Nick Eatock

Global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) and Invesco (NYSE: IVZ), a leading global asset management firm has announced an agreement for Carlyle to acquire intelliflo from Invesco. intelliflo is a market leading provider of cloud-based practice management software for independent financial advisors (IFAs) in the UK. The transaction includes intelliflo’s US-based subsidiaries, including RedBlack, a provider of SaaS-based portfolio rebalancing tools, and intelliflo Portfolio, a Portfolio Management software solution for US Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs).

The purchase price of up to $200 million is comprised of $135 million at closing, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year subject to certain closing conditions, and up to an additional $65 million in potential future earn outs.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in London, intelliflo offers an end-to-end software platform used by over 30,000 professionals at approximately 2,600 advisory firms, supporting the management of approximately £450 billion in client assets. intelliflo’s platform delivers CRM, financial planning, client onboarding, compliance workflows, and reporting functionality. Its cloud-native, multi-tenanted SaaS architecture integrates with over 120 third-party applications. The transaction aims to strengthen intelliflo’s market-leading position in the UK and accelerate its growth in Australia.

As part of the transaction, intelliflo’s US-based subsidiaries will be established as a standalone business called RedBlack, run by a separate management team. This separation will allow both businesses to better serve and focus on their existing customers and markets. intelliflo will focus purely on delivering market leading software and innovation for the UK and Australian markets, and RedBlack will focus solely on delivering for RIAs and other financial advisors in the United States. Carlyle will support the carve-out of both businesses from Invesco and partner with both leadership teams to execute their respective growth initiatives.

Equity for the investment will be provided by Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) V, a €3 billion fund which invests in technology companies across Europe. The CETP team has significant experience in financial software, wealthtech, and vertically focused SaaS, with current and recent investments including SER Group, CSS, SurePay, and Calastone.

Fernando Chueca, Managing Director in the CETP investment advisory team, said: “intelliflo is a mission-critical software provider to the UK’s wealth management ecosystem, with a deeply embedded and loyal customer base. We are excited to partner with Nick, Bryan, and the team to unlock the company’s full potential and deliver a new stage of growth.”

Nick Eatock, CEO and Founder of intelliflo, said: “This is an exciting moment for intelliflo. Carlyle’s investment reflects its trust in our business and its deep experience in scaling software companies make it an ideal partner for our next phase of growth. With Carlyle’s support, we will continue to focus on delivering great value to our clients, with a renewed focus on building innovative solutions for the evolving needs of our core UK and Australian customer bases.”

Bryan Perryman, the CEO of the newly formed RedBlack, said: “Our team is highly motivated by the opportunity to bring our full focus onto the US market as an agile, standalone company. RedBlack has a rich history of delivering market-leading software solutions for our US RIA customer base. We are excited to be backed in this endeavour by a sponsor with the reputation and credentials of Carlyle, which will continue to best position RedBlack to support advisors’ needs.”

Doug Sharp, Senior Managing Director, Head of Americas and EMEA, at Invesco, said: “As intelliflo and the newly incorporated RedBlack embark on their next phases of growth with Carlyle, we are confident that both companies are well-positioned for continued success and innovation in the wealth technology space. We look forward to our continued relationship with intelliflo and RedBlack through our common interaction with wealth advisor clients.”

Evercore served as financial advisor to Invesco and HSF Kramer acted as legal adviser. Altman Solon, PWC, Oliver Wyman and Ringstone conducted due diligence on the acquisition. Gibson Dunn acted as legal counsel to Carlyle.

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Nick Eatock

intelliflo, the global cloud-based technology solution for financial advisers, has released a dedicated fee consent screen to give advisers enhanced oversight and fee tracking abilities, while further showcasing its commitment to developing solutions that meet evolving regulatory changes in the Australian advice market.

The dedicated fee consent screen gives intelliflo office users a new, streamlined way of managing ongoing fee arrangement (OFA) renewals and consents with their client book, significantly reducing advisers’ administrative time spent chasing documentation.

The launch follows the release of two other dedicated templates – ongoing fee arrangement (OFA) and ongoing fee arrangement (OFA) renewal – which were added to the intelliflo office base account earlier this year.

