Produced By: Ensombl
In the contemporary wealth management landscape, the demand for streamlined, transparent, and ethically grounded financial advice has never been greater. This urgency is the product of many converging forces—rising client expectations, increased regulatory scrutiny, and the complex interplay of technology solutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the friction that arises when financial advice practices need to pass data to product providers, institutions, and other external entities. This challenge is significant: as practices strive to deliver high-quality advice more efficiently, they confront the bottleneck of duplicated data entry, potential errors, and delays across multiple platforms.
In a recent discussion originally hosted by Patrick Gardner, Head of Technology at Collins SBA, Shaun Green, CEO of a data-integration-focused firm called Elementor, shed light on the depth of this challenge. Green’s own journey—spanning family businesses, business banking, and financial advice—eventually led him to a central question: How can the wealth management industry solve its core problems of non-standardized data and fragmented systems?
This article builds on Gardner and Green’s conversation, expanding into the underlying ethics and professionalism that must guide financial services in modern times. We will explore how bridging technology gaps enhances compliance, reduces errors, and serves the best interest of clients. Ultimately, this is a story of how the industry’s future depends on a more integrated, ethical, and client-centered approach—one that recognizes that technology must serve people, not the other way around.
The financial services sector is evolving rapidly. Gone are the days when an advisory practice might work solely with a single platform and a handful of paper forms. Today, most practices employ a patchwork of technologies: a financial planning CRM like Xplan or a competing system, additional modules for risk profiling, separate software for self-managed super funds, and so on.
At the same time, platforms such as Colonial First State (CFS), Netwealth, or others each have unique requirements. They have their own workflows and forms, whether PDF or digital. Even within a single platform, different products (e.g., superannuation, pensions, investments) can demand different data sets.
This multiplicity can create a nightmarish scenario of duplicated data entry for advisory firms. As soon as one step is completed in the firm’s CRM, that same data might need to be re-entered into another interface—potentially repeatedly—to open or maintain a client’s account. Each additional manual interaction is an opportunity for errors or omissions. In an industry where trust is paramount and compliance is non-negotiable, these mistakes can be costly, both financially and reputationally.
One reason the problem of data fragmentation has grown is the push toward customization. Many practices prefer to tailor their CRMs to reflect unique processes, client segments, or branding. While customization can create an internal consistency, it also complicates how data is sent or received externally.
When everyone has their own “version” of basic categories—client titles, goals, asset classes, account types—standardization becomes incredibly difficult. As Green noted, even a single platform like Xplan can have hundreds of unique instances, all with differing fields or labels. Advisors champion customization to differentiate their offerings, but when that meets the uniform requirements of platform providers, friction is inevitable.
Underpinning all of this is an increasingly stringent regulatory environment, shaped by events such as Australia’s Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Regulators demand robust proof that advice is in the best interest of the client, that product recommendations are made with full disclosure, and that advice documents are accurate and verifiable.
Manual data entry can undermine these obligations. An incorrectly keyed detail—like a date of birth or an account number—could derail or delay an account setup. In the worst case, it might place funds in an incorrect product or hamper the reliability of statements of advice. For advisors and institutions alike, the stakes of “getting data right” are higher than ever.
Amid these complexities, Elementor positions itself as an intermediary that sits between practices’ CRMs and platform providers. Rather than letting each software solution struggle to speak a different “data language,” a middleware service can integrate data behind the scenes, serving as a universal translator of sorts.
Shaun Green’s background helped him see this problem from multiple perspectives. Originally from Newcastle and part of a third-generation family business in manufacturing, he eventually gravitated toward finance. A stint in business banking was followed by work as a financial advisor. He then spent almost a decade in institutional wealth management, primarily with AMP and some time at BT/Westpac.
What truly awakened him to the power of technology in financial advice was the Royal Commission. Just as Green was preparing to launch his own advisory practice, the commission was exposing deep systemic issues across the financial services sector. Realizing the enormity of these flaws, he shifted focus to building technology to address them.
Through a product called Advice Revolution, Green introduced one of the first digital fact finds in Australia. The platform allowed advisors to gather data from clients in a more direct, digital format. But it was the “over-engineered” integration engine behind Advice Revolution that became the real gem. The solution could pull data from multiple sources, standardize it, and push it out to various destinations—essentially a flexible data platform.
The term “non-standard data” frequently emerged in Green’s conversation with Gardner. It refers to the many ways that software platforms, businesses, and advisors capture the same types of information differently. Even something as straightforward as a client’s title—Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr.—might exist as multiple fields or differ in how it’s stored. When data is ported from one system to another, these inconsistencies become stumbling blocks.
