Michael Topper

AdviceInnovation, the online hub providing innovative solutions for Australian financial advice businesses, has welcomed Advice Connect, creators of the advice client communication App, Client Wire, to the group.

Advice Connect CEO, Mike Giles, says Client Wire gives advisers the ability to engage clients via their own branded mobile App. “Client Wire facilitates secure, private messaging between the adviser’s team and clients, enabling them to easily and securely share documents. This means both the adviser and client will always be able to instantly view a full history of documents from any device.”

Mr Giles says the App also enables advisers to deliver a news-feed of relevant articles gathered from around the web. “Providing clients with educational material can be a really useful way to maintain long-standing relationships, especially when delivered in a way which is easy for them to access – i.e. on their smart phones,” he says. “We expect this function of the App to challenge traditional email and newsletter campaigns head-on because it is quick, easy and inexpensive.”

Client Wire starts at $50 per month and includes a branded mobile, tablet and web App; a news feed, client and team messaging service, email newsletters, and document sharing ability.

Mr Giles says in a fee-for-service world, the App allows advisers to demonstrate real value to clients. “Mobile technology is the next place for advisers to play if they want to take their web-based relationship maintenance to the next level.”

AdviceInnovation director Michael Topper says AdviceInnovation is excited to welcome Advice Connect to the hub. “We are seeing so many wonderful opportunities for advisers popping up, and we are lucky to be able to recommend and work with such reputable resources, like Client Wire. We are continually amazed at the new innovative solutions available for advisers, and can see the benefits of all working in a group to market these to advisers – they want to know about solutions like this.

AdviceInnovation ensures that some of the industry’s most innovative products and services will no longer be well-kept secrets and as the service grows the hub will become a central source for advisers to gain access to them all in one place.

Advice Connect joins other AdviceInnovation members AstuteWheel, 64 Media, Now Sorted!, Complete Client Connection, The Social Adviser and innergi.

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Michael Topper

Following its launch to market last month, AdviceInnovation, the online hub providing innovative solutions for Australian financial advice businesses, welcomes client education and communication solution, innergi, to the group.

Innergi has developed an online Financial Knowledge Centre which allows financial advisers to offer their clients access to branded educational content 24/7. Innergi also allows financial advisers to efficiently deliver branded communication, including regular newsletters, to their clients. Innergi’s platform includes modules, articles, videos, life events, calculators, downloads, quizzes, jargon busters and a regular competition.

Innergi’s Managing Director Robert Skinner says the Financial Knowledge Centre is robust, professional and fun, offering advice practices and clients access to over 800 pages of educational content. “Clients want access to information they trust where and when they want it,” he says. “It is more important than ever for advisers to be in regular contact with their clients and they should be able to do it cost effectively and ensure it looks great. Innergi’s online solutions expand the adviser’s reach in and out of office hours, making client communication and education more effective and more valuable.”

AdviceInnovation director Michael Topper says AdviceInnovation is delighted to welcome innergi into the hub. “There are many financial advice businesses already using innergi, and to date it has been growing from word of mouth referrals which is great. But, we know there are financial advisers out there looking for a solution like this, who just don’t know that it exists.”

AdviceInnovation ensures that some of the industry’s most innovative products and services will no longer be well-kept secrets and as the service grows the hub will become a central source for advisers to gain access to them all in one place.

Innergi joins other AdviceInnovation members AstuteWheel, 64 Media, Now Sorted!, Complete Client Connection, The Social Adviser, and PressDev.

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Michael Topper

Creators of the AstuteWheel, Hans Egger and Michael Topper, have partnered with other financial services innovators, The Social Adviser, Complete Client Connection, Now Sorted!, 64 Media, and PressDev, to launch AdviceInnovation – an online hub providing innovative solutions for Australian financial planning businesses.

Mr Topper said the members of AdviceInnovation are some of the very best in their field. “We have hand-picked partners to be part of AdviceInnovation,” he said. “They have innovative ideas that have been commercialised and proven.”

When first involved in co-founding, developing and launching AstuteWheel, a successful innovative client engagement system for financial advisers, Mr Topper said he soon realised that although it might be a brilliant product, if the target audience couldn’t easily find out about it, then it was difficult to help them improve their businesses.

“Advisers were contacting us as a result of word-of-mouth referrals but wished they knew about us sooner,” he said. “That got me thinking – why don’t I find other great innovators for advisers and build an innovators hub on the net?”

The result is www.AdviceInnovation.com.au, which is designed to help advice businesses locate innovators who have developed practical applications and services advisers can use in their businesses to add value for their clients and/or make their businesses run more efficiently and profitably.

“Often innovative products and services are well-kept secrets and until now there hasn’t been a central source or directory for advisers to gain access to them,” Mr Topper said. “Often this can be attributed to a few factors including a lack of marketing funds, lack of expertise in promoting the applications, or lack of distribution.”

AdviceInnovation will promote the members’ applications and services via a database of advisers, direct marketing communications, public relations and regular ‘innovation think tanks’.

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64 Media’s Julie Bennett and Pritchitt Partners’ Claudia Pritchitt

64 Media and Pritchitt Partners, two specialist communications firms in the financial services industry, have formed a strategic alliance to add further value to their client services.

The strategic alliance, The Value Alliance, will give both consultancies the ability to provide clients additional back-up, expand communication opportunities for them, offer additional specialist services and add synergy in areas such as crisis communication.  Each business will continue to operate separately, but The Value Alliance will allow joint approaches to client work in some areas, especially in new business development.

Both principals of the individual consultancies, Claudia Pritchitt (Pritchitt Partners) and Julie Bennett (64 Media), are highly regarded in financial services media relations.

While the expertise of the consultancies is very similar, each has some additional specialised services. Their clients include fund managers, financial planners, other financial services providers, mutual organisations, industry associations and professional firms.

The principals have already worked together over several years, but have formalised a joint arrangement to strengthen their relationship so as to provide additional client benefits.

As an example Ms Pritchitt points to the media training that 64 Media provides, using its specialist knowledge of financial services industry issues, opportunities and activities, as being useful for Pritchitt Partners clients. 

“Most media training is provided by generalists and focuses on handling foot-in-the-door journalists when an organisation has a problem,” Ms Pritchitt said.

“In media training, our clients need a trainer who understands their business and is capable of developing realistic scenarios that teach them how to take best advantage of the media opportunities we routinely create, so that they are better equipped to get across the points they wish to make.

“After clients have been given this knowledge, and used it in their ongoing media relations, they can then be prepared for any media crisis when required – and in the unlikely event it ever becomes necessary,” Ms Pritchitt said.

Ms Bennett added that having the opportunity for informal reviews and knowledge exchange will also add opportunities to overall client programs for each business.

“64 Media clients will also benefit from the new relationship in other ways,” she said.

“For example, Pritchitt Partners has developed a unique event approach that is included as an added benefit to client relations and which can be extended to include 64 Media clients.

“Claudia and I have been friends for a long time and provided each other with back-up and support in the past.  So it is exciting for us to formalise and extend this business relationship,” Ms Bennett said.

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