Craig Lawrenson

HUB24 has launched a lifetime super solution with life insurer TAL, expanding the range of lifetime retirement options available, empowering advisers with choice and flexibility to deliver better client outcomes.

Available through HUB24 Super, the lifetime super account meets the requirements of an Innovative Retirement Income Stream, providing access to concessional Centrelink treatment when used to purchase a lifetime pension account.

According to recent TAL research, more than half of pre‑retirees value income‑for‑life features, with almost nine in ten open to a lifetime income product if offered, highlighting strong demand for certainty alongside choice.¹

HUB24 provides advisers and their clients with the choice of retail superannuation and SMSF solutions. Alongside a broad range of investment options, advisers can now choose from a range of leading lifetime income solutions, including Allianz Guaranteed Income for Life (AGILE) and Challenger annuities, enabling more tailored retirement strategies for their clients.

HUB24 Chief Operating Officer Craig Lawrenson reiterated the importance of choice in super to support confidence in retirement outcomes.

“Choice and flexibility are fundamental to a trusted superannuation system, enabling advisers to deliver more personalised advice, strengthening engagement and outcomes, and driving ongoing innovation across the industry.”

Recent Federal Budget announcements highlight growing complexity, and the important role financial advice can play in helping Australians navigate change and tailoring advice to their individual circumstances.

“Advisers need access to solutions that enhance productivity and simplify the delivery of complex advice. An example is HUB24’s innovative multi‑step transitions capability that enables advisers to execute complex strategies simultaneously, from account establishments to recontributions,” said Lawrenson.

HUB24’s multi-step transitions capability was recently recognised as the most innovative new feature in the 2026 SuitabilityHub Platform Market Wrap Report.

In the second half of 2027, HUB24 plans to launch the lifetime pension account expanding choice further for advisers and their clients.

The post HUB24 adds lifetime super, empowering choice and advice-led solutions appeared first on AdviserVoice.

In this newly created role, and reporting to HUB24’s Chief Operating Officer, Craig Lawrenson, Mr Willis will lead the platform growth team, which includes retail distribution, key account management, private wealth and broker, strategic sales, and sales enablement. He will also work alongside product, operations, and marketing teams to continue to deliver innovative products and solutions that enable financial professionals to provide accessible advice to more Australians.

Mr Willis was previously at Vanguard Australia and Aware Super where he held several leadership positions including Head of Institutional Sales, Head of Business Development and most recently National Sales Manager, Financial Adviser Services for Vanguard Investments.

HUB24 Chief Operating Officer Craig Lawrenson said: “I’m pleased to welcome Matt to the HUB24 team where he will help to drive growth and further strengthen our relationships with our customers.

“Matt is well known in the industry for his energy, commercial acumen and talent for building high-performing teams, bringing a leadership style that closely aligns with our strategy and culture.”

Mr Willis said: “I’m excited to be joining HUB24 and look forward to contributing to the next phase of growth and continuing to deliver exceptional outcomes for advisers and licensees.”

Mr Willis will start as HUB24 Executive General Manager, Platform Growth on 2nd September 2025.

Mr Willis’s appointment follows several recent internal HUB24 Group promotions including Paul Voges who was promoted to the newly created role of Head of Investment Growth and Partnerships, reporting to Matt Willis. Paul is responsible for leveraging HUB24 Group’s relationships with asset managers, driving continued adoption of managed portfolios across HUB24’s Platform solutions.

The post HUB24 appoints Executive General Manager, Platform Growth appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Craig Lawrenson

HUB24 has added five new portfolio managers to its Discover offer, delivering broader choice to empower advisers with solutions to support their clients throughout their wealth accumulation and retirement journey.

Discover, launched in November 2023, complements HUB24’s Core and Choice offers providing a cost-effective platform and investment solution designed for those with less complex needs.

Advisers and their clients can now access a range of passive, active, and ESG managed portfolios from 13 portfolio managers, with new options from Dimensional, State Street, Russell, Infinity, and MLC, joining existing managers AZ Sestante, Betashares, Blackrock/iShares, Elston, Lonsec, Morningstar, Vanguard, and Zenith.

“Demographic trends, such as intergenerational wealth transfer and ageing populations, are providing opportunities for advisers to evolve their advice proposition to meet the needs of a diverse range of clients, said HUB24’s Chief Operating Officer Craig Lawrenson.

