Produced By: Ensombl
Financial advisory services have traditionally leaned on paper-based workflows and legacy presentation software to craft proposals, statements of advice, and a wide range of client-facing materials. In a sector that continually juggles regulatory duties, client relationship management, and the quest to remain competitively differentiated, adopting effective technology is no longer optional; it has become a prerequisite for survival. However, the rapid pace of innovation brings new challenges and ethical responsibilities. How can advisors reconcile these leaps forward with unwavering professionalism and compliance obligations?
In a recent discussion hosted by Patrick Gardner, Head of Technology at Collins SBA, and featuring guest speaker and Chief Marketing Officer of Quilla, Jess Tassell, these themes came to life. Below is an exploration of key points from their conversation—expanded and re-envisioned into an article format—with a special emphasis on professionalism and ethics in the evolving world of advice technology.
For decades, financial advisors have relied on a range of time-tested tools—Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, among others—to produce the documents and charts at the heart of client presentations. In many ways, these platforms have been both the cornerstones and the constraints of the profession. While these applications fulfilled their roles adequately in earlier years, the demands of modern clients are shifting rapidly. More than ever, clients want highly visual presentations, clear interactive features, and streamlined decision-making paths that reflect the immediate, responsive nature of the digital age.
Concurrently, the Australian financial advice community faces rigorous legislative oversight—especially regarding best-interest duties and the transparency of client communications. Regulatory bodies consistently mandate that financial advice be suitable, comprehensible, and properly consented to by the client. As the profession moves toward a more modern form of advice delivery, the emphasis on ethics and clarity has only intensified. While technology can accelerate and enhance communication, it must also be used responsibly, with data protections and compliance processes carefully built into every step.
In their discussion, Patrick and Jess acknowledge the contribution of ensemble, a collective that facilitates knowledge-sharing among financial advisors, and Netwealth, an industry-leading platform sponsor. Netwealth’s commitment to simplifying complex wealth technology resonates strongly within an industry often bogged down by overlapping platforms and regulatory demands. As Jess points out, the real power of these platforms lies in identifying inefficiencies within a firm’s existing workflows and replacing them with integrated solutions that are both intuitive and compliant.
A key takeaway from the discussion is that tools alone will not solve the industry’s biggest challenges. True advancement springs from partnerships—where the technology provider, the advice firm, and the aggregator or sponsor work in tandem. This synergy ensures the technology evolves in response to market shifts, legislation, and client needs, while also upholding the highest professional and ethical standards.
Before delving into Quilla’s features, the conversation takes a reflective detour: What is the oldest piece of technology still commonly used by professionals today? For Jess, it is the simple paper-and-pen combination, indispensable for note-taking and brainstorming sessions. Meanwhile, the PDF stands as another longstanding staple—“invented in 1993,” Patrick notes—still found everywhere in the professional landscape. Although deeply familiar, the PDF struggles to keep pace with the expectations of today’s digitally native clientele.
Why do these legacy formats persist? Tradition and inertia play a significant role. Professionals learn specific ways of doing things early in their careers, and time pressures or concerns about cost deter them from adopting new solutions. Yet, this inertia comes with costs in today’s marketplace: static documents do not promote the interactive, real-time engagement that modern clients crave. Moreover, they impede easy compliance checks, because it is much harder to validate whether a client has read or understood a particular section of a lengthy PDF.
Quilla, as Jess describes it, is “a proposal software tool” that can also serve myriad other functions across multiple industries. Some people have likened it to “Canva for sales teams,” although Quilla adds additional capabilities such as interactive modules, embedded videos, and analytics—all packaged in aesthetically engaging digital pages. Patrick underscores its differentiation: while Canva is superb for static design or marketing collateral, Quilla elevates digital documents to an interactive experience.
Whenever a financial advisor (or a professional in another field) creates a proposal, pitch document, or statement of advice in Quilla, it becomes a unique webpage. This ensures it is viewable on any device—particularly critical given that over half of first opens often happen on mobile phones. From an ethical vantage point, ensuring clients can readily access, read, and comprehend the advice being delivered is crucial. Clients should never be hindered by technical complications from understanding the recommendations that could shape their financial futures.
Quilla’s interactive features—such as embedded videos, custom pricing tables, and interactive modeling—grant clients agency over their financial decisions. Clients can test different scenarios themselves, fostering a sense of empowerment and clarity. For advisors, this translates into streamlined conversations; clients arrive at discussions better informed, with pointed questions rather than broad misunderstandings.
Importantly, this interactivity aligns with the ethical directive of informed consent. If a client can visually see the trade-offs in real time—adding or removing various planning strategies and instantly seeing the impact on projected outcomes—they gain a deeper, more intuitive understanding of the recommendations. Where compliance is concerned, a better-informed client is less prone to misunderstandings or future disputes about the rationale for a particular investment or insurance recommendation.
According to Jess, Quilla seamlessly integrates with leading CRMs (like HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.) and other tools, including Stripe for payment collection or Slack for internal notifications. In a typical advice workflow, moving information across multiple platforms can be not only cumbersome but also risky from a data protection standpoint. Each time data is transferred manually, the possibility of errors and compliance breaches increases.
