Advice Licensing

We are more than advice licensees. We are partners – empowering your fund to provide quality, compliant advice, with the scale and expertise to make advice more affordable and accessible.

Why us?

As one of Australia's largest advice licensees to super funds, we understand the challenges and opportunities in adapting to changing regulations while also delivering advice in your members’ best interests. For many funds, advice is a potential risk and distraction from a core focus on investing retirement savings. It requires very different skills and knowledge, and specialist technology and technical integrations.

That’s why partnering with a specialised APRA-regulated, RSE licensee provider makes sense. We already provide full advice licensing to over 13 super funds and can share best practice and benchmark reporting while also leveraging our super-scale to ensure cost-effective member education and advice.
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What we offer

You can choose the licensing model and types of advice that best suit your fund and members:

Service/ Licensing models

Outsourced

IFS provides your financial advice services to your members on the fund’s behalf via our in house advice team.

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Representative

IFS employs and manages your fund’s financial advisers,
and they work as part of your team.

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Authorised Representative

Your fund employs and manages your financial advisers,
and they also work as part of your team.

Personal advice options

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General Advice

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Limited Advice

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Comprehensive

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Digital

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A proactive partner

Once a year, we will review your fund's strategic goals. You get regular reports, and we can also help you recruit advisers and improve advice models.

Either way, you’ll have one point of contact for practice management. Working closely with your advice teams, they ensure advisers have the training and development they need, monitor compliance and look for ways to improve efficiency.

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Advice services

Our licensing models include the following services:

Compliance and audit

For peace of mind, our Advice Assurance Program helps identify and address areas to improve. We use AI-assisted financial advice auditing software and an independently-audited compliance framework to provide comprehensive Board-friendly reporting on trends, risks, results and oversights, as well as personalised feedback and coaching for advisers. Importantly, we design the right level of monitoring for your advice model’s risk – if you only provide phone advice, your system shouldn’t be overly-onerous.

Technology and efficiency tools

Ensure your fund provides advice at optimal efficiency, with fully integrated automation tools and advice platforms. We engage industry partners and vendors to solve common tech issues such as system siloes, applying our in-house capability to API integration and plug-ins, and engaging your teams in the design process so they are empowered to use these tools. Our customised XPlan platform provides easy-to-use advice templates, automated workflows, streamlined technical and compliance processes, product research, and reporting. And the IFS Online Forms Portal can help you reduce data entry and double-handling for greater efficiency, while also enabling digital advice models by providing the data you need to deliver quality advice.

Data and insights

IFS can develop bespoke reporting to identify and manage risks and opportunities, and support insight-led decisions. Benchmark your fund against our broad and diverse network to see how you track relative to your peers across advice outcomes, complaints and issues, and save time developing clear and comprehensive reports for your Board.

Digital advice

Improve your member experience and provide more options for engagement with digital advice services. IFS has a history of bringing multiple software platforms and digital advice vendors together to develop bespoke solutions. Our support spans project management, data integration and compliance assurance through to technical and configuration support.

Professional development and training

Set your advisers up for success. We’ll make sure they meet their mandatory professional, licensee and legislative obligations under the Financial Adviser Standards and ASIC, and are also trained to deliver your specific service model, including business rules and advice systems. From onboarding to ongoing coaching, professional development days, conferences, technical support and personalised training plans, we can develop a CPD program that’s right-sized for your fund and for specific advice roles.

Central community portal for adviser resources

Our online Advice Solutions Hub gives advisers and their leaders 24/7 access to valuable support and resources, including guidance, tools and centralised adviser records. It’s the easy way to get the help you need, whenever you need it, and get new advisers up to speed quickly. You can also stay ahead of industry, legislation and compliance changes with our monthly newsletter Express.

Paraplanning services

Our dedicated paraplanning team offers one of the fastest turnaround times in the industry, helping your advisers respond to clients with confidence. They can work alongside your advisers to ensure advice is in the members’ best interests, providing strategy development, technical accuracy and compliance support.

Improve adviser productivity, reduce key person risk. With transparent and competitive pricing, it couldn’t be easier. Importantly, we take responsibility for training your paraplanners, and manage workload and capacity for optimal productivity.

Professional indemnity insurance

IFS professional indemnity insurance covers the advice your fund provides under our license.

Standalone Advice Services

You may have in-house advice capability and prefer to self-licence. But you can still reduce cost or complexity by outsourcing specific functions – such as advice software, compliance, professional development or paraplanning.
Learn More >

Advice Consulting

We understand super, and we have deep expertise in financial advice as a licensee. Our consultancy services can help you resolve complex advice issues, set up the right governance and service models, and provide better value to members.
Learn More >

IFS has always demonstrated professionalism and commitment to genuinely helping superannuation fund aligned financial planners in navigating what has become a difficult operating environment due to multiple external factors.

Client Satisfaction Survey – November 2022

Learn more about our Full Advice Licensing models. Get in touch with the IFS Advice team.
Get in touch