“Designed in conjunction with portfolio managers, Discover was developed in response to the growing demand from advisers seeking a cost-effective solution that offers choice and flexibility. Based on adviser feedback, we’ve now identified more opportunities to expand our range of managed portfolios to 66, nearly doubling the available options.”

Discover has been well-received by advisers providing access to all the benefits of HUB24’s market-leading platform capability and a streamlined selection of managed portfolios.

Orbit Wealth Principal Adviser Jacinta Martin said: “Discover is fantastic and a game-changer. It’s great for younger clients with simple needs who want the enhanced features of a wrap platform with unmatched choice and flexibility. It’s perfect for young accumulators who might have a smaller super and investment account.

“It’s also great for those clients who are either transitioning to retirement or in a semi-retirement phase and contributing to their superannuation account while holding an account-based pension.”

Gretel Chiswell from Gretel Financial said: “Discover is user-friendly and cost-efficient, providing excellent investment diversification and seamless client accessibility. The HUB24 platform offers portfolio performance tracking against multiple benchmarks, making it a highly efficient, transparent, and reliable solution for both advisers and investors.”

The post HUB24 adds new portfolio managers to Discover solution appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Mr Lawrenson will report directly to HUB24 Managing Director Andrew Alcock. The appointment follows a period of strong growth for HUB24, which saw it triple funds under administration in the past two years, reaching $5 billion last month.

Mr Lawrenson is a chartered accountant and brings more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry holding several roles across operations, distribution, product management and development. Throughout his career at BT he was integrally involved in the development of BT Wrap and in 2010 took on responsibility for the Asgard business. More recently, as Head of Product and Business Architecture, Craig was involved with the strategy and implementation of BT Panorama, and as Head of SMSF, established the BT SMSF business.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Alcock said the new role reflected the ongoing evolution of the business.

“Craig’s appointment to COO reflects not only the rapid growth of our business but our ongoing commitment to providing a market-leading product and customer experience. Craig has an impressive reputation in the industry and we’re delighted to have him joining the HUB24 team.”

Additionally, HUB24 announced the creation of a strategic development council to advise on business strategy across all segments. The council will comprise of Agility Applications Directors Craig Apps and Paul Biggs with Paragem Directors Ian Knox and Charlie Haynes, alongside members of the platform executive team, leveraging their collective expertise from the platform, advice and broking segments.

Mr Lawrenson commented that: “This is an exciting opportunity for me. I am joining HUB24 as it enters a new phase of growth, I look forward to working with the team at HUB24 as we position the business for the future.”

The post HUB24 appoints Chief Operations Officer appeared first on AdviserVoice.

BT offers new client SMSF solution.

BT has added further capability to BT Panorama SMSF where advisers and accountants can work collaboratively to set up their clients’ SMSFs online, to invest their super, help administer their fund and keep it compliant – all in the one place.

BT Panorama SMSF is an integrated, end-to-end self managed super solution, tailored to meet the needs of advisers, accountants and their clients. It is a new way to help SMSF professionals manage their clients’ SMSFs more efficiently.

Online SMSF establishment for individual or corporate trustees and a professional fund administration service save time, save paperwork and help keep clients’ SMSFs on track.

Panorama SMSF helps advisers and accountants to collaborate with the flexibility to choose one or two services, or an end-to-end solution to manage SMSFs all in one place, it is designed to suit a range of clients and business models. It’s the easier way to manage clients’ SMSFs.

“Until now there hasn’t been a single place to manage all aspects of clients’ SMSFs or shared access to information when both an adviser and accountant are working together to support the client,” said Craig Lawrenson, Head of SMSF, BT Financial Group.

“We’re making this process much easier, so SMSF professionals can have more time to focus on the SMSF strategies and investments that are important to their clients,” said Mr Lawrenson.

To date, getting a complete view of a fund has meant accessing multiple systems which was inefficient and time consuming for everyone involved.

The new solution is powered by BT Panorama Investments, launched to SMSFs in November 2015, as the fund’s transactional, reporting and investment hub.

Offering a BT Cash Hub plus the option to choose from a wide range of SMSF-ready investments – including term deposits, listed securities, managed funds and BT Managed Portfolios – helps drive greater efficiency with advisers, accountants and clients having a shared view of fund information, detailed SMSF reporting and the ability to add external assets for a whole of fund view.

The post Managing clients SMSF’s made easy with BT Panorama appeared first on AdviserVoice.