AdviceTech Podcast #25 – OpenInvest – Transcript

Peita Diamantidis
Hello, and welcome to the ensemble advice tech Podcast. I’m Peita Diamantidis And the guest. Joining me here today to deep dive into open invest, has in fact been a financial planner in the UK is also a PWC alumni or survivor, depending on your perspective, and even worked in dealer group land here in Australia, so has a very diverse understanding of all the different parts that make up this industry. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. Ravi Verma

Ravi Verma
Thank you for the great introduction and ever my own piece of really, really pleased that we found time to have a chat today.

Peita Diamantidis
Not at all, not at all, and really interested in digging into what you guys are doing there and open invested some, something that I think is going to come up more and more. But before we dive in, I’d love to get to know you a little better through your use of technology. So what is your most used emoji? Do you even use emojis? Well,

Ravi Verma
look at emoji wise, I tend not to use too many emojis. But what I do love is dishing out that little smiley face with a tears of joy. Because it basically means someone is bought to me some laughter and fun. And that’s, you know, that’s what life’s all about. Right? Me. Absolutely. We spend a lot of our time being serious, particularly in our industry. So yeah, I love dishing out a emojis how to that? That’s probably my most used one.

Peita Diamantidis
No, I like it. In fact, it’s an unusual one. I’m not sure that’s come up before so well done for being outside the thumbs up, which is the most popular one so far on the podcast. Now, you know, we all live with our smartphones almost surgically attached to us. So imagine you had to delete everything off your smartphone, and you could only keep three apps which ones would you keep

Ravi Verma
there looked at that sounds like a dream world to me. I have this year I’ve made a concerted effort to actually have less screen time and more nature time. But if I was only to have three apps, first I’m musics a big part of my life. So I would say Spotify, Bandcamp Mixcloud, SoundCloud, I’ve grouped them as one those sort of apps are invaluable to me and my, my family because we were always listening to music. And recently I’ve got into over the past few years modular synthesis and on the long journey to work to the office, on the bus in the train. A great way for me to get creative is use that time on an app called Hexen. Which allows me to sort of make music and twiddle twiddle bits and pieces and really get deeper into that understanding of modular synthesis Su, other finally my beloved English Premier Football Club, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, I pretty much check that app daily to see news. And you particularly if you’ve lost to get some positive messaging, because it is a rules official rules app, and I had never too negative on that even when you lose. So those would be my three.

Peita Diamantidis
And so are you like my husband and get up at the wee small hours to watch it live?

Ravi Verma
Look, these days, I just cannot get up early. So I generally get up on a Sunday morning and watch, watch the game, the full game and make fun on a Sunday mornings are perfect. You mean it means that, you know we can watch it together? As opposed to me getting up at 2am?

Peita Diamantidis
My husband has this expression actually that’s called solid windmills, which is when he’s watching the game at two or 3am. It’s very exciting. He’s jumping up and down. But he can’t make any noise because I’m asleep. And so he’s doing these silent windmills are these dogs, you know, looks at him in Mr. bouquet. Like what is going on?

Ravi Verma
Yeah, that must be a rather bizarre fighter to iron in the morning. Down in finance?

Peita Diamantidis
I think so. I think so. So okay, no fan of sporting fans. We have a lot of those. So, so fingers crossed for your season. Thank you. Hope it all goes well. Let’s dive into open invest. So for those that may be unaware of it, I mean, I’m sure most are but let’s take a step up and just talk about where it sits in the sort of advice tech FinTech space, you know, what category does it fall under? Who do you sort of normally get lined up against like, where do you guys fit?

Ravi Verma
Yeah. Okay. Great. Great question. So, look, we’re, we’re a technology and online, invest in California, really read. We’re designed to help advice firms open up and monetize their investment expertise through having their own online investing solution, which basically means it allows advice firms to really attract and serve a new audience into their brand and wealth ecosystem. But it’s all delivered via IRA at the open invest white label solution. So I mean, that’s very high level in terms of what we do. But really, you know, what we’re really talking about is, you know, the 90% of Australians who are advised? Yeah. Yeah. And how do you make professional investing, accessible and affordable to the mass market? of Australians who can’t afford? Or don’t want a personal advice relationship? Yeah. So it’s, we’re sort of unique in this space.

Peita Diamantidis
Okay. Although I imagine and in part, possibly because of white labeling. So that would be a bit different is there might be tools out there that are designed to, you know, engage with investing with, you know, that sector of the public, but generally, they’re their own product or an offering, not something you can white label for your practice or your business. Is that, is that fair? Yeah, that

Ravi Verma
that’s fair. And and also, you know, there are a number of other white label solutions out there. But they’ve come at it from a different end of advice than we have. And what I mean by that is, for example, we’re not trying to automate or digitize the advice process, right in any way worse, the other online investing solutions that offer a white label solution, they’ve come at it from a personal advice perspective, in that they’ve tried to digitize the advice process, personal advice process, so you know, with them, that still be an online or a fact find that b risk questionnaire, which is done online, and then there’d be an automated, automated generation of an SOA, so yeah, okay. Whereas we’ve really come at it from a general advice perspective. Yep. And, you know, the idea that sort of key difference, if it’s touching on, you know, what else is available in the market is some of those other white label solutions, they actually require you to buy into and use their investment, IP via their own model portfolios, whereas right through us, we will, we are actually able to do through our wide level offering is deploy for advice firms, their own online investing solution, but allowing them to offer, actually their own model portfolios in investment IP, recovered in the brand of the firm, the advice firm, with their own content flowing through to end investors. And it’s all accessible from the website of the advice firm. And because it is delivered, thorough, general advice. structure, that means it’s scalable and profitable.

