A Melbourne-based accounting and advice firm has launched a compliance platform that will assist licensees in meeting their best interest duties in the provision of SMSF and other forms of advice.
The platform, Ontoma, has been launched as part of a joint venture between Lifewealth Group and software company Dexterous Pro, and is designed to operate as a back-end compliance tool that can stand alone or integrate with financial advice software systems.
Lifewealth Group chief executive Jason Harwood said Ontoma would allow practitioners ranging from small self-licensed firms to institutionally aligned businesses to manage their Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) obligations.
Harwood said the development of the platform was the result of Lifewealth seeking a better compliance system for its own use across its financial advice, SMSF and accountancy services.
“In talking with other advice practices, we have seen that many practices are still managing their compliance obligations on spreadsheets and we questioned how such systems could ensure practices were up to date with their obligations,” he said.
“We developed Ontoma to be able to look at compliance issues at a practice, adviser and client level and to incorporate it into the workflow of advisers.”
The platform is currently being offered to licensees and Dexterous Pro co-founder Robert Nisi said it was able to be integrated with financial planning software and SMSF portfolio management systems such as Class, or could be used as a stand-alone system.
“Ontoma is not meant to replace any current systems, but [is designed] to sit at the back-end and provide the compliance framework for licensees,” he said, adding all data would be stored on Australian servers.
According to Nisi, advisers and accountants would be able to import compliance data, documentation and forms and inbuilt artificial intelligence would identify areas of improvement or gaps in the compliance process.
“We have incorporated automated workflows to help meet compliance requirements, minimise human error, whilst driving efficiency and establishing best practice frameworks,” he said.