Given the gravity of this problem, Elementor focuses on building robust integration and orchestration capabilities. The middleware approach means data can remain in its native format in a practice’s CRM, be translated to a standard internal model, and then be pushed to a destination platform in a format that platform can interpret. Conversely, data from multiple sources can be aggregated into a single standardized feed.
From an ethics standpoint, this approach significantly reduces the possibility of human error. When the data transfer is automated and validated, the risk of “fat fingering” or inaccurate transcription diminishes dramatically. Reducing data errors is an ethical imperative: it protects the client from unintended consequences and fosters trust in the quality and reliability of advice.
Financial advisors occupy a role of profound responsibility. Clients entrust them not only with money but with the realization of life goals—whether that is securing a comfortable retirement, funding a child’s education, or building a generational legacy. Each piece of data an advisor collects, stores, or transmits must be handled with utmost care and security.
Professionalism in wealth management extends far beyond mere compliance with regulations. At its core, it involves prioritizing the client’s best interest, safeguarding confidentiality, and maintaining rigorous standards of accuracy. When data is subject to repeated manual handling—retyping, copying, reformatting—errors inevitably creep in.
These errors can have broad repercussions:
A robust integration system significantly mitigates these concerns. By automating data transfer, it ensures client information is conveyed in a manner that is consistent, verifiable, and accurate. That, in turn, leads to safer, more reliable outcomes.
The ethical handling of data also implies high standards of privacy and security. The capacity to transfer data seamlessly between systems does not absolve advisors or product manufacturers of the responsibility to protect that data.
In the case of middleware solutions, encryption and secure data transmission protocols should be integral components of the process. Once an advisor input is captured, it should be stored only in environments that comply with relevant privacy laws and best practices, such as Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (for firms dealing with EU clients), or other relevant local and global standards.
Green’s approach implicitly recognizes this, although the specifics depend on each institution’s and each practice’s internal security protocols. Still, the impetus on safe data management remains paramount, reinforcing that efficiency gains cannot compromise client confidentiality.
For truly effective data integration, stakeholders across the chain—advisors, software vendors, institutions, and regulators—must collaborate. A singular practice demanding a certain format is less powerful than an entire network of advisors collectively emphasizing the importance of data consistency. Similarly, if a product provider invests in technology that streamlines data transfer but the advisory community fails to adopt it, the benefits stall.
Professionalism, then, involves more than compliance and best practice adherence within one’s own office. It also involves championing industry-wide improvements that enhance transparency, accuracy, and client outcomes. Collaboration fosters a spirit of positive change that, over time, raises standards for everyone.
One of Elementor’s most notable achievements came in 2022 with Colonial First State (CFS). Amid KKR’s investment into CFS, CFS sought to modernize its product offering, particularly FirstChoice, which manages some 130 billion AUD in assets. While CFS was rolling out new technology for CFS Edge, it recognized that many advisors were still handling volumes of paperwork for account origination in FirstChoice. PDFs, forms, checklists—these methods worked but were time-consuming and prone to error.
By redesigning the process from the advisor’s point of view, Elementor helped transform new account creation from an archaic, paper-based system into a more fluid digital workflow. Rather than forcing advisors to adapt to the platform’s internal logic, Elementor reoriented the journey around how advisors naturally walk clients through fact-finding and plan implementation.
A critical piece of this puzzle was data integration. Advisor practices that operate on CRM systems like Xplan (among others) could now pull client data directly into the FirstChoice application process. This minimized re-entry, lowered error rates, and cut the overall time spent on these tasks by 50 to 80 percent, according to feedback from early adopters.
Beyond efficiency, this transformation brought broader implications for advisor professionalism:
Such innovations do not merely streamline an internal workflow; they impact the broader client experience. If a client sees frictionless transitions from advice recommendation to final product setup, they feel more at ease. This fosters trust and deepens the advisor-client relationship—an ethical priority in itself, given the fiduciary nature of wealth management.
While large-scale collaborations with platform providers like CFS garner headlines, integration can start small within an advisory firm. The conversation between Patrick Gardner and Shaun Green included some practical insights for those looking to integrate their internal processes.
Before investing in new tech, firms should conduct a thorough process mapping exercise. Identify every point where client data is captured, stored, or moved. Pay close attention to:
By mapping these aspects, the firm gains a clear, holistic view of its data ecosystem, highlighting where quick wins may be possible.
Firms often find that certain automations or integrations yield the greatest immediate benefit. For instance, automatically creating a client record in multiple software solutions—CRM, marketing automation, risk profiling—when that client is first onboarded can remove repetitive data entry.
Another common solution is designing standardized picklists or field names in a primary system. If future integrations or transformations must occur, having consistent naming conventions from the outset saves enormous time and effort. Here, the challenge is balancing the desire for “uniquely designed fields” with the recognition that an industry standard is more conducive to frictionless integration.
