Speaking to InvestorDaily, Financial Index chief executive Spiro Paule said the rollout of the MOVO platform comes just one week before Financial Index takes possession of recently acquired advice firm Centric Wealth.
He was quick to reject the notion that the new platform provides ‘one-size-fits-all’ advice.
“Our advice is highly personalised and tailored to help each user achieve their individual financial goals, based on the information they provide,” said Mr Paule.
“The MOVO platform relies on exactly the same advice rules that we apply to our full advice service under Financial Index Wealth Accountants,” he said.
“All advice delivered complies with the Corporations Act and ASIC regulations. In addition to this all MOVO business processes are ISO 9001 certified,” said Mr Paule.
The platform is targeted at the Australians who “have never had access to the services of financial advisers”, and is offered to consumers in three price points ranging from $199 to $349.
The costs are kept low through the use of Financial Index’s “very strong” existing proprietary technology base, said Mr Paule.
“That gives us the ability to scale it up for an online user so we don’t have to use high-priced advisers to do data collection, needs analyses and advice compilation,” he said.
While the software relies on extensive client input and the strategy is produced automatically, Financial Index financial planners are still involved in the process, said Mr Paule.
“A living person will peruse all of that data to make sure that what comes out is actually what a living person would deliver,” he said.
Mr Paule acknowledged that with fees as low as $199 the margins were very thin for the advice – but be said there are “product recommendations for those who want to go that far”.
While the products are low-cost MySuper funds, he said Financial Index does make a margin on them.
“But we’re looking for the scale market here rather than trying to make a killing off each of these customers. If we push the price up too high again the barrier’s lifted and they won’t use it,” said Mr Paule.
