Brisbane advice firm launches online investing solution

Brisbane-based Hudson Financial Planning has become the latest financial advice firm to launch an online investing solution in the effort to bridge the advice gap and assist Australians who are unable to engage with traditional advice.

Underpinned by the OpenInvest platform, Hudson Invest will deliver simplified and streamlined access to three multi-asset investment portfolios managed by the Hudson Financial Planning team that address different mandates and are designed to meet the diverse range of investment goals and objectives for clients.

“First, we wanted to remove the hurdle for unadvised Australians to obtain the benefits of professional investing,” Managing Director, Juanita Wrenn, said.

“Hudson Financial has been advising on clients’ investment portfolios for 30 years, and we have seen the real-life impact on their lives by investing the right way: discipled, diversified, multi-asset, long-term investing.

“With advances in technology, we are now also able to offer this opportunity to the broader market of unadvised Australians via a simple 5-minute sign-up process and no advice fees.

“Second, we recognise the implications of the massive inter-generational wealth transfer that is currently underway.

“By actively seeking to reach and serve the next generation of HNWs, those who will be the beneficiaries of inheritance and/or ‘HENRYs, High Earners Not Rich Yet’, now, we can develop long-term, trusted relationships with the ideal clients of tomorrow in which we can highlight the many strengths of our firm and people, in a scalable and efficient way.”

Hudson Financial Planning CFO, Kris Wrenn, welcomed the opportunity to partner with OpenInvest to develop the whitelabelled investment solution.

“The OpenInvest value proposition is very strategic, and perfectly aligns with how we run Hudson Financial and think about this industry. While financial planning has always been a relationship business, that doesn’t mean firms must only offer a single one-size-fits-all service. Not everyone is ready for, or wants the traditional personal advice service,” he said.

“Working with OpenInvest means we can now reach and serve new audiences and nurture the next generation of HNW clients. And it empowers us to compete against the ambitious digital-first platforms that are aggressively targeting the HNWs of the future.”

The collaboration with Hudson Financial Planning is OpenInvest’s latest deal in a string of partnerships secured with several other financial planning and wealth firms.

“Tech-savvy planning firms like Hudson Financial are very aware that advances in AI and changes in how younger generation are using technology mean that well-funded digital-first providers are going to be increasingly serious competition, and hence it makes strategic sense for them to be pro-active in addressing this by launching their own online proposition,” OpenInvest’s Head of Distribution, Ravi Verma, said.

“It’s easier to uplift a long-standing client to a personal advice relationship if you’ve been successfully servicing them within your online solution for many years and helped them to grow their wealth, than it is to have to win them away from a competitor when they become ideal clients. I call it Strategy 101.”