Collectively, these enhancements recognise advisers are seeking streamlined paperwork following tranche one changes from the Delivering Better Financial Advice Outcomes (DBFO) legislation. The updated legislation removes the need for advisers to provide ongoing fee arrangement statements as part of an OFA arrangement.

Nick Eatock, CEO and co-founder of intelliflo, said intelliflo has closely watched the Quality of Advice Review and subsequent DBFO and has proactively adapted its solutions in line with both changing legislation and advisers’ evolving needs.

“Well before the legislation was finalised, intelliflo was workshopping how it could implement new solutions that meet advisers’ expectations for simplified, time-saving and flexible options to help serve their clients – a big theme from the Quality of Advice Review,” he said.

“We will have further exciting news on this front as future changes are introduced,” Eatock added.

Stu Alsop, Director of Sales at intelliflo Australia, said the cloud-based technology solution is committed to making advisers’ lives easier.

“The Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms are progressively being rolled out, with a number of the changes likely to affect how advisers operate day-to-day. intelliflo has been working behind the scenes, responding to legislative change and using the best of new technology to come up with updates and enhancements that further simplify how advisers manage their processes. The dedicated fee consent screen is just one example,” Alsop added.

intelliflo’s principal product offering, intelliflo office, is an industry-leading business management system designed for financial advice firms of all sizes. It streamlines the entire advice process, giving advisers valuable time back to focus on building better outcomes and client relationships.

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Nick Eatock

intelliflo, the global cloud-based technology solution for financial advisers, has today released Advice, evolved: A new era in Australian financial advice, a whitepaper detailing the major themes that will characterise the next five years of advice.  

With only one-in-10 Australians currently advised, and most people unwilling to pay the cost for full financial advice, there is a critical issue facing Australia: how to get more people the advice they need, when they need it, at a price point they can afford. 

The whitepaper is the product of a dynamic roundtable in Sydney late last year, featuring seven esteemed participants representing technological innovation, policy, advice and consulting: intelliflo CEO Nick Eatock, Adviser Ratings founder Angus Woods, financial services policy expert Keddie Waller, Product Rex founder Nick Topham, Finura Group managing director Peter Worn, ensombl CEO Clayton Daniels, and The Financial Adviser Scale Squad founder Adele Martin.

The aim of the roundtable was to move beyond the much discussed topics of compliance burdens and low adviser numbers, and instead visualise how the financial advice sector will need to articulate its value and purpose to a growing pool of potential clients as an intergenerational transfer of wealth gathers pace.

Nick Eatock, CEO and co-founder of intelliflo, said the whitepaper examines how the advice profession will move to become more customer-centric in the coming years, thanks to new technology, changing demands, and demographic shifts.

“Australia’s advice profession is at a crossroads. On one hand, technology is reshaping the delivery of advice, streamlining processes, and enabling a more scalable approach. On the other, the human connection –the very essence of our value proposition – remains irreplaceable,” he said.

“With that in mind, the future involves technology complimenting human advice delivery, so that advisers can reach more customers, while saving on time and costs. Clients, meanwhile, will receive a richer experience, with technological tools to keep them engaged over the longer term.

“Over the next five years, we expect the advice profession to reach many more Australians, as advisers embrace new technology, and customers navigate intergenerational wealth transfer.”

The whitepaper identified seven key themes for advisers and financial advice practices to consider:

• Changing the perception of advice: Working collectively as a profession to create universal understanding about how advice can add value and finding ways to continually improve the client experience.
• Adopting consumer-friendly payment models: Meeting evolving consumer expectations by embracing new methods of payment, including trials and a PayPal-style model.  
• Technology as the foundation: Incorporating technology to slash costs, give clients flexibility and future-proof advice businesses.  
• The next frontier: An adviser-led system: Creating an adviser and client-first model, which proactively advocates for clients’ best interests through self-regulation and product design.  
• Reaching more Australians through scale: Using super funds and M&A activity to ensure millions more have access to advice.  
• Building a whole-of-life pathway: Reaching consumers at critical life stages to ensure they are prepared for the future with quality advice. 
• Engaging young people: Preparing for the biggest intergenerational wealth transfer in history by ensuring young people can engage with advice in a way they choose to.  

