Challenger and advice technology and consulting business Opex Consulting have announced a strategic partnership to support the development of the latter’s Informed Financial Future (iff) platform and provide advisers with modelling of lifetime income strategies.
Opex Consulting managing director Paul Campbell said the involvement of Challenger would provide long-term backing and confidence in the ongoing investment behind iff.
“We built iff as a trusted advice engine grounded in how advice is delivered in practice and the real constraints firms face – operationally, regulatorily and commercially. This partnership supports our ability to keep investing in the platform and shaping the future advice tech stack,” Campbell added.
“Challenger’s backing validates the long-term need for advice technology that puts capacity back into the system, while we remain founder-led and independent, focused on supporting advisers and making quality advice faster, simpler and more affordable to deliver.”
He said the partnership reflects a broader shift underway in advice technology towards tightly integrated, productivity-focused platforms that reduce delivery time, improve consistency and create capacity across advice businesses.
The platform was designed as a tool to be leveraged by advice businesses and connected to by other tech providers to streamline the advice process for financial advisers and develop more scalable advice outcomes, he noted.
The new partnership would drive continued investment in the platform and the broader product roadmap, including expansion across software, artificial intelligence and analytics capabilities, an ongoing focus on institutional-grade cybersecurity and improved onboarding and change-management support for new clients.
Challenger chief executive Nick Hamilton said: “Our partnership with Opex marks another step forward for Challenger and supports our focus on developing Australia’s retirement income market at scale. Making retirement income solutions integrate seamlessly into the financial advice ecosystem is a critical step in achieving this.
“We’re pleased to partner with Opex and its iff advice platform to deliver retirement plans that are modelled with lifetime income. It will provide more support to financial advisers and their clients and ensure more Australians can retire with financial confidence.”
