OneVue group head of sales Stephen Karrasch said OneVue had made enhancements on the back of consultation with advisers who use the OneVue platform and to ensure greater alignment with the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms.

“Both investment packages will offer next generation transaction, administration and reporting services, with self managed super fund integration,” Karrasch said.

“Our WRAP+ package will provide greater flexibility than traditional wrap providers in terms of investment choice, as well as streamlined tax reporting.

“WRAP+ will enable advisers and clients to operate cash, margin loans and custodial shares on the platform, and give them access to around 800 managed funds, all ASX listed securities including 70 exchange traded funds, 21 term deposit providers and over 30 separately managed account (SMA) model portfolios.

“For clients who want even greater diversity, our UMA VANTAGE package will incorporate one of the most extensive ranges of investment types in the market, as well as comprehensive daily reporting across all tax entities and product types.

“UMA VANTAGE will comprise everything in WRAP+ and allow for more sophisticated investments such as direct property, loans including limited recourse borrowing arrangements, collectibles, non custodial shares, warrants and structured products.”

Karrasch said because OneVue is an independent business and not institutionally aligned it has no conflicts of interest in the manufacturing of products and therefore has few restrictions in the options it can provide.

He said the packages will apply to all new clients while existing clients will not be impacted unless they choose to transition.

“What is really exciting is simplified tiered pricing has been formulated for these packages so advisers can consolidate multiple asset types via one simple structure,” Karrasch said.

“Rather than product-by-product pricing, most of the available investments in WRAP+ and UMA VANTAGE can be priced collectively, which makes fees easier to understand and communicate.

“The more investment types held on platform and the greater their value, the lower the incremental fee as well.”

Karrasch said the new fee structure had been benchmarked against industry analysis to ensure competitive pricing and that the business was also increasing options around the way adviser services fees can be charged.

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Wealthtrac Managing Director and CEO, Matthew Johnson, said the new pricing model was designed to give advisers greater flexibility and was better suited to fee for service models. 

“We understand the pressures advisers and clients are under in the current environment. Platform services such as ours, should be about assisting advisers to do what they do best – and that is, implementing excellent advice strategies for their clients.” 

“The value of many Australian’s super accounts have fallen substantially in the past few years and this puts enormous pressure on advisers and their clients.  We think it’s important to respond to this new environment by lowering fees and keeping our platform accessible.” 

Previously administration fees were capped for accounts in excess of $500,000 or $2,770 maximum for superannuation. Wealthtrac has lowered this to $350,000 capped with a new maximum of $2,460 and $2,385 per annum for IDPS.  

“We believe this makes Wealthtrac the lowest capped traditional platform in themarketplace,” Mr Johnson said. 

The new PDS also includes revised ASF, which provides advisers and members with the flexibility to charge for advice.   Advisers can now charge a one off ASF as either a flat dollar or a percentage. Advisers also have the option to charge an ongoing ASF as either a fixed percentage or a tiered percentage based on the administration fee tiers and the ability to charge an ongoing ASF as a combination of a flat dollar and percentage (fixed or tiered). 

“Under the new PDS, advisers will have greater flexibility to negotiate fees that suittheir business and their clients.  We have enhanced functionality in relation to ASF. Importantly, we have also reduced administration fees, which we think is always well received by new members.”

Minimum fees on amounts less than $75,000 apply.  Existing members will remain on their current administration fees, however they are able to utilise the new ASF functionality via the Management Alteration form. 

Mr Johnson said the new structures were made possible following the revision of Wealthtrac’s service level agreement with OnePath.  

“The Wealthtrac platform has been performing strongly and our funds under administration has recently passed $750m for the first time.  Under our new SLA with OnePath, we have far greater flexibility to modify our offering to suit ouradviser members.”

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Commenting on the repositioned HUB24 IDPS, INQ and HUB24 CEO Mr Darren Pettiona said “HUB24 supports the great majority of FOFA reforms, particularly the intention to improve fee transparency and remove potential conflicts. In anticipation of the implementation of FOFA, HUB24 has for some time planned to reposition its offering and is pleased to announce it aims to restructure its Investment Service into an IDPS. Initially, operating as a full Managed Discretionary Account service (“MDA”), we now view this operating structure as carrying higher regulatory risk, with less consumer protection than that envisaged by ASIC.

“HUB24 already provides a wide range of financial and investment products, particularly separately managed accounts and we continue to broaden the offering with several superannuation and insurance initiatives being finalised.

HUB24 continues to enjoy many marketplace advantages, as it is one of the few multi-purpose wealth management platforms that have been built in Australia from the ground up in the last ten years. In doing so, it provides professional financial services practitioners with state of the art technology and the delivery of higher service standards.

Furthermore, HUB24 stands alone as a competitive market offering, with full fee transparency and is by design not ‘propped-up’ by shelf space remuneration from portfolio managers.

As a result, HUB24 is ideally positioned for ‘scaled advice’ and has the ability to enable financial advisers, brokers or accountants to provide advice in response to an individual’s singular need should it be required for investment, superannuation or insurance protection cover.
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All of these services and products are already catered for within the HUB24Investment Service.

HUB24’s new legal structure will alleviate many issues, including:

• The requirement to include an investment program in an MDA contract, which can be problematic and practically difficult to comply with in terms of business processes for advisers and for HUB24;
• Enhancing retail protection by ensuring a higher level of disclosure to clients on the underlying investments, with both financial advisers and model portfolio managers obligated to provide disclosure documents relating to the investments accessed via the Service;
• Better supporting the business processes of Adviser Groups, which are already set up for Statement of Advice (“SOA”) infrastructure; and
• Relatively expanded flexibility within the legal structure, which accommodates HUB24’s state of the art technology and INQ’s future future strategic objectives.

In outlining HUB24’s FOFA position benefits, Pettiona listed the following key advantages that will be most attractive to dealer groups and financial advisers concerned with issues in relation to volume rebates and conflicted remuneration:

• The HUB24 Investment Service is competitively priced and provides for Adviser Groups to charge a ‘fee for consultation services’ and the cost of the‘accessible investment offerings’ are delivered at a desired, affordable price and thus allow for quality of advice.
• Increased flexibility, in terms of fee structuring design, which in turn is designed to better cater for the advisers-client relationship, particularly benefitting transparency and affordability.
• The Client and Adviser Workbench facilitates communication and on-going service to the client and significantly reduces many of the adviser’s administrative activities – and in doing so, the adviser has more productive time and resources for enhanced client servicing activities and business growth.

Two new dealer groups added

HUB24 is also pleased to confirm the addition of Premium Accounting Group and Spectrum Wealth Advisers to HUB24’s rapidly growing list of dealer groups.

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Brenton Tong, Head of Strategy for Spectrum Wealth Advisers said, “Spectrum has grown to nearly 100 advisers on a foundation of understanding that each individual practice is unique and off the shelf generic support is inappropriate to their needs in the rapidly evolving financial services marketplace.”
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“Spectrum required a platform that is capable of facilitating Spectrum Wealth’s growth objectives whilst providing our advisers the freedom to operate their practices in line with their individual operations and HUB24 filled the mandate better than any other – and by a long way!”
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Pettiona concluded, “HUB24 is one of the only platforms that doesn’t charge ‘shelf space fees’ to fund managers or offer rebates to dealer groups and in doing so, is perfectly positioned to assist our clients to address pending changes forecast in FOFA.
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“HUB24’s unique structure is enabling dealer group clients to build sustainable revenue streams and participate within the manufacturing process with no legacy constraints. Moreover, HUB24’s technology lead, empowers advisers to utilise the latest in mobile technologies, such as an iPhone app.”

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