Peita Diamantidis
Okay. Okay, interesting. All right. So how did it come about? What was the you know, what was the what did it respond to? Or what was the evolution that that brought this to bear, and particularly, you know, targeting advisors as a channel, as opposed to say, direct to the public?

Ravi Verma
Yeah, so maybe worth me just spending a few human moments just talking about our journey. So the cofounders of the business, you know, five years ago, and probably many years before hadn’t had a vision to just sort of build from scratch and investment platform. Design, not not necessarily with the advisory in mind, but actually with the end investor. And when we started life five years ago, in terms of a solution, we actually launched our own direct to consumer solution, which exists today, it’s open inverted.com, to AU. And really, what we were looking to do was build out a solution which would provide access to professionally managed model portfolios for the mass market of Australians who needed help. And so that’s really where we were born. And the first iteration of that was really our own direct to consumer solution, which we still market and run today. And the vision for that is really to have, you know, some of the top global asset managers offering model portfolios, and for any Australian to come to our website and choose a chooser asset managers, I feel an affinity with Nucor model portfolio and invest directly without necessarily having to go through this personal personal advice process. So yeah, on that side of solution, which I know we’re not really talking about today, but on that side of the solution, you know, we’ve got BlackRock, JP Morgan, and Schroeder’s available and we’ve got some others going live on that. So that’s really where we were starting our journey. But a couple of years ago, we recognized I actually, in the industry, there were so many other firms and financial services participants who actually had their own audience that they were trying to serve. They were wanting to sort of put their arms around this new cohort of prospects, clients, investors, But do it outside of that sort of traditional personal advice process. So we actually started a couple of years ago, started configuring our technology, our legal structure our operations, to enable any firm actually to, to have their own online investing solution. So that’s really where we began. So really, we’re an out of the box end to end, no fully supported investment solution really built to help the mass market of Australian to seek and help with invest in, we want to bring access to professionally managed model portfolios to Australians who, who struggle to do themselves and really giving everyone the confidence reassurance and the well being that comes with having a professional on your side did the other thing was, you know, we know, having built the investment platform from scratch, we know that technology builds are expensive. They’re time consuming, often they they fail to deliver. So, you know, what we’ve built is really a highly configurable, quick to implement solution. And that was really part of why we decided to start white labeling the solution as well, because we knew we had this amazing piece of technology and put the right legal structure around it. And we wanted to go out and make sure that every firm had an opportunity to serve those people that they just could not move under the traditional advice model. Yeah. Okay.

Peita Diamantidis
And so I’m assuming this is investment only, not super, because that will add its own layers of complexity and and difficulty at your end.

Ravi Verma
Yeah, currently, it is an investment only offering but we have got superannuation. On the roadmap, we’re committed to delivering superannuation. We’re looking at who we’ve got some consultants in at the moment, who are, you know, advising this and looking at our structures? And like you said, that’s a, that’s a heap more headache, when you go into superannuation, but yes, I mean, look, we’ve got, we’ve got 40, partner firms signed up as a white label solution, and all of them have asked us for Super. So it’s definitely something that we want to deliver. Likely, I would, I would say next year, the m&a is when we start going down that road. Now, you

Peita Diamantidis
mentioned the partner firms. So, you know, in terms of the ones that you’ve been engaging with, and maybe others that have shown interest, what’s your take on the sort of practice or advisor, I guess that this works really well? Or, you know, for the business and the clients who what works well, for, whereas universes who it might they might struggle with the concept or struggle with the implementation?