For advisers, each chapter of the whitepaper features a series of action items to meet the emerging needs of the next generation, including using AI to further personalise the client experience, building professional profiles in innovative ways, creating free financial education content to drive prospects, and employing technology to engage clients with portals and customised alerts.

Read the whitepaper.

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Nick Eatock

intelliflo, the global cloud-based technology solution for financial advisers, has delivered 138 updates through its Customer-Inspired Change Program in the past year, highlighting intelliflo’s commitment to shaping its technology in line with the needs of Australian and international advisers. 

Globally, intelliflo introduced 138 client-driven updates this past year for its intelliflo office solution, of which 79 directly benefit Australian intelliflo users. 

These enhancements have led to efficiency gains within Australian advice businesses, by allowing customers to streamline their workflows and reduce errors. In turn, these updates have meant intelliflo office customers are reporting they can spend more time with their clients and focus on achieving their business goals. 

Nick Eatock, CEO and co-founder of intelliflo, said, “We decided early on to let our customers help to determine how intelliflo evolves and our latest insights show they’ve come to the table and helped us to shape our technology in enormous ways.”

“Australian advisers have faced rapid change when it comes to regulatory processes, and client needs and preferences. In our view, it’s the role of technology providers to rapidly implement updates to help them to respond to changing demands, and to give their clients the best possible experience,” he said.

“By collaborating with our customers, we have gained deeper knowledge of the day-to-day challenges Australian advisers face, which will help inform our future product design and development,” he added.

The global Customer-Inspired Change Program invites intelliflo office customers to propose updates to improve their experience with the award-winning technology. Other intelliflo users then vote on the enhancements they support. Since its launch in late 2022, it has delivered an average three customer-driven changes per week. 

intelliflo’s solutions are currently used by 30,000 financial advisers worldwide (in the US, UK, and Australia).

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Nick Eatock

intelliflo, the global cloud-based technology solution for financial advisers, has been named as a global leader in tech innovation by Fintech Global’s WealthTech100, an annual ranking of the world’s most innovative WealthTech companies.

intelliflo was recognised for its robust, API-based financial advisory platform that allows advisers to personalise and digitise financial advice at scale. intelliflo’s technology helps simplify the complex digital landscape for financial advisors, freeing up valuable time and resources for advisers to grow, compete, and focus on building better outcomes and client relationships.

Nick Eatock, chief executive officer of intelliflo, said the role of technology is critical for the financial advice market to drive growth and reach more people who need advice.

“intelliflo’s open architecture drives new levels of flexibility, efficiencies, and personalisation across financial advice, empowering organisations of all sizes with digital tools to better serve long-standing investors, and clients new to financial advice,” he said.

“The intelliflo platform encompasses a broad spectrum of capabilities, from financial planning to practice management, digital account opening, reporting, indexing, trading and portfolio rebalancing.

“We are proud to be recognised on the WealthTech100 for how we are helping advisors across the globe attract and better serve more clients, ultimately widening access to financial advice and creating lasting impacts for peoples’ financial futures,” Eatock said.

Richard Sachar, director at Fintech Global, said the financial advisory sector is facing significant transformation as customers’ advice needs evolve. 

“intelliflo and other leaders listed on our 2024 WealthTech100 ranking are offering advanced technology solutions that are likley to have a lasting impact and can effectively adapt to the evolving landscape and support financial advisors in their success.”

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Nick Eatock

intelliflo, the leading cloud-based technology platform for financial advisers that supports over 30,000 advisers worldwide with over three million end-investors and over $1 trillion advised across its platforms, today announced the official opening of their Australian operations.

Nick Eatock, Founder and CEO of intelliflo, said today, “We want Australia to have the best financial advisers in the world. This starts with the fundamental of world-leading software and services.”

“We’re already seeing strong-take-up in the local market, having signed several licensees and dealer groups here; and are in active conversation with multiple advice firms. The market is clearly welcoming increased competition, software, systems and service.”

Commenting on intelliflo’s support in Australia, Stefan Dooney, a financial adviser with Tardis Advice, said: “intelliflo has gone to extra-ordinary lengths to understand our business and identify how their software can improve our processes, reduce complexity and help us engage our clients in a simple manner. We feel we have a strong technology partner who are invested in it. It is a refreshing change.”

Expanding financial advice through software as a service

Mr Eatock added that soaring inflation and the cost-of-living crisis has made the need for affordable advice even more acute.

