Commonwealth Financial Planning (Commonwealth FP) has no immediate plans to cut ties with its financial planning software provider, Coin, despite Commonwealth Private Bank’s decision to sign with industry rival, Iress Market Techology (Iress).
Colonial First State (CFS) advice business general manager Marianne Perkovic said while two of CFS licensees Bankwest Financial Advice and Whittaker Macnaught already use Iress, Commonwealth FP will remain with Coin.
“At this stage, we don’t have any plans to change. Moving financial planning software is a really big exercise and particularly for a big business like [Commonwealth FP],” Perkovic said.
“I don’t have any immediate plans other than to see how they [Commwealth Private] go and how the system is operating.
“We have confirmed with Coin that we don’t have any immediate plans to change.”
Iress managing director Andrew Walsh would not be drawn on whether the agreement with Commonwealth Private Bank would result in an opportunity with Commonwealth FP.”We are continually active in talking with prospects about the difference we can make with our technology,” he said. “We’d love to engage with them like what we have done at [Commonwealth Private].”
Late last week, Iress informed the market that it had reached an agreement with Commonwealth Private to provide its 70 advisers with its Xplan software.
Commonwealth Private Bank’s decision to leave Coin for Xplan follows a company review of its platform providers, a company spokesperson said.
“Commonwealth Private undertook a review of local and international advisory platform providers that could meet the key end-to-end advisory requirements for the business,” the spokesperson said.
“These requirements included strategy and planning, portfolio management, investment execution, client reporting and CRM capability. The platform also had to be able to adhere to Australia’s regulatory environment. Following the review, Iress was awarded the contract.”