Ravi Verma
Yeah, sure. So I’m okay, I’m, I guess, each for each one of those sort of 40 firms that I mentioned, they’ve each got their own reasons, actually, for setting up their own online investing solution. And actually, just stepping back from before I go into sort of talking about some of these firms. From my conversations with firms over the last, you know, how many years so many years I’ve been in the industry, that really, what I’ve encountered is there’s really four main pain points that most advice firms are faced with one is, you know, we’ve got, we’ve got a list of often or unprofitable clients in our business, people who we’ve actually had a relationship with for many years, but those people no longer fit our personal advice model. Now. We didn’t really want to get rid of these people, because we’ve been looking after them for so many years. So, you know, how do you how can we use a digital solution to to find a home for them long where we still engaged with them with our brand? That’s that’s one pain point. Is it painful, and I often hear is, you know, advice firms have no prospects coming through them either through referrals or personal recommendations. But those prospects don’t meet the firm’s minimum advice threshold. When I talk about minimum advice thresholds, really, these days, most firms I speak to say, Well, if the client is going less than 500,000 a million in investable money, which we call really deliver a cost effective advice process to them. So how do you deal with those prospects where you actually want to have a relationship with them? But they just don’t fit your model? So again, how do you put your arms around them using a, you know, online investing solution? Third pain point is really the adult children of existing clients now really, obviously, 3.5 trillion is being passed through intergenerational wealth over the next two decades. But we also know that, you know, from data, they’re 13% of adult children, we’re sorry, only 13% of adult children keep their parents financial advisor so yeah, how to how do you use the digital solution in your business? Luxury, engage with the next generation and bring, bring these kids of existing clients into your brand. start engaging with them now. So when this intergenerational wealth transfer happens, you’re going to be the natural partner for them. Yeah, true advice. And then, just to quickly touch on the fourth sort of common pain point, it’s really how do firms work better with accounting referral partners, often hear stories of from planners who say, yep, you know, we’ve got various accounting, referring partners, but we don’t generally tend to get that much coming through from them in terms of right, referrals, but that’s generally from I feel, it’s generally because most of those accounting clients fall into that 90% of Australians who, right, they would have paid for advice, but for an advice, fantastic now, go to the accounting referral partner, and he have a secondary offering. You know, we’ve got personal advice. This is what it is it’s very entails and it’s very cost. We’ve also got an online investing solution. Because all those accounting clients, particularly self managed Superfund trustees, maybe they don’t want a full personal strategic advice relationship. However, they still need help with investing. So he gives, that gives your firm something, you know, secondary offer to go back to now, some of those firms who, you know, it’s really working well with, and let’s move out a few examples, because like I mentioned, each firm has got its own reasons for setting up the solution. So for example, we’ve got firms like Collins, Harris, Knight Financial Group, who have prominent local brands become their own radio. So right, they’ve got a slightly different need because the known in their wider community because of radio, their advice, thresholds rather high, but they’ve got all these people coming to them. So they’ve set a better solution because they needed a more efficient way of bringing people into their brand. We’ve got accounting firms, integrated accounting, and well firms like Kelly and partners became live with Pasco partners, we’ve actually just signed a deal with a top 50 National accounting firm, and they’ve got a database of accounting clients who want help with invest in but don’t necessarily want personal advice. So that allows the the candidate Trump to be on the complete wild journey with their clients, enabling them to engage in multiple channels of their business, you know, perfect for those who don’t want to or can’t afford personal advice. And then we’ve got firms I know Orlan partners, FMD, financial, Harrow, who really set up their online investing solution to cater for the next generation, the adult children. Rana just mentioned and, and also deepen those relationships with those ACAD referral partners. We’ve also got some pretty niche, sort of firms firms like STB U group who deal mainly with the Chinese community, we’ve just launched with a firm who called the van capital who deal with mainly the Indian community, and we’re launching in the coming weeks with an Islamic firm, and, you know, they’re all trying to make accessible, better financial outcomes across their communities. So it’s got this sort of approach where you’re ready to do work for firms, it’s really served as a multi multitude of opportunities and in ways that firms can reach out and you new audience and have some investment I IP going.

Peita Diamantidis
And so in terms of then, like we’re, you know, the, the trigger for a lot of this is was so expensive, go and revise them. And, you know, that’s sort of a separate debate, I think, to be able to talk to you, however, I I agree. There’s certainly an entree into, you know, for some people, they’ve just got a lump of money, I just want to invest it. Like it’s, it’s as simple as that, you know, they just want to put this money in the mind, you know, so having a solution that meets that make sense. Clearly, this isn’t advice fee sort of connected, because it’s not personal advice. Yeah, I’m presuming there is some sort of chat like, so you know, what is what is the client pay the advice firm or accounting firm, if at all, like, how does that work?

Ravi Verma
Yep, great question. And often, we’re going to have a conversation with an advice firm, I’ve got to get them to actually step out of their advisor mindset for a moment, which can be quite difficult. So because in our in the open invest structure or legal structure, when an advice firm offers its model portfolios, through our structure, they’re actually acting as a portfolio manager in our registered in our IDPs, like registered managed investment scheme. So what that means is They’re able to offer their investment IP, they’re able to monetize it. What I mean by that is they can actually charge a model portfolio fee, because it’s actually got nothing to do personal advice. So yeah, it’s really helping firms understand what is general advice? How can you offer on an online investing solution? How can you earn a recurring revenue, which is sticky from the solution, it’s a solution, which you can then offer as part of your overall client value proposition. But it’s not personal advice. So it’s certainly a solution which can complement what you’re doing on the personal advice, side of things, but you’re not actually providing advice, and therefore, you’re not charging an advisor fee. It’s a portfolio management fee. But we, we work very closely with all our firms, we make sure they’re fully across the differences between general advice, personal advice, we provide a lot of support versation, and guidance and tools and templates to help them understand the differences. And then we provide training across the whole of the firm’s so, you know, for a lot of firms, it is new, a lot of them haven’t done general advice before. So, you know, just working through the mechanism and understanding what they can do, what they can say. And and often this journey, How was the journey of the investor getting to that solution? mean, obviously, you can provide advice, and go through your normal and typical advice process. Yeah, then that you wearing your advisor hat, having to do an SOA and charging appropriately. Or this, you know, making someone aware that you’ve got an online investing solution, then it’s general advice, and it’s up to the prospect to go and choose a portfolio and follow their nose from your website. And we help through all that mechanism?