“At a time when financial advice has never been more important, many Australian financial advisers have their hands tied from helping a wider range of clients due to a lack of time, resources and cost-effective solutions.”

“As a firm we know how to break the vicious cycle of less advisers, higher cost of advice, less people getting advice”, he said.

“Embedding technology effectively into the advice process helps deliver cost savings through improved efficiency and economies of scale that advice firms can pass onto clients through lower fees.

“It can also deliver a business case for widening access to advice by increasing the commercial viability of working with clients with lower investible assets,” said Mr Eatock.

intelliflo is the digital advice business of global investment company Invesco, though operates independently under its own brand.

It stands for increasing the value of advice for Australians and harnesses software and systems to make financial advice and investment more efficient and effective for both advisers and their clients.

The official launch today follows the successful trial of the Australian-adapted version of its award-winning financial advice software, “intelliflo office,” last year.

As part of the development of the Australia office, the firm worked extensively with large advice firms who were also early adopters of the intelliflo office solution, obtaining their feedback and ensuring the solution was fit-for-purpose for the Australian regulatory and tax environment.

“Our financial advice software intelliflo office is the backbone of the wealth sector in the United Kingdom,” said Stuart Alsop, Head of Sales Australia at intelliflo. “It took over 20,000 days to develop the local Australian intelliflo office solution and it is fast becoming an integral part of the financial advice business in Australia.”

“This solution provides local advisers access to advice services online and streamlines the entire advice process, giving advisers the time needed to focus on their client relationships.

“Australia and the UK are so similar when it comes to the value of financial advice. They’re often a step ahead and a step behind each other,” said Mr Alsop.

Mr Eatock founded intelliflo in 2004, pioneering the use of web-based technology to support the end-to-end needs of financial advice businesses.  It has since been on a path of consistent growth, widening access to financial advice across the globe.

Australia marks its latest expansion overseas after developing a dominant footprint in the UK with a market-leading share of 46% according to the latest report by Platforum and a successful launch in the US.

This Thursday, the firm will be a hosting its intelliflo “LIVE” event in Sydney to showcase the intelliflo office solution and draw attention to their competitive edge as a business, by seeking to reduce the cost and increase the quality of advice.

Mr Eatock noted that the role of ‘robo-advice’ had little impact on narrowing the advice gap in the UK. “Hybrid advice models that blend digital and human interaction are clearly emerging as the most effective way of delivering engaging advice.”

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Angus Benbow

Centrepoint Alliance, a leading provider of advice and business services to financial advice firms throughout Australia, has announced its first-mover agreement with Intelliflo, the UK’s market leader for financial advice technology.

Centrepoint Alliance’s adviser network will be one of the first in Australia to access Intelliflo technology, which is used by more than a third of the UK advice market.

Financial planning technology solutions provider, Enzumo, which was acquired by Centrepoint Alliance in June 2020, will work with Intelliflo to implement its offering across the Australian market.

Mr Angus Benbow, CEO of Centrepoint Alliance, said the agreement was the latest step in Centrepoint Alliance’s ongoing commitment to providing cutting edge technological solutions to both authorised representatives and self-licensed businesses.

“We have been receiving a high volume of enquiries from advisers seeking a new home, and technology is high on their list of priorities,” Mr Benbow said.

“In addition to teaming up with Intelliflo, Centrepoint Alliance has been making significant investments in technology including the acquisition of Enzumo, the introduction of an online adviser portal, Centrepoint Connect, and the development of the Centrepoint Practice Dashboard tool.”

A new era of advice tech

Mr Benbow said Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo are working closely with Intelliflo to create the offering for the group.

“We believe Intelliflo’s technology will greatly benefit financial advisers, and we are delighted to be working with them so that the Centrepoint Alliance community will be one of the first to access the benefits of Intelliflo’s open architecture,” Mr Benbow said.

Mr Nick Eatock, CEO and Chairman of Intelliflo, said the partnership with Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo had been invaluable in helping Intelliflo formulate its Australian market offering.

“Our engagement with Centrepoint Alliance has been building for some time,” said Mr Eatock. “We greatly value the opportunity to work together and believe this marks the beginning of a new era of advice tech for Australia.”

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