CFS Adviser Update: August 2024

Hi, I'm Bryce Quirk, and welcome to my latest update.

It's a new financial year and I'm excited to share what's coming up.

But first, let me wrap up last year by thanking you for your support. At CFS, we feel privileged to be able to meet the different needs of advisers and clients through our FirstChoice and CFS Edge platforms, and our leading investment and corporate super capabilities, as well as the support we provide you and your teams via 10x and FirstTech.

We ended the financial year by recording a significant milestone for CFS Edge, reaching $1 billion in funds under administration. With the expansion of managed accounts, this is where the efficiency of CFS makes a real difference.

This means easy access to more than 115 signature managed account portfolios, over 160 ETFs, 16 different stock exchanges from across the globe, and the ability to buy and sell 11 different currencies.

And there's more to come from CFS Edge. We're focusing on feedback and enhancement requests from advisers, and can't wait to bring some of these features in coming months.

We're progressing well with our plans to transfer you and your clients from FirstWrap to CFS Edge and we'll keep you updated as these plans progress.

Turning to FirstChoice now, I'm excited to share the recent Investment Trends report, which ranked FirstChoice first in 17 key areas.

This recognition is very gratifying and was reinforced by FirstChoice also being ranked number one for Value for Money for the 10th year in a row. In the 2024 Wealth Insights Service Level report. We also received the top ranking in three other categories Administrative Support, Ease of Doing Business, and Technical Support.

Many advisers have already experienced the huge time saving benefits of the FirstChoice advice software integration, powered by Elementa.

Changing gears now. June also saw us welcome Fortlake Asset Management to our stable of world class alliance partners. Fortlake is a global fixed interest rising star with a renowned investment team, led by Dr Christian Baylis.

Fortlake's results are underpinned by a robust investment philosophy and quantitative process that emphasises risk management and capital preservation.

Combined with CFS's respected investment, administration and distribution capabilities. You and your clients can now access global fixed interest opportunities through one of the industry's leading managers.

As economic conditions become more volatile and uncertain, modern solutions that offer flexibility and efficiency are needed now, more than ever. CFS meets this challenge by being more than just a platform and super provider, and offering a complete investment experience.

So I'm excited to introduce the CFS Builder Series, offering a new approach to investing by allowing advisers to blend and calibrate tailored portfolios to meet the ever changing needs of each individual client. This gives you unprecedented control, cost efficiency and performance potential.

Speaking to performance, the CFS Investment team have delivered outstanding returns over the last financial year, outpacing our retail and industry fund competitors - all from the same team that have delivered our new Builder Series.

And that's just a taste of what's to come. I look forward to sharing more in the months ahead.