Peita Diamantidis
And do you? What are most of them doing? Are they doing something that’s in terms of the model portfolios, they then sort of offer up full of a bit of subscription? Is it sort of risk based? Or is it more outcome based? Like how are they presenting it in terms of then letting the client you know, choose their own adventure? In that sense? Yeah,

Ravi Verma
the model portfolios that the firm’s offered vary. So some firms offer a fully diversified multi asset model portfolios across that sort of typical risk spectrum. So they may have a conservative model, a balanced model and an a more growth oriented model. Some firms are offering sector specific models. And, for example, I mentioned SW U group. They’re specifically targeting this for a Chinese community. Yep. So they’ve got an Asia specific model, which appeals to that. Yep. Audience So. So really, you know, it’s up to the advisory firm to understand their audience, understand their database, understand who they’re trying to reach. So for example, you know, if, if an advice firm, particularly wants to reach the next generation, you know, there may, there may be looking more and more cost type model portfolio where they’re only using ETFs managed fund. And it might be ESG. flavor, too, because, as we know, you know, the next generation investors, you know, socially responsible, investing is very important to them. So, it’s about choosing the models, and building models, which appeal to the audience that you’re trying to attract. And it doesn’t have to be the same model that you run, under the advice business, because a lot of firms choose not to offer the same portfolio, so they’re gonna cannibalize what they’re doing on the advice side. Yep. So they choose different model portfolios for their online investing.

Peita Diamantidis
So you and you talk about the journey, because you mentioned content too, as part of this. So is, is it more like, is there just a, you know, a whole lot of stuff that the firm can then put up? Or is it something that’s almost follow the bouncy ball style of content? How does it generally work for the client? Yep.

Ravi Verma
So what we’ve actually done is not only did we build an investment platform, but we also actually built a publishing platform to marry up with the investment platform. So what that means is that an advice firm has now also got the ability to publish content or engaging content. Now content can be video content. It can be, you know, written content could be podcasts, images, whatever it is, but what it means is they they can actually push out content when they’re ready. And that could be around portfolio. So if they’ve made a change to the portfolio, or they simply just want to provide their thinking on the portfolio. It could be, you know, art goals, financial education, financial well being, it could be promoting other services and their business. But essentially, the platform is really built on the premise that content is king. So it delivers a very easy way to deliver unique and engaging content that creates this emotional connection with their brand, which is particularly important for obviously, Gen Y and Gen Zed who want that digital content experience. Yeah. But what we do is we work very closely with firms to encourage them to consistently use this functionality. And really help them you know, write things in a very plain English manner, we provide them with a lot of examples, we’re actually working at the moment of the Bank of content, which the firms can take away just brand their own, or they just push out. So it’s really designed to this not only an investment platform, which takes the investor on this investment journey, with the ability to for the firm to actually communicate on a one to many level, through the end investor, hack, and investor portal, and constantly through build confidence in the end investor and bring this brand awareness to them in the palm of their hand.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah. Okay. And so let’s imagine somebody’s come to it, and we talk, maybe it’s some, maybe it is the kids of of a client, or it’s somebody that’s coming to them from hearing them on radio, you like you say something like that, and they’ve invested in the particular model portfolio is ticking along and then down the track. You know, they’ve got a query that’s sort of more strategic in nature, and they want some assistance, can that be triggered through the tool to the advisor? How does that all work? Yeah, that’s a

Ravi Verma
great question. So paw, Paw Report building at the moment, actually, is the ability for cars currently, it’s a general advice solution. Yeah. So it’s actually the end investor who’s in control of the journey. So the investor jumps on the website, the firm’s website, the investor chooses the model portfolio from the information that the firm decides to present. The investor opens the account via an online literally takes five minutes online application, the investor then engages with that firm, via an investor, Portal, and app, and they can track the investor can transact and pull off reports and so forth. Yeah, but what we’re building out, surely, will be released in the coming month is actually advisor functionality as well. So allowing the advisor not only to open an account and service and transact, but also the ability for the end investor, to see all the advisors in that firm in the investor portal to be able to click a button and connect with an advisor, if they need strategic advice. You’re the advisor, we’ve got the ability to then show that the advisors profile a little bio, and their email. So it becomes this real, great way of a general advice client connecting with not only as a brand, as a firm, but also individual advisors within that firm, and then take that next step. They may have had an inheritance or they feel and they need some strategic advice, then through the software, and tech be able to actually content to contact the advisor directly and have a conversation about becoming a full blown personal advice client.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, okay. And I can see, that’s, that’s probably where the content can come into play, you know, cleverly, having content that might might bring to mind some of the needs that, you know, an advice, you know, personal advice, you know, solution can meet, then, and to make them aware that, hey, you know, if that meets the meets your need, then reach out. So I think that’s, that’s where the content can be clever, because otherwise, the danger is that they see they see this as the only solution. And if something does come up, they go elsewhere. You know, so I think the content probably is powerful for ensuring they’re aware of the expertise of the firm and, and what they can provide to them other than what they’re currently getting.

