Jeff Hall

GBST, a leading global wealth management, adviser, and digital solutions provider, has enhanced its WealthConnect financial advice solution to meet the changing needs of advice professionals. The latest upgrade delivers a suite of innovative features designed to streamline advice production, reduce operational costs, and help firms scale effectively amid growing regulatory demands and rising client expectations.

Built on Salesforce technology, the upgraded WealthConnect platform brings together advanced wizards, research tools, and comparison features that support both advisers and paraplanners, driving greater efficiency across the entire advice process and enabling firms to service more clients. The enhancements also improve visibility across compliance, resource management, and client engagement, making it easier for large firms and dealer groups to allocate resources effectively and stay ahead of evolving industry pressures.

Jeff Hall, Head of APAC, GBST, commented: “Our primary focus is on helping advisory firms scale their operations with smart technology that drives efficiency. As regulatory demands continue to increase the administration and compliance burden on advisers, the need for advanced advice technology to improve efficiency, strengthen client engagement and support consistent outcomes has never been greater. We’re committed to equipping advice firms with the tools to build scale and deliver exceptional service and value to their clients in an ever more competitive market.

“Looking ahead, we are continuing to invest in WealthConnect with enhanced stochastic and goals-based modelling capabilities set to launch later this year. We’re also working to leverage Salesforce’s generative AI tool, Agentforce as its first certified Independent Software Vendor partner for the wealth management industry. Pre-built support tools will help advice professionals harness AI drive further efficiencies, deliver personalised client support, and adapt to the evolving digital landscape. Our goal is for WealthConnect to eliminate the need for multiple systems across the advice process, allowing advice firms to replace existing tools with a single, advanced platform that combines CRM, compliance management, and financial planning to better support high-quality advice.”

Award-winning financial advice firm Invest Blue selected WealthConnect as its advice management solution last year and went live in November. WealthConnect’s advice technology now serves as the primary hub for Invest Blue’s client engagement, service management, delivery and workflow.

Lexi Glover, Head of Operations, Invest Blue, commented: “Our goal is to advance our technology and data management to improve quality and reduce overhead costs for advisors and clients. By lowering the cost to serve in this area, we can invest in others to enhance the quality of what we deliver to clients and increase the number of people we can serve. WealthConnect will help boost our service delivery and align with our commitment to our clients living their best possible life. We look forward to continuing to leverage and expand WealthConnect’s capability.”

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Kasey Patterson

Financial Advice firm, Invest Blue, has adopted a nine day fortnight pilot, which would give all full time employees an extra 26 days off a year at a cost of roughly $1.9 million per annum, in a bid to foster employee wellbeing and drive productivity gains.

This follows the group’s recent inclusion in the list of Australia’s Best Workplaces for Women, an initiative of global people and culture organisation, Great Place to Work.

Kasey Patterson, Invest Blue Head of People and Culture, said the group strongly backed the philosophy “if we look after our people, they will look after our clients”.

“Our vision is to be Australia’s trusted home of great advice. Our mission is to have a recognisable presence across the country, which depends on our ability to attract, develop and retain advice professionals who are able to consistently deliver excellent advice and service to our clients,” she said.

“A critical element of our recruitment strategy is to ensure we remain a great place to work and initiatives like the nine day fortnight demonstrate our commitment to employee health and wellbeing.”

With 194 employees spread around the country and a large team offshore, Invest Blue’s size and scale puts it in a strong position to offer unique benefits while ensuring minimal impact on day-today operations and no disruption to clients, according to Lexi Glover, Invest Blue Chief Operating Officer.

“We have the right technology and infrastructure to support our people but most importantly we have the right culture,” Glover said.

“Geographically, our people are spread out in many different locations so trust and transparency are critical. It is not uncommon to have teams that work together operating from different offices or from home. We have established operational rhythms, data analytics tools and clear communications including daily team huddles, which can be done physically or virtually.”

Glover added that “business growth should never come at the cost of employee wellbeing”.

“Everyone is busy here and there’s plenty of work to do so, intuitively, it doesn’t make sense to compress the week and give people every second Friday off but research shows that this approach can lift productivity while increasing employee satisfaction,” she said.

With a rich history dating back to 1954, Invest Blue is a holistic financial advisory firm with 25 offices including rural, coastal and city locations. The firm provides financial advice, wealth management, lending and life insurance services and advice.

Since 2017, Invest Blue has achieved certification from Great Places to Work.

The group’s inclusion in the inaugural 2022 Best Workplaces for Women List, signifies an organisation that is fostering equity in the workplace and ensuring women employees feel safe, heard, challenged and valued.

To be eligible for consideration, Australian companies must have at least 100 employees of which at least half are women. They must also already be Great Place to Work certified.

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