High performance firm embraces technology

by | Nov 22, 2016 | Blog, Featured, Partner profile |

We caught up with 5 Financial to find out how technology like the myprosperity platform has helped drive the firm’s extraordinary growth.

5 Financial, an integrated financial planning and accounting firm in Sydney, has had a lot to celebrate of late. Recently, it was categorised as a high performing practice in a client survey, putting it in the top 20% of firms surveyed in Australia.

This achievement was quickly followed by their Head of Wealth Management, Jason Petersen, being selected as a Grand Finalist in the AFA Adviser of the Year Awards. Naturally, the 5 Financial team were extremely proud of Jason and delighted that his skill had been acknowledged on a national level. Matt Farrell, 5 Financial’s Founder & Principal, had this to say.

“We think it gives existing clients satisfaction knowing the adviser they chose to look after their financial affairs is highly regarded by their peers. Potential clients will be reassured by the knowledge that their adviser is very well thought of in their profession.”

Matt Farrell, 5 Financial’s Founder & Principal

But more than that, 5 Financial has experienced incredible growth, with an increase of around 25% more clients p.a., most of which are personally referred to the firm by their existing clients.

This excellent result demonstrates that 5 Financial is focused on helping their clients get to the heart of what’s important to them. “Seeing how profoundly our work improves the quality of life for our clients is really exciting for us. And we witness examples of this every week in our practice,” Matt said.

Implementation of technology

Matt Farrell considers 5 Financial’s strength is the quality of their advisers and support team. “The clients who work best with us are the people who are looking for an ongoing relationship with an experienced advisory team,” Matt said. It’s not surprising that 5 Financial is a high performance practice when you consider its embrace of customer value creation and technologies that drive process and efficiencies – two key drivers of profitability in high-performing practices, as stated by recent industry research.

5 Financial have readily implemented technology into the business and enjoy the benefits of making the delivery of their services more efficient and consistent. They’ve also found that tasks that were once quite labour-intensive have become faster and simpler because of technology like the myprosperity platform.

“The myprosperity Wealth Portal we introduced gives our clients instant visibility about their cash-flow position, anytime, anywhere. Providing this data in real time would have been impossible in the past. It also makes it easier for us and our clients to prepare for meetings, as the data gathering exercise has been pretty much eliminated. Plus, if a client phones in to ask a question or to seek advice, we can work from cash-flow figures that are current,” Matt said.

Like most people within the financial industry, 5 Financial realise that technology will only play an increasing role in the advice sector. They are particularly looking forward to advancements as these will enable them to offer more to clients without having to hire a lot more staff.

We admire that 5 Financial are so receptive to using digital technology to not only enhance their internal processes, but to improve the experience of their clients as well. We believe other advisory firms should use them an example of how technology can be extremely advantageous to the accounting and financial planning sector.