Ravi Verma
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. As to see the ability for the firm to publish, you know, articles and backup videos. Well, it is key because, you know, that’s the firm’s opportunity to start building that confidence in that end investor pushing, you know, letting that investor know that, hey, we’ve got all these other services available. It might be you know, Hey, have you thought about will writing or inheritance tour, hey, attend a financial year tax abatements fire or whatever it is, gives us great opportunity for the firm to make the investor aware of everything they offer.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, so I think so. It makes a lot of sense. To me from that, you know, that sort of path, I guess where it’s, it’s the starting point is general. And it might escalate over time to personal. I think that now it’s not an experience that the public or even the advice sector has designed well before. So I think it’s, it’s new in that sense. But I think that that makes perfect sense, I can see the possibility of challenges when it’s the reverse when it’s going from, you know, a historical personal advice relationship. And, you know, that becomes more and more difficult due to cost or, you know, all sorts of reasons. Shifting it back, is potentially difficult only because they used to just call, you know, markets up and they used to just calling, you know, yeah, but I just talked to the advisor when I’m worried, you know, so I think that would require a fair bit of, I guess, it’s change management, some really intensive change management to get them used to the fact that, you know, if they freak out about markets, which I mean, is one of the things that is quite common in those when they get to that point, often the interactions are purely about that, you know, and it’s it is that sort of hand holding that that’s the difference, you know, that’s what you won’t be getting as part of this.

Ravi Verma
Yeah, I’m probably worth me. I didn’t actually, we, within the end investor, portal and the app. And, you know, throughout the signup process there, you know, we offer our own customer support experience. So we do all that for the firm. So anyone who has got a question, they can find up, there’s a chat box, which they can write a question in. And so we handle all the queries. And actually, I haven’t got the data had remote, most of the queries coming in, I generally actually don’t relate to, you know, the investment decisions or what’s going on in market, because remember, the content publishing aspect of it means that the advisor firm can actually be on the front foot. Yeah. And, you know, if markets are going haywire, they can publish something straight away. That morning, if markets have been going crazy, particularly the US overnight, they can publish something straightaway, and provide that confidence to the investor. Yeah. And within this system, there’s so many automatic notifications built in, where, you know, if they publish, let’s say, a portfolio update, and they’re talking about markets, and you know, what’s going on an automatic email lands in investors inbox and encourages them to log on, and take a read so that, yeah, that’s sort of mean that, you know, the queries are, we’re handling, we don’t often see many around the investment side. But if we do get those queries, just say, hey, just want to talk to someone about the investment, not sure what’s going on, then we would normally pass that on to the firm. Key. Actually, I’m glad you mentioned that, because key to all this is really, when a firm is setting up their own online investor solution is key to this is really them embedding it into their current operating system. Yes, as opposed to just having it as a sort of satellite satellite service. So it’s really him embracing this and bringing them in to bring it into their complete offering. And often that may mean, depending on how successful they become that it may mean that they have a dedicated person who, you know, is that sort of go to within the business? Who does take those calls if they come in? Yeah. And he’s able to deal with those general advice clients as well. Yeah. But again, we sort of talk that through the firms and make sure they understand and are fully armed with the resources that they need.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah. And I think, you know, there’s probably a transition process then, for the firm themselves, if they, if they’ve sort of so for example, if they’re not currently responding, like you say, to market issues with content. So if that’s not something that’s part of the model already, and I mean, it could be a webinar or it could be an email or whatever they normally do, you know, when when things go good or bad or or sideways, then if they’re not doing that already, then that’s probably going to be a challenge. Because from what you’re describing, that’s the way to almost preempt, you know, the queries, that’s the way to provide the complete solution is such that the material that hits them is right at the thought, you know, the moment where they go, Oh, I just saw the news. And I saw this, I wonder what that means. And then it goes, but think, hey, just put together this video on what’s going on with you know, so. So I guess that is also something that the firm probably needs to consider, like you say, is, well, what are you doing already along these lines? And then how can you apply that to this part of your offering? So yeah, that makes a lot of sense. In terms of integration, I’m betting I’m guessing because it’s not part of a normal advice process, then you guys probably don’t need to integrate with you know, the normal advice tools if you’ve got any integrations in place.

Ravi Verma
Good luck. Currently, we don’t integrate with any other tools. But we are an open API enabled technology solution for this currently, something we’re keen on. And we can work with any external party on either pushing or pulling data via API integration. So yeah, currently, when in terms of advice, software, I guess, but don’t read, we’ve got discussions going on with, for example, the likes of pin 365. And looking at how we integrated them, we’re actually currently we’re working on the project to integrate with PGL. Yep, the accounting software. So, you know, we’ve got projects going on, which are looking at ways of integrating and supporting advice firms, where they’ve got their personal advice, software in play. But we’re also actually looking at other ways of how we could help the experience for the end investor, but also, the advice firms and, for example, that are currently we’re, we’re in discussion with a third party who provide tools that help both the pre and the post investor journey, we’re looking at how do we integrate those into the tech make that journey better for the end investor? That’s great for the firm as well. So yeah, there’s a lot of stuff that we’re looking into, that we can do, and that we’re working on.

