After primarily working with superannuation funds last year, most notably through its partnership with Colonial First State (CFS), Otivo said it has now officially entered the financial planning sector as it seeks to work with advice practices to help them “increase revenue and build stronger internal relationships with clients”.
The firm said advice practices can leverage the platform to engage with clients’ children, helping them capture the intergenerational wealth transfer opportunity and “increasing the lifetime value of each client”.
Fully customisable under an adviser’s own licence, Otivo said the “plug-and-play” design of the digital advice platform allows practices to offer service to those who don’t yet need fully comprehensive advice, allowing practices to serve more people, more profitably, without putting undue strain on their team.
Otivo founder and chief executive Paul Feeney said that with so many advisers forced to turn away clients because they can’t afford comprehensive advice or lack the capacity to take them on, digital advice tools like Otivo offer a solution.
“We give practices a way to offer real, personal advice to clients who might not be able to afford the full face-to-face model. It’s about opening up access, staying compliant, and making advice more scalable without burning out the team,” Feeney said.
“If you’re a two-adviser practice with a couple of hundred clients, Otivo can help you add $50,000 or more in revenue right out of the gate. And it keeps growing from there. You can offer a compliant statement of advice and, when needed, bring clients in for that one-on-one guidance.
“It’s the best of both worlds – and a way to future-proof your business.”
While some advisers have raised concerns about attempts to replace them with digital advice tools, Feeney explained that the platform is built to work alongside traditional advice, “not replace it”.
“You can serve less complex clients or younger adults cost-effectively, while still being there to provide one-on-one support when they need it. It’s scalable, flexible, and built for how advice works today,” he said.
“Financial advice doesn’t need to be reserved for the top end of town. Otivo makes personal, regulated advice available to everyone – and makes it commercially viable for advisers to deliver it. That’s the future of advice.”
Otivo director Ross Barnwell added that Otivo is meant to be an enabler, not a competitor, and complement traditional services to create a “true continuum of advice”.
“While every generation now relies heavily on digital services, younger generations are particularly dependent on them. Otivo provides a low-cost, compliant digital touchpoint for these individuals, who may later seek face-to-face advice and deeper engagement,” Barnwell said.
This announcement comes just a week after the firm’s launch of ‘Ask Otivo’, its “national first” AI digital advice assistant.
The AI assistant takes the financial advice produced by Otivo’s advice engine and provides users with the ability to ask questions and get personalised, AI-generated answers to help them better understand the advice.
