CFS Adviser Update: December 2024

Hi, I'm Bryce Quirk and welcome to my latest update. We're approaching the end of another year and what a year it's been. It's been a privilege to partner with you and support you to service your clients and grow your business.

The CFS FirstTech team has helped you navigate ever changing rules and regulations by answering nearly 11,000 phone and email queries, presenting at over 70 professional development days and other events, and hosting four quarterly webinars and three federal budget webinars for a total of over 3,200 advisers.

This was on top of the monthly newsletters and a wide range of resources, including the famous FirstTech Guides, strategy articles, ‘Did You Know’ explainers and the famous FirstTech podcasts.

And you showed your appreciation by rating them number one for Technical Support for the 12th year in a row in the Wealth Insight survey. We continue to invest in our FirstTech team to the benefit of you and your clients.

In February we launched CFS 10x events, to say they've been popular is to understate how enthusiastic you've been about these professional development and networking opportunities. We saw a virtual stampede to register for the last round of workshops and have waiting lists in all states.

So far, we've had over 1000 attendees at state-based workshop events, webinars attracted over 2500 attendees, contributing to a total of more than 5500 hours of continuing professional development, all at no cost to you as participants.

You told us how much you appreciated these opportunities and we've been delighted to see CFS 10x communities including Empower Her, Next Gen, Support Staff and High Performance thrive. We are committed to the ongoing investment in you and your teams as something that sets CFS apart, and our CFS 10x events will kick off again in February next year.

I'm also pleased we've been able to bring you much more on our platforms. Expanded investment choice on CFS Edge including the recent launch of international SMAs, and FirstChoice with new specialist portfolios for managed accounts. 

We've leveraged our CIO, Jonathan Armitage, and his team of specialists by adding balanced and high growth portfolios to the CFS Index SMAs and we've also launched the CFS Dynamic series, all of which are Accelerate 100 portfolios which attract a zero-platform administration fee.

The most significant release of enhancements to CFS Edge since our launch with a focus on client onboarding, user experience and workflow management.

Greater efficiencies with FirstChoice, including improved data integration. And our investment business with our new alliance partners Fortlake Asset Management and Cohen & Steers, just to name a few highlights this year.

And next year is going to be big.

We'll move all wrap accounts to CFS Edge bringing more advisers global leading technology and unrivaled investment capability, plus an enhanced experience for clients.

I'm also excited about what we have in the pipeline, including expanding our managed accounts menu, exploring new investments including our first foray into private assets, more automation and digitisation for FirstChoice and accelerated processes and amplified integration on CFS Edge.

I look forward to sharing more of that in the coming months. Thanks again for your support this year. I really hope you enjoy the upcoming break and I'll look forward to seeing you again in 2025.