After taking out best platform provider in the SMSF Awards last year, Netwealth recently spoke to SMSF Adviser about some of the new additions to its platform.

Netwealth managing director Matt Heine said many of the recent enhancements being rolled out have been developed specifically with the needs of SMSF advisers and their clients in mind. 

New reporting features and custom benchmarking

The company has continued its focus on enhancing its reporting features for advisers, said Mr Heine, with the addition of benchmarking and custom benchmarking reports.

Advisers are now able to select two benchmarks from five Morningstar target allocations, CPI or the cash rate. The platform also offers the option of creating a custom objective by adding a fixed percentage rate of return above either the CPI or RBA cash rate. 

The new enhancements also allow advisers to customise the way performance is calculated, allowing them to choose between internal rate of return or time weighted return calculation methods. 

“The reports can assist advisers to understand how the client portfolio has performed, but more importantly give them the information to make decisions on what to do next,” said Mr Heine. 

Activities and tasks area 

Netwealth has also just recently launched a centralised activities area, enabling advisers to view, process and approve a wide range of tasks including pending corporate actions and expiring advice fee renewals.

The activities area, which is a central area for all tasks and alerts, adds 41 new notifications to the platform in total and will expand further over time, said Mr Heine. 

Advisers are also able to monitor client cashflow with minimum cash alerts and monitor minimum investment amounts within models.

“Advisers will be alerted when cash is running low when term deposits are about to expire, allowing them to make decisions around reinvestment or withdrawal,” explained Mr Heine.

The centralised activities area also enables advisers to track tasks awaiting client approval, such as adviser fee requests, change of bank details, withdrawals and record of advice approvals. 

“We’ve spent a lot of time making sure that our fee consent and fee consent renewal process was as flexible as possible and designed around a business’s internal processes rather than what was easy for the platform,” said Mr Heine. 

“That particular feature and the way that we’re collecting and managing fee consents and fee renewals has been incredibly well received given the issues that have been created.”  

Non-custodial solution 

The company has also developed a non-custodial asset solution allowing assets off the platform to be administered by Netwealth on behalf of SMSFs and trustees. 

“Account holders and SMSF trustees and their advisers can already add in property and bank feeds to give them a holistic picture of their wealth and Netwealth is currently in the process of rolling out its administration solution for off-platform assets as well,” explained Mr Heine. 

“SMSFs typically hold a number of assets off the platform such as property through to private equity syndicates and the platform will be able to record and update these assets automatically.” 

A continued focus on client experience

Mr Heine said Netwealth also remains focused on providing advisers and clients with a unique client engagement solution by way of a mobile-first approach.

“We want to give clients a holistic and visual look at their portfolio which includes not just portfolio assets on the platform but also property and other linked accounts such as banking,” he said. 

For more information and product demos, you can visit the Netwealth stand at the SMSF Association National Conference.