News - July 7th, 2016
Media Release | Infocus Enters Robo-Advice Market with earnie.com.au
by Infocus Author
Infocus Wealth Management (Infocus) today announced the launch of earnie.com.au, the group’s direct-to-consumer financial advice solution. earnie.com.au is available at no cost for consumers, providing simple smart investing for Australians from all walks of life.
Launching earnie.com.au delivers Infocus access to the rapidly emerging market in direct to consumer advice. In combination with national operations spanning face-to-face financial advice, funds management and wealth technology, this makes Infocus an exciting prospect.
Rod Bristow, Managing Director and CEO of Infocus, said “Around 80 per cent of the Australian population don’t currently receive financial advice. We are really excited to be launching earnie.com.au today to help bridge this gap. Those who sign up to invest with earnie.com.au will love its flexible, easy-to-use interface and education and support tools that help users meet their financial goals. earnie.com.au really is about simple, smart investing, allowing users to set their money free. Best of all, earnie.com.au doesn’t cost a thing!”, he said.
Mr Bristow said, “Robo-advice (or more accurately, direct-to-consumer advice) is not about replacing Financial Advisers, who play a critical role in helping consumers understand and meet their financial goals. It’s about offering more Australians choice in the way they engage with advice”.
earnie.com.au leverages the capability of global partners Morningstar and Praemium. Morningstar’s sophisticated investment calculation methodology supports some of the largest direct advice providers in the US and has been specifically modified for application to the Australian investment environment. Where users invest directly, investments are made via technology partner Praemium (ASX: PPS). Praemium’s innovative technology is deeply integrated into earnie.com.au. Praemium CEO Michael Ohanessian commented, “We are delighted to be extending our relationship with Infocus. The combination of Infocus’s quality advice, Morningstar’s direct-to-consumer methodology and Praemium’s robust and sophisticated technology will make it easy for first-time investors to engage meaningfully with financial planning.”
Users of earnie.com.au will reap the benefits of this approach. earnie.com.au enables users to manage their own investments, or seek advice from one of the Infocus Group’s experienced Financial Advisers, initially through live chat. These same Advisers can also use earnie.com.au to explain the concepts of financial advice to clients. This gives users of earnie.com.au flexibility about how they want to engage with financial advice: and also means Infocus Group Advisers will benefit from engagement with more educated consumers.
“earnie.com.au is core to our strategy of providing quality advice for Australians from all walks of life”, Mr Bristow said. Introducing earnie.com.au complements our existing financial advice operations, which includes an extensive national network of Financial Advisers operating in all states and Territories except Tasmania and the NT. We’re excited about earnie.com.au and looking forward to helping and supporting earnie.com.au users reach their goals”, he said.
For more information about earnie.com.au contact:
Rod Bristow, Managing Director and CEO, Infocus Wealth Management, 1300 463 628 or visit www.earnie.com.au
About Infocus Wealth Management
Infocus (www.infocus.com.au) is a privately-owned national wealth management group delivering financial advice, funds management and wealth technology solutions. Infocus provides financial advice to over 55,000 clients through employed financial advisers and self-employed advisers licensed through one of the Group’s two AFSL holders. Infocus also directly manages eight sector-specific multi-manager funds through subsidiary Alpha Fund Managers, and licenses proprietary CRM and practice management software, Platformplus, to support financial advisers with growing revenue, increasing efficiency and effectively managing risk in their business.
