About InvestmentLink Investment

Link is Australia’s largest independent datafeed repository that fully services the Australian financial planning market. The InvestmentLink service contains over 4.4 million client accounts across more than 300 superannuation and managed funds with a total balance of over $40 billion—managed by 12 000 advisers for more than 200 dealer groups.

InvestmentLink supplies platform transaction data on a next day basis, allowing a single-page view of the client (including managed funds, unit pricing, shares and cash products).

InvestmentLink was founded in 1993 from the need for wealth managers and advisers to have a streamlined and efficient mechanism for the delivery and consolidation of wealth management information.

Following the deal, Midwinter has announced new leadership roles:

• Julian Plummer, Managing Director of InvestmentLink, will assume the leadership role.
• Salvador Saiz, Head of Institutional Growth, will maintain key relationships with platforms and datafeed clients.

Strategic focus

The newly appointed Managing Director of InvestmentLink, Julian Plummer said “Midwinter identified that the InvestmentLink datafeed service will be a crucial component of the future advice landscape, given that the impending Open Banking legislation completely ignores superannuation products. Additionally, we have found many of our digital superannuation fund clients prefer not to implement any systems where their members are required to share credentials to banking portals”.

Applications to transformation projects and Midwinter’s upcoming API strategy

Plummer went on to say “when Midwinter reviewed the AdviceOS roadmap late last year, it identified several of those roadmap items meant acquiring InvestmentLink. We intend to create one comprehensive research API service that provides transactions and balances for investment options (provided by InvestmentLink), research for those investment options, associated platform research and associated insurance research. This is only possible if we bring datafeeds in-house.”

“Bringing the InvestmentLink service in-house has a number of benefits for our advisers, including the ability for Midwinter to apply pressure to platforms to increasing their resources to their datafeed teams and allowing the InvestmentLink datafeeds to be accessed via Midwinter’s AdviceOS API. It also allows Midwinter to increase the amount of resources to the InvestmentLink service impacting the depth and breadth of its datafeeds.”

Applications to digital advice

“With the increasing popularity of Midwinter’s Digital Advice Platform, we have also identified several benefits for licensees for providing an integrated datafeed service for their digital transformations. These benefits include providing a single-page view of the client and being able to recreate member statements across multiple platforms in real time.”

Transaction details

• Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed.
• The InvestmentLink acquisition was completed 10th May 2019.
• The majority of InvestmentLink staff will be retained, and the technology and teams will be consolidated over time.
• Midwinter co-founders James Murphy, Andrew McClelland and Julian Plummer have been appointed to the InvestmentLink board.

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Salvador Saiz

Australian based financial advice technology firm Midwinter has announced its recent technology partnership with BUSSQ superannuation fund.

This has seen Midwinter’s AdviceOS platform utilised for a range of advice channels within BUSSQ, namely face-to-face and phone-based advice. BUSSQ has also employed the use of Midwinter’s Client Portal as a meaningful client engagement tool.

Midwinter was selected by BUSSQ for the superannuation fund’s future advice delivery model, based on several main competitive advantages, including Midwinter’s ability to easily integrate with third-party applications, in particular – superannuation fund registry platforms and CRMs. Microsoft Dynamics is BUSSQ’s chosen CRM which Midwinter has previous experience integrating with, allowing the free flow of data between both systems.

This partnership is in line with BUSSQ’s launch and rebrand of its financial planning business as Skylight Financial Solutions – which provides advice across all topics, within and outside of superannuation.

In 2017, BUSSQ launched Skylight Financial Solutions to offer tailored advice on a broad range of financial topics beyond superannuation—including budgeting, insurance, wealth creation, and estate planning.

Midwinter’s Head of Institutional Growth, Salvador Saiz is delighted about the ongoing relationship, saying “Midwinter has worked closely with the BUSSQ and Skylight team to ensure that AdviceOS has met their exact requirements, particularly in the unique way that their phone-based advice interacts with the face-to-face component of their advice process.

“This native omni-channel approach gives BUSSQ an unique ability to not only monitor and supervise the advice that is going out in real-time, but also gives their advisers the tools to ensure that the advice is in the member’s best interest.