Although do-it-yourself integrations are possible, they can be complex and resource-intensive to maintain. A custom integration typically requires ongoing development to keep pace with system updates, new fields, or revised compliance rules. By opting for a middleware solution—like the approach Elementor champions—a firm or institution can outsource the heavy lifting to specialists with experience in the complexities of wealth management data.
In addition, a middleware approach offers modular flexibility: the firm can connect multiple internal systems to multiple external systems without the need to build each connection from scratch. Over time, this approach becomes more cost-effective and significantly reduces risk.
Technological enhancements that improve accuracy and efficiency should not be viewed merely as operational upgrades. By reducing the chance of errors, expediting account openings, and streamlining compliance, such innovations uphold a core ethical standard of client-centricity.
Clients deserve transparency, timeliness, and the assurance that their personal and financial details are handled responsibly. In wealth management, where relationships often span decades, these ethical considerations should guide every major decision regarding systems and data processes.
Looking ahead, the conversation around integrating AI into wealth management continues to grow. Although Green voiced caution that AI’s widespread, transformative impact may be years away in a heavily regulated domain like finance, there are still incremental ways that automated intelligence can contribute.
Ultimately, none of these higher-order AI functions matter if an advisory business lacks a foundation of accurate, standardized data. Middleware solutions pave the way for future innovations by ensuring that the data pipeline is robust and clean.
Professionalism and ethics cannot be divorced from technological change. Advisors, product providers, and software vendors all carry an obligation to develop and implement solutions that serve the best interest of the client. This calls for ongoing dialogue about:
The ideal future is one in which technology amplifies the strengths of human advisors—relationship-building, nuanced judgment, empathy—and reduces their administrative burdens. To get there, a continuous commitment to ethical standards and professional excellence remains critical.
The financial advice sector is at a crossroads. On one side, client demands, regulatory pressures, and the heightened competition of digital-first solutions create challenges that strain existing manual processes. On the other side, an emerging generation of solutions promises a world where data moves seamlessly across platforms, compliance friction is minimized, and advisors can focus on true value creation for their clients.
Elementor’s collaboration with Colonial First State is illustrative of the power of bridging the gap between an advisory practice’s tech stack and a product provider’s internal systems. By placing a premium on data accuracy and removing inefficiencies, such partnerships hint at a future where integrated account origination and maintenance become the norm, not the exception.
Still, the road to fully realized data connectivity is long. The variety of CRMs, each configured differently, remains a major hurdle. The impetus falls not only on technology firms but on advisors themselves to standardize their internal practices wherever possible. As they do so, they open the door to a more sophisticated technology ecosystem—one that can dramatically reduce costs, minimize mistakes, and deliver higher-quality experiences.
Financial advisors—and the broader wealth management industry—stand as stewards of their clients’ financial futures. Every dataset, every platform connection, every form, and every piece of client information must be handled with unwavering care, diligence, and respect.
While it may not often be labeled as such, data integration is deeply ethical work. It shapes how quickly and accurately advisors implement strategies, how reliably institutions process client information, and how effectively regulators can trust the veracity of data. Seamless integration reduces errors that can damage client outcomes, fosters clarity and trust between advisors and clients, and bolsters compliance by minimizing the chaos inherent in complex manual processes.
Green’s journey from manufacturing floors to advising, and finally to championing data integration, exemplifies how lived experiences can illuminate the most overlooked challenges. His realization that re-keying data was a major pinch point, further illuminated by the rigors of the Royal Commission, underscores the seriousness of getting data right. As more product manufacturers and institutions embrace solutions like Elementor’s middleware, the industry marches toward a more client-focused, ethically grounded, and professionally consistent future.
Ultimately, the goal is not merely to save time or money—though these are critical considerations. The deeper mission is to ensure that quality advice reaches as many Australians as possible, consistently and with minimal friction. By standardizing data, automating routine tasks, and ensuring reliability, advisors can dedicate their energies where they matter most: understanding their clients’ stories, shaping tailored financial strategies, and delivering genuine peace of mind.
The future of financial advice will always hinge on strong advisor-client relationships. But the bedrock of those relationships is the trust that arises from competence, integrity, and professionalism. By embracing better data management, integration, and ethical stewardship of technology, financial professionals affirm their commitment to the highest standards of service. They also ensure they remain relevant in a rapidly changing digital age—one in which clients’ expectations for both personal connection and technological efficiency continue to rise.
Accreditation Points Allocation:
0.20 Technical Competence
0.10 Regulatory Compliance and Consumer Protection
0.10 Professionalism and Ethics
0.40 Total CPD Points