“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable”
— William Pollard
Change is hard
We understand that change is hard and we know that the right technology, properly deployed, can make change so much easier to bear.
We understand the complex regulatory environment in which Licensees and advisers work. We also recognise both the increasing regulatory focus on misconduct and the shrinking margins exacerbated by increased compliance costs.
We see, and recognise, an emerging profession grappling with increased expectations, operational stress and the challenge of reconciling efficiency and ethics.
But where others see confusion and complexity, we see the opportunities and advantages that courage and innovation will make available to you.
It won’t be easy, but the current challenges shouldn’t make you afraid of the future.
You’re at the pointy end of professionalism so it’s important to understand how well-designed regulatory technology – like OpenAFSL – can help you to thrive.
“The Future’s so bright
(I gotta wear shades) ”
— Timbuk 3
OpenAFSL
OpenAFSL’s risk and conduct review capability (and its dashboards, reporting and integrated remediation management) is well understood.
With a clear focus on context, ethics and intent, OpenAFSL provides Licensees with an integrated and intuitive risk-based compliance platform that lessens their compliance burden.
By now you know that OpenAFSL is a compliance system that provides Licensees with the tools, data and insight they need to better understand, and better manage, their business. What you might not appreciate is the rich data, and constant testing, that drives the continuous improvement of this transformative technology.
We can’t tell you everything that’s changed, but we do want you to be aware of the changes that will lift you above your peers.
Transcending the mean
The Licensee Review
The Licensee Review has been revised to emulate the the Advice Assurance process which enables to provide richer analysis, deeper assessment and more effective comparisons against our data set.
Better yet, our proprietary methodology delivers a detailed report that reconciles operational design with operational effectiveness. In addition, by aggregating the advice assurance data and themes, the Licensee Review provides a precise diagnostic and roadmap for improvement.
If that wasn’t enough, the review captures contextual details of observations and priorities, documents people interviewed and records the reviewer’s assumptions and interpretations.
Contact me about the licensee review
The Advice Assurance Review
By applying insights made by Nisbett, Kahneman and Thaler, our Advice Assurance Review has been tweaked to better distinguish construal elements (environmental and structural considerations) from preferences (ethics and conduct).
In addition, we’ve sought to better reconcile conflicts by creating formal demarcation between formal and substantive compliance issues.
The process changes don’t slow the review process, but they do ensure that Best Interest and related duties are given the priority they deserve.
In fact, by abandoning the “safe harbour” checklist-led approach of institutional licensees, we are better able to consider matters in context and therefore better differentiate between intent, process and outcome.
In our process, the “safe harbour” provisions become relevant only where the adviser fails to demonstrate how they’ve acted in their client’s best interests (and they mitigate, but do not excuse, the BID failure).
It may seem complicated, but it’s simply a better approach and one more likely to both detect issues and improve quality.
Reporting
- In the Advice Assurance Report, you can choose to group observations by file instead of grouping them by issue. You can even do both or vary your approach according to the recipient’s preferences and learning style.
- To simplify explanations, observations made in the Advice Assurance Report are now automatically ordered based on the severity of the issue.
- We mentioned the Licensee Review Report previously. We should reiterate that the standard report now includes business trend analysis and a comparison to the industry standard derived from our sample.
- In addition to reporting results by the date of the review, we’ve created additional reporting features to allow comparison reporting based on the date of the advice document. So you can step back and identify whether, and to what extent, your compliance results correlate with specific dates. This reporting includes trend analysis and comparison to the industry standard.
- To promote interstate rivalry, as much as to facilitate risk reporting, you can filter review reporting based on location and display the results overlaid on a map of Australia.
- If you’re interested in understanding your top issues, or the most common issues in a particular period, you can now generate these reports simply.
Diary
- The diary module has been refreshed to include a ‘My Tasks’ section that list all the tasks and actions and assigned to the relevant user.
Risk and Obligation Register
- In the last update, we focused on the Risk and Obligation Register. Since that release, it’s been refreshed and improved. In addition to the “face lift”, you can now:
- allocate risks and obligations to an associated business or outsourced service provider;
- interrogate the Review and Attestation tab to better understand what’s occurred over time;
- record more detail about “Who Manages the Control”;
- Attach documents to the Register, actions or controls.
Pricing
If you exclude the advice review module from your system, you can obtain access to a reg-tech platform built by, and supported by, compliance experts. For a relatively low licensing fee (based on user numbers) you’ll secure the data, systems, training and support the Regulators expect you already have.
Pricing is flexible and customised to your needs. From as little as $240 per user per month you can access a compliance platform that can free you from the burden of compliance.
Contact me if you have any questions or want to arrange a demonstration.