By automating these tasks, Quilla mitigates human error, keeps records accurate, and accelerates the client onboarding process. The entire digital experience remains consistent, from an initial proposal or discovery document to a concluding payment, while data stays up to date and properly secured.
One feature that Jess highlights in the conversation is Quilla’s built-in e-signature functionality. Despite the proliferation of tools like DocuSign in recent years, many professional practices have been slow to adopt a single, integrated workflow that covers proposals, e-signatures, and payment collections. Instead, they frequently juggle multiple tools, leading to confusion for staff and clients, along with heightened compliance risk.
Quilla allows the entire client agreement to be signed within the same digital page that houses the visuals, interactive components, and pricing structures. This approach delivers:
Financial advisors across Australia are aware of proposed legislative changes that aim to simplify the Statement of Advice (SOA) process. Traditionally, SOAs can exceed 100 or even 200 pages, inundating clients with technical details. If legislators relax these rules, advisors may have the option to produce more concise and user-friendly documents—while maintaining the depth and clarity clients deserve.
Jess describes how Quilla could revolutionize the SOA:
All these enhancements, Jess notes, should be used with a strong sense of professional and ethical responsibility. Even a revolutionary technology can mislead a client if it is designed or implemented carelessly. Advisors must adhere to best practices—translating complex terms into accessible language, maintaining honesty about limitations or uncertainties, and actively inviting client questions.
Throughout the conversation, Patrick and Jess emphasize the principles of professionalism and ethics, underscoring how technology and trust are intertwined. In an era where a slip in compliance can lead to regulatory scrutiny—or even a breach of client confidentiality—professionals must be more vigilant than ever.
Modern advice technology introduces a new layer of transparency. Clients can visually experiment with different planning options in real time. This heightened level of engagement is a double-edged sword: it can deepen trust by empowering clients, but it also demands higher standards of accuracy from the advisor. Interactive tools must present correct calculations and relevant disclaimers at each step, lest the client make an uninformed decision.
The reliance on integrated tools raises valid concerns around data privacy and security. As Jess mentions, Quilla’s automated workflows are designed to reduce human error, but advisors should remain aware of their broader data-governance responsibilities. Every new integration—be it with a payment processor, CRM, or scheduling tool—must be subjected to thorough due diligence. Protecting client data should sit at the core of any modern technology solution.
Thanks to digital analytics, an advisor can gain a granular view of how clients interact with documents—knowledge that is highly relevant to the duty of care. If certain sections go unread, the ethical—and often legally required—response is to initiate a follow-up, ensuring the client truly comprehends the implications of their decisions. This approach not only protects the firm from liability but also respects the client’s right to clarity.
Professionalism involves recognizing that not all clients share the same level of digital literacy. While interactive proposals might delight younger, tech-savvy customers, they may daunt others. Ensuring alternative avenues for explaining or documenting advice can preserve the dignity and agency of all clients, a critical component of ethical service delivery.
Looking to tomorrow, Jess envisions Quilla harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline and enrich the client-advisor relationship. Here are potential areas of impact:
Nonetheless, the conversation is clear that such innovations must integrate robust ethical guardrails. AI is a potent tool but can produce misinformation if left unchecked. Advisors should continually question the accuracy of AI-generated material, mindful of the human judgment central to a professional and conscientious practice.
With the profession moving away from static PDFs, many advisors wonder how to begin implementing a web-based solution like Quilla in a professionally responsible way. Based on Patrick and Jess’s dialogue, here is a concise roadmap:
In the conversation between Patrick Gardner and Quilla’s CMO, Jess Tassell, one overarching lesson emerges: Technology can amplify trust, professionalism, and even compliance, but only when used conscientiously. Firms that adopt new solutions purely for novelty risk overlooking the ethical and personal nuances that define successful advisory relationships. On the other hand, those that remain mired in legacy systems may be inadvertently limiting their effectiveness and client satisfaction.
The ethical underpinnings of financial advice—confidentiality, informed consent, the best interest duty, and a commitment to transparency—are not at odds with innovation. Rather, modern tools can enrich an advisor’s ability to serve clients holistically, providing deeper insights and a more dynamic understanding of investment strategies, retirement planning, or risk management.
As you evaluate your firm’s future, consider how integrated solutions might eliminate manual errors, improve document readability, and streamline compliance checks. Reflect on the power of interactive features—embedded videos, dynamic pricing, scenario testing—to demystify financial decisions for everyday Australians. Finally, remain vigilant about data privacy and the potential pitfalls of AI. True professionalism in financial advice technology demands an alignment of cutting-edge tools with sound ethical practices.
Key Takeaways:
Ultimately, the path forward must balance the promise of technology with a profound sense of duty to the clients. If executed well, this synergy can foster greater trust, elevate service quality, and transform the historically dense process of financial advice into something genuinely enlightening and empowering. By reimagining how proposals and statements of advice are delivered, advisors can take a crucial leap: from merely fulfilling compliance obligations to meaningfully engaging and educating clients. In doing so, they build not only strong relationships but also a stable foundation for the profession’s ethical future.
Accreditation Points Allocation:
0.10 Technical Competence
0.10 Client Care and Practice
0.10 Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection
0.10 Professionalism and Ethics
0.40 Total CPD Points