Peita Diamantidis
And I mean, as a foundation to be, you know, operating open IPR as a start, right, because it means then it’s not a big leap. To integrate with another tool, it’s similar. So whether it’s, you know, the more broader CRMs, you know, things like that, where it might just be, like you’re saying about some basic data or, or even triggers, I mean, that’s something that that we find valuable with tools that can talk to each other is just, hey, they did this. So it triggers something else in the system in another system, you know, that stuff. Often we overcomplicate those things where it’s sometimes those triggers are enough. It just helps you get even just a picture of the individual based on their behavior, you know, that can be really powerful. So the fact that it’s on that already on a sort of an open API approaches is exciting. And it’s one of those things that I’m hoping more and more of the tech that comes into play in advice, tech, and fintech does that because that’s how we can all get these great end results, you know, these wonderful tech stacks that really work for us

Ravi Verma
rather try and there’s no reason why, you know, particularly the new tech pieces of technology. They can’t just share data. And it is it like you said, we don’t need to overcomplicate things, it’s really just sharing data. You know, firms, why can’t firms use different tools and different pieces of software? But, you know, why can’t we allow and all those pieces of software just to talk to each other? Yeah, it was through, actually, just Andrew, who’s our CEO and co founder, we always have a pretty good luck, because we, you know, we always take things forward to our IT team for development, and we always, you know, have this hash tag, how hard can it be? Because it goes really hard. Surely, that’s just a spreadsheet?

Peita Diamantidis
Well look with the world of chat, GPT and other AI solutions that can write you the code, when you ask it for a particular thing. I think all of that world’s going to change significantly. You know, the barriers to tech development, I think you’re gonna come down super fast. So happens.

Ravi Verma
I agree, actually, you did. I mean, this AI, particularly chat TPT. And I know there’s other AI systems out there. I mean, I actually I can I use quite a cool one, which does graphic design, but for chat gbta, we’ll have a look, we’ve been looking at AI as well. And particularly in head, how do we use AI to support firms with content and marketing. And there’s some since we’ve been looking into this, there’s some great, you know, great businesses out there a forward thinking Australian businesses, for example, we were in discussion with one of the moment who use AI, in marketing and really sort of work with firms to not only look at their marketing plan, they use AI to through implement everything. And so yeah, there’s some interesting stuff going on in this space.

Peita Diamantidis
Correct. And when you think about, you know, what would be powerful? And when we were just talking about an example of, you know, an A firm or an advisor being able to produce content that’s going to almost answer the question before, the individual or the client knows they’re going to ask it, you know, so that really sort of responsive based on external factors. You know, that sort of thing would be a wonderful tool to have. Okay, this is the noise out in St. Louis. Australian so these are the questions they’re asking generally, whether it’s in check groups or whatever it might might be, here’s the list, the, you know, the top 10 Things that are being asked for this week. And that just poses that to the firm or the advisors and go, Hey, if you want to be topical, pick one of those. For you guys. I mean, even that, even that’s powerful, because a lot of what we end up writing, I know, I’m guilty of this is so defined out by our own window into these things and our own bubble. And it’s not necessarily what would add the, you know, be most beneficial, or is actually from the consumers bubble, you know, so yeah, sometimes those insights were really all they’re asking. I mean, like, it might be, what the hell is inflation? Like? Yeah, we’re all talking as if everybody knows what that is. What if that’s something that everybody keeps on asking, I don’t even know what the hell inflation is, you know, like, like getting that insight. So that you can target your content and really make it land for people. I mean, all of that effort wasted, you know, all the time saved, because you know, it’s going to, it’s going to really hit well is fantastic. I’m really excited by that sort of things.

Ravi Verma
Absolutely. I mean, I don’t know, if any, anyone listening in is through been on to chat TPTB Stacey, who’s our chief marketing officer cheese, she just posed a few questions to chat GPS, simple questions, like you said, you know, what is inflation? Or what is diversification? Yeah, and the The airport has actually been surprisingly really good written in a very clear, concise, easy to understand. And I said, it’s, it’s not us as industry, participants writing human our experience and knowledge and often rewrite in a very industry, professional, specific way. It’s actually written in a very, you know, easy to understand way for the mass market. And so, when it comes to producing content, I mean, literally, you know, in less than a minute, you can pose a question, have something printed off? Read it through check it? Yeah, that sounds great. publish it? And because it’s none of the work on GPT is copyrighted? I don’t think so you can use it. You know, it means I’ve found I’ve actually got hacked now got access to heaps of content and questions and answers, I can start pushing out.

