers said.

The Fourth Line delivers insights and analytics that enable compliance officers to become “Advice Coaches” and work with their Advisers to manage risk and identify areas for improvement. This proactive approach allows Licensees and Advisers to demonstrate to the Regulator (ASIC) that the clients’ best interests are being met through the provision of appropriate advice that prioritise the client’s interest.

“Financial advisers and Licensees are getting hit from all sides – regulatory, compliance, the FASEA Standards, Adviser Exam and Higher Education requirements. I speak with Advisers and Licensees every day, with many feeling overwhelmed by the amount of change currently taking place,” Ronchi said.

“My purpose over the last few years has been to help Advisers and Licensees “filter out and distil” the noise and confusion regarding the FASEA Standards and help the industry evolve in to a profession so Advisers can focus on what’s important – providing quality advice to ordinary Australians so they can achieve their dreams and have security in retirement,” Ronchi said.

A key component in this challenge is improving the advice process in the face of increasing regulation and compliance oversight. “Compliance should be an enabler of advice – not a cop on the beat”, explains Ronchi.

The post RegTech boosts team to meet surge in demand appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Regtech digital and technological solutions have enormous potential to help businesses build a culture of compliance.

2020 has seen individuals, business and government living, managing and surviving crisis after crisis – and it’s only March. Bushfires, floods and now the most significant health crisis in the last 100 years. Whilst not everyone has been directly impacted by the first two, we are all impacted by COVID 19.

Never before have financial advice practices been more in demand and essential for managing the future financial outcomes of so many Australians,^[1]. Quality financial advice will play an important role in helping individuals navigate their immediate and long term personal and financial well-being.

Financial Advice practices have been seeking to take advantage of the digital economy for a number of years, some have achieved this more than others. It has never been more critical than in today’s volatile market, to have strong digital and technological driven partnerships, to assist in managing in crisis conditions with unknown resource availability, to ensure we are always putting the best interests of clients first.

The quality of financial advice remains an important focus for advice practices, advisers and regulators.^[2] It has been made clear by the regulators that Regtech digital and technological solutions have enormous potential to help businesses build a culture of compliance, identify learning opportunities, and save time and money relating to regulatory matters.^[3]

So, is your Regtech partner for advice helping you with crisis management? Managing through a crisis is more than understanding the cause and effect, it is stepping up to assist with innovative and collaborative approaches to ensure your business can continue to have the bandwidth and support to meet all the challenges the crisis throws up.

Your Regtech partner should be:

A Collaborator: take a whole of business approach (not just a tech solution) to helping manage resources, costs and risk, working proactively to find solutions that can help resource pressure points to ensure you stay compliant and continue to put your clients first in achieving successful advice outcomes.

An Innovator: finding ways to help solve business problems in crisis management environments quickly and effectively, offering ways to ensure that you continue to act in your clients’ best interest.

Agile: have the ability and capacity to pivot when you need to pivot around resource availability, process flexibility, technology change and pricing alternatives to find solutions that maximise your ability to maintain your focus on your clients’ needs.

By David Travers

————–

1. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/angus-woods-a5a7025_in-these-highly-charged-emotional-times-activity-6647455737473826816-nL-1
2. ASIC Report 562, 1 January 2018 stated “In none of the 75% of files judged by ASIC to be “non-compliant” did the adviser demonstrate that following the advice given to the client would leave the client in a better position.”
3. https://asic.gov.au/for-business/innovation-hub/asic-and-regtech/

The post Does Regtech work for your advisers in a crisis? appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Fourth Line will provide a range of services including pre and post advice reviews for existing and new advisers, providing a range of analytics and benchmark reporting to assist Wealth Today in continuous improvement of quality and timeliness in its advice processes.

Wealth Today CEO, Keith Cullen commented “Fourth Line is enabling us to innovate and redefine the way we review advice and better coach our advisers in the creation and delivery of that advice. We value the partnership with Fourth Line as it’s facilitating improvements in both the quality of advice and speed of its delivery.”

Fourth Line CEO, David Travers commented “We are very excited to be working with Wealth Today to improve advice through the provision of a robust system that creates deep insights into the provision of financial advice. Our system incorporates world leading technology through our partnership with Swinburne University and our collaboration with Mills Oakley provides the most rigorous and comprehensive financial advice review process available. We provide continuous insights that enable improvements in both the quality, timeliness and the cost of financial advice”.

The post Wealth Today appoints Fourth Line to redefine advice review practices appeared first on AdviserVoice.

The equity raising is the first raising by the company since its founders funded and started the company more than 18 months ago.

The equity raising also follows its technology partnership with Swinburne University of Technology covering machine learning and other technology innovations. The company also expects to accept further investor funds in 2020 and has already had discussions with various interested parties.

Fourth Line works closely with the wealth management profession to improve the quality and content of financial advice for all Australians by utilising leading technology augmented with human oversight.

Fourth Line is a rigorous RegTech risk management and compliance system which helps dealer groups and advice practices meet their regulatory compliance obligations and helps ensure that they are acting in their clients’ best interests.

Fourth Line developed its rigorous and comprehensive algorithmic approach to reviewing financial advice in collaboration with Mills Oakley and is working with a number of leading dealer groups and advice practices to provide improved advice oversight, directly addressing recommendations from the recent Royal Commission into Financial Services and Superannuation and other regulatory reports.

The industry first partnership with Swinburne University enhances Fourth Line’s algorithmic approach to pre and post-vetting of financial advice by ensuring that Fourth Line’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning offer is world leading in its application to financial advice.

Commenting on the next evolution of Fourth Line, Tony McDonald, Chairman of Fourth Line noted: “Continuous investment in both leading technology and human oversight processes is critical for monitoring the quality of advice given the complexities and volume of regulatory change in the financial services industry. Critically, to deliver on our vision we need leading edge technology combined with human input. One or the other is not sufficient”.

“In today’s environment you need both”, he added.

The post Fourth Line successfully closes equity raise to fund technology agenda, talent resources and business growth appeared first on AdviserVoice.

The industry first partnership with Swinburne enhances Fourth Line algorithmic approach to pre and post-vetting of financial advice by ensuring that Fourth Line’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning offer is world leading in its application to financial advice.

The AI and machine learning partnership with Swinburne will build on Fourth Line’s comprehensive system that has already been taken up by leading Australian dealer groups and advice practices.

Fourth Line CEO, Simon Quirk said: “Fourth Line’s partnership with Swinburne facilitates the next evolution of our risk and compliance system, supporting our vision to continually raise the bar on the quality and content of financial advice in Australia through the use of our leading technologies augmented by human oversight. Our system helps dealer groups and advice practices to meet their regulatory compliance obligations and help ensure that they are acting in their client’s best interests.”.

“Continuous investment in both leading technology and human oversight processes is critical for monitoring the quality of advice given the complexities and volume of regulatory change in the financial services industry. Critically, to deliver on our vision we need leading edge technology combined with human input. One or the other is not sufficient. In today’s environment you need both.”, he added.

Fourth Line is working with a number of leading dealer groups and advice practices to provide improved advice oversight, directly addressing recommendations from the recent Royal Commission into Financial Services and Superannuation.

Fourth Line’s vision is to work with the wealth management profession and regulators to improve the quality and content of financial advice for all Australians.

The post Fourth Line partners with Swinburne University of Technology appeared first on AdviserVoice.