BTFG focuses on advisers and advice fulfilment

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

27 July 2022

Platforms are facing into the same sort of consolidation pressure as industry superannuation funds with at least $100 billion in funds under management likely to be viewed as critical mass.

With Westpac’s sale of BT Financial Group, including BT Panorama, expected to be moving close to completion by the end of the year, BT Financial Group chief executive, Matt Rady told Financial Newswire that he believed scale was becoming increasingly important in the platforms space.

“If you’re not within reach of around $100 billion then the business could prove difficult,” he said.

Rady is making no bones about the fact that with close to 40% of financial advisers using BT Panorama, the company is about becoming the preferred partner for advisers by making it easier for them to do business.

Thus, while BTFG may no longer be looking to run financial planning licenses, it had no hesitation in lodging a submission with the Quality of Advice Review with one of its key recommendations being that “product providers and platforms should be able to facilitate the delivery and implementation of an adviser’s recommendations”.

The submission also called for the Corporations Act to be amended to allow platform and product providers to develop technical solutions to facilitate the delivery of product fulfilment advice that meets the minimum disclosure requirements for advisers and AFSLs.”

Speaking to Financial Newswire, Rady said the company’s objective was to make financial advice more affordable and more accessible to more Australians.

Asked whether the impending sale of the BT Financial Group business had had any impact on the company’s investment in technology, Rady pointed to continuing high levels of investment in providing advisers with greater transparency around the processing of transactions.

He nominated the roll-out of RITA – a function which he said gave advisers greater transparency about where they stood in terms of a queue, with initial feedback extremely positive.