Peita Diamantidis
Particularly a particularly as I think, for many, you know, in our industry, then one of the biggest barriers is just starting with that stuff, like very few of us have got to the point, I’m trying really hard to get to this point. But very few have got to the point where we can produce content consistently, like it’s a machine, like we are with other things in the business. And so to have something that just breaks that first, that jumps over that first hurdle is well, here’s, here’s a sample of what you could write, I mean, the thing you end up writing might in no way look like that. But it’s a really good start to just trip that behavior. I mean, I even managed to ask it some questions. And then, you know, it’s me here. So, you know, my writing Always leans on the cheeky side. And so I said to it, oh, can you please rewrite that with a cheeky atone? And it did. Now, it didn’t exactly sound like me, but it was much closer to that. So, you know, you can really get a long way, and then just, you know, do your thing to it, you know, and break it up and insert some of your own insights and all that sort of thing by I agree, I think these tools are more about amplification. I don’t think they’ve replaced the effort. But I think they can escalate it and amplify it for us, which is pretty exciting.

Ravi Verma
This whole AI thing, you know, suddenly becoming a bit scary in a way ever. I’ve actually just finished reading 2001 Space Odyssey you saw the film 30 years ago, I picked up the book from the from hard rubbish, sort of thrown away. I’m in Australia just finished reading it. And you know, that’s I guess. He’s talking about the sort of AI you know, computers, so taken over to the third fight and fight and stuff.

Peita Diamantidis
And look, I think we were literally talking about that with some friends last, yesterday over lunch, and the every invention every made ever made has been used for good and bad. You know, and I think we sort of need to expect that with anything. Right. And and I mean, crypto is another example of that. Right? So I think it’s more about understanding the shifts in in the world like this, if for no other reason that we need to understand them. As people that understand investments. Like I think we have to understand these tools merely because we’re going to need to help our clients understand them and how they might change the investing world and companies and their future, you know, so I think, even if we don’t plan on using them, which most of us probably are without realizing it, but even if we plan on avoiding them, I still think there’s a level to which advisors need to get their head around it just because it will change IT industry. Yeah. And so that therefore changes our advice. So we chatted about a few few things that are coming up. Is there anything else that’s on the future wish list or the future development plan that you guys are excited about? Yeah.

Ravi Verma
So look at our, I guess our ultimate goal is really to create, can’t live without platform experiences, both for the end investor and partner firms. And I touched on there the sort of full advisor functionality. We’re also working on the ability to firms not only to be able to offer their offer their own model portfolios, but also where they can offer a curated list. With outfits, we’ve got International. So currently, we can access the London Stock Exchange, and we’ve got assets available on Luxembourg, but we’re going live on the first of June with New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Yep. And then with the next sort of big project in line for us is really fractionalization, which is really all designed to lower the entry point to help more people. So, you know, how can someone with you know, $500? Yep, invest in a fully diversified model portfolio and gain access to professional management. Typically, you know, that that can’t happen when you talk in lower lower events. And so we’re going to be building out and looking at fractionalization, where, you know, the entry point into a model portfolio or an asset can start for as little as $10, or whatever it might be, so that that really then opens up being able to help more Australia. It’s not just for the wealthier I invest in should be for everyone. Yeah, but professional investing, and getting access to professional help. Should be for everyone.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, yeah. Well, that that is very exciting, actually. Because I think it’s where the disconnect with the public happens is when well, you’ve got to have this amount, and they’re like, Well, isn’t part of me getting that amount? By getting help and investing? Well, like it’s this circular argument, you know, so having a solution that lets them start to put money aside and experience the investing world early, I think is really powerful. Yeah. So that’s all that’s super exciting. Have we? Is there anything else we’ve missed? Have we sort of covered the broad areas of what you guys offer? Yeah,

Ravi Verma
I think so I think, probably just being good for writers. You know, we, for us working with advice firms, it’s really a long term, collaborative approach. And we apply that collaboration across everything we do. So for us, it’s not just about getting a partner firm live and waving them goodbye, wishing them well. And hopefully, they go on their way and start signing up investors, we actually, you know, we work very closely with each partner firm, we share ideas. So, hey, look, here’s what this partner Firm A is done. They’ve done this EDM, we share the wording, or, Hey, here’s partner firm, B, they’ve held an event for their existing clients, and family and friends and kids, is what they’ve done. So it’s really about creating this environment where we all share from each other. We all learn, you know, we’re not in competition with each other. Yeah, we’re just trying to help as many people as we can, and all our partner firms are in into that mindset. And, you know, we’ve worked with some of the most, you know, ambitious and progressive firms, some of whom I’ve mentioned today. And, yeah, I think that through collaboration is key. And so, you know, for any firm out there who sort of interested just say, reach out, but it’s definitely not something that you feel you need to just do by yourself. We provide a lot of support and a lot of discussion, and so forth.

Peita Diamantidis
Fantastic. All right, advice, explorers. If you’d like to find out more about open invest, then the website link is in the episode shownotes, along with reveries, LinkedIn details, I’m sure he’ll then point you in the right direction of who can help and, and who can start your journey. Thank you so much for joining us, Robin for sort of adding to the tool bag we have as advisors to sort of help all of the various sectors of the public, I think the more we have of these, then the more likely we are going to get to the great portion of the statement Australian public that we all struggle to serve. So thank you very much for joining us and for adding some great value.