“BUSSQ now has a modern, best-of-breed approach to digitalising their advice process while making sure the advice provided is of a high quality. There has been no compromise between our initial white-board planning session with David and the outcome that has been achieved.

“BUSSQ have for a long time understood the importance of providing help and advice to their members and families and have built a successful financial advice business as a result of this. At the same time, BUSSQ have a strong appreciation of the importance of utilising best of breed advice technology in order to enable and support the growth and evolution of its advice services and channels to members. Midwinter’s AdviceOS is a key and integrated part of their technology ecosystem, supporting the Fund’s single view of member approach.”

Executive Officer of BUSSQ’s financial planning business Skylight Financial Solutions, David Southwood, is pleased with the decision to move to Midwinter’s AdviceOS (made in mid-2017), saying “Changing financial planning software providers can be daunting but for us the transition went smoothly. We have found significant time saving and efficiency benefits as a result of this change, meaning we can do more of the important things in business like being in front of members and clients.”

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Salvador Saiz

Australian based financial advice technology firm Midwinter has announced it will deliver technology services for Suncorp’s salaried financial planning business – Suncorp Advice.

Midwinter was selected by Suncorp upon review of its financial planning business, which included testing by Suncorp advisers and paraplanners.

AdviceOS will provide Suncorp with:

• Enhanced system capabilities – including cloud-based and API driven integration
• Strategic and product modelling capabilities
• Superior planner/user experience and client engagement
• Process and production efficiencies
• CRM and reporting capabilities
• Compliance functionality
• Experienced project management of transitions and support

Midwinter’s Head of Institutional Growth, Salvador Saiz welcomed the announcement saying:

“The future of planning tech means being to deliver best-in-class strategy and product modelling, giving advisers the ability to easily compare and project different client scenarios. This ability to compare multiple scenarios gives advisers the means to determine if the advice is in the client’s best interests. We’re delighted to be not just providing planning software to Suncorp, but to be a part of their over-arching financial advice vision.”

“Forward thinking businesses like Suncorp Advice are beginning to see the need for a technology provider whose approach to business is as a partner, not just a vendor (which has been the operating model of many providers in the past). The great thing about being a cloud based, open architect software service means that we can partner with companies with ease, tailoring our services and products to suit individual business requirements.”

Rollout of Midwinter’s AdviceOS to Suncorp Advice financial planners commenced this month.

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Mr Saiz, whose career in financial services spans 20 years in research, SME consulting and distribution positions, joins the Midwinter team with a wealth of experience with the superannuation and wealth management space and has managed a range of financial advice, retirement solutions and member engagement projects.

Saiz who is considered a financial advice expert by superannuation funds has been brought on by Midwinter as a SME and superannuation fund growth consultant, as the company continues to widen its market reach within this space.

With several large partnership announcements within the superannuation and enterprise space soon to be made public, Midwinter is preparing for the near future where it expects to continue to provide technology solutions to these types of clients, in particular its digital advice solution.

Managing Director of Midwinter Julian Plummer is delighted about the company’s most recent appointment saying “Our digital advice solution has created a great deal of interest over the past year, with many larger institutions and superannuation funds realising the need to offer their clients or members a non-threatening and easy to use form of engagement.”

“We believe that our Digital Advice Solution gives planners and superannuation funds the tools to deliver advice where their clients are spending most of their time – which is on their tablets and mobile phones. Advice firms have realised that digital tools allow them to scale their advice, allowing planners to move up the “value tree” and spend more time on the more complex pieces of advice.”

“Having someone like Salvador join our team with such a great reputation in the space and an immense amount of knowledge of technology and has worked with funds in reviewing and developing their financial advice models and channels is incredibly exciting.”

Mr Saiz has also expressed excitement on his new role saying “My work with clients makes it clear to me that technology and digital are not only drivers of efficiency but also key enablers for customer engagement and financial advice. I firmly believe that Midwinter is at the forefront of the advice technology/digital landscape, positioning it to leverage from the move by super funds to position financial advice across channels, as a key business unit.”

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