Ravi Verma
Thanks for having me, Peter. It’s been a pleasure.

Peita Diamantidis
So are you one of the firm’s currently using open invest? It’s not a huge list, but you might be one of those. So we’d love to hear I’m sure all of the listeners of today’s episode would love to hear how you found wondered why it works for you? How you know, the public respond how the clients respond, please share your insights on the ensemble community platform, as this is how we all get a better feel for what solutions might work as we go forward. And and, you know, really do sort of build out the different offerings we have for different sectors of the community. terms of my thoughts for this sort of tool, I think, you know, in talking through a directory of what, what you can provide, and and what needs to be clear before you can, I think that, you know, having a well thought out structure documented investment methodology will be fundamental to doing this, if that hasn’t been enunciated, sort of in writing regularly visits, you’ve got meeting set, you know, like, you’ve really got a humming sort of schedule for that. If you haven’t done that first, then I think it would probably be a struggle to implement something like this tool. Because essentially, like Remy said, you’re shifting into that sort of portfolio management management roles. So it’s, this is less one to one, it’s more about the overarching solution, that logic of why you’ve selected it, and how it works. So I think, you know, that is sort of a first step, the second step, I think, after that would be having something that pulls that together in a way that somebody could then pick, which of them they choose. So how do you sort of, you know, disseminate that in a way that makes a clear and really easy to understand, for somebody who’s just landing on a website, which is essentially what’s going to happen here and making a choice? So I think that’s probably the first key thing. Yeah, is is the investment methodology. The second, I think, will be about getting a structure and a schedule around your responsive content. So there’s certainly content that can be the underlying, you know, the theories behind these things. So you could almost cut up your investment methodology and make that part of the content that goes out. But I think you would also need to think about, you know, how often are you going to produce things? Or is it going to be a topical five minutes thing every week, month, whatever, like, whatever it might be, that talks about what’s going on? And therefore what might be occurring with their investment. And, you know, being ready to do that to machine it to have it happen consistently? Because that is the offer. Right? So that’s what you’re providing. So I think those are the two key elements that would be fundamental to implementing a tool like this really well. I don’t think any of us would doubt that it could fit very well within a certain group that you might be trying to attract and being able to focus on a category, and then have, you know, one type of general advice solution or a tailored personal of our solution, I think that you know, down the track, that’s going to make sense for more and more practices, so that we can really, our niche becomes more about the community we serve, as opposed to somebody who can pay, right. It’s it that becomes less material, as the community itself the particular nation that we select. Now, as you know, there’s only one skill we need to become bionic advisors. And that is avid curiosity. And to help you build that habit, you know, we’ve got our curiosity corner section of the episode each week, today’s app that caught my eye is storytime. Now you can find it@storytime.io. These guys are actually in beta. But their tagline is break the screen, create and host live content that tells your story for the reaction it deserves. This came about because the founders saw the sort of virtual events and meetings we were all taking part in and running during lockdowns and realized we needed a better way to engage people virtually that just wasn’t sharing our screen, which is what we all do what I literally just did last week for a webinar that I ran. So, you know, they’ve you know, that’s the sort of thing that i Hey, how can we elevate that? And how can we lift our game, you know, and so the tool goes well beyond a screen share of slides, and it actually gets your audience involved in your content rather than just watching it. You can embed type forms, newsletter, opt ins, polling all actually clicked on by the attendees through the screen, they’re watching you on, not virus a a link in the channel is something that’s separate. So it’s all embedded in this experience. So it’s a journey that happens on the screen that can be branded to the way you want it to be branded, and to be honest, really looks really cool it it almost sort of looks more like you’re going through an app experience than just a screen share experience. In fact, I’m so excited about the possibility of this concept. I’m actually going to be running some tech tip sessions over the next little while trialing this technology specific quickly. So if you’re curious about it and want to find more, then be sure to follow me on LinkedIn. And then I’ll share when the next session is going live. And you can register for it and experience it for yourself. It may be something you could use for your clients for your targets, even for internal training, if you’ve gone virtual, maybe you’ve got your team you want to connect with, there’s so many ways that you could utilize this tool for pitchers all sorts of things. So definitely, you know, follow me on LinkedIn connect if you’re interested. And we can see what we think and help be part of developing the tool into its next phase. Well, that’s all we’ve got for this week, be sure to subscribe to the podcast. So you’ll get your advice, tech fix auto magically sent to you each Friday. And I’d really love to hear what session or webinar or presentation you would love me to run in the future. You know, what, you know how to session would add the most value? You know, is there a particular section of advice tech, you’d love an introductory webinar on? You know, maybe what would you like to learn more about, you know, how can I even add value in the business transformation space to you. And of course, if you’re keen to have me as a speaker at say, your dealer groups next event, then please don’t hesitate to let me know DM me on LinkedIn, and I’m super happy to reach out to them and let them know how I can help. Of course you can find me on LinkedIn forward slash Peita M D. That’s P EITAMD. Otherwise, I’ll look forward to turning up in your earbuds next week. And remember, advice explores Stay curious