‘Refocusing back on the core’: Iress

In October, Iress announced it had completed the sale of its MFA business to global software and software-enabled services provider SS&C Technologies (SS&C) for a total cash consideration of $52 million, with Iress adding that the proceeds of the sale will be used to retire debt.

The firm also said that the sales process for its platforms business is underway, with “interested parties in active consultation”.

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Iress chief executive Marcus Price said: “In April, we outlined our plans for our managed portfolio of non-strategic assets. Our approach has been to set these businesses up for success and identify opportunities to realise value and a return of capital.

“Having now successfully completed the sale of MFA and launched the sale of our platforms business, we are now taking steps to accelerate our managed portfolio strategy to realise further value for shareholders from these assets.”

Speaking on a recent episode of the ifa podcast, Kerry Ong, the general manager of customer wealth at Iress, said that following the divestment, the business will focus on its core offering.

“We recognise the role that we play and what we wanted to do was relook at our business and work out, ‘OK, well, where do we add the most value within the financial services industry?’ And a lot of what we say is we’re refocusing back on the core,” Mr Ong said.

“What refocusing back on the core means is we’ve made that commitment to reinvest back into our clients in Xplan, one of our core offerings within the advice world, and we’re committed to continuing that support to the financial services industry and, in particular, making advice more accessible.

“We understand that our technology plays a pivotal role in improving advice efficiency and improving the customer experience, so we want to make sure that we’re really leaning into that and making sure our product is fit for purpose for the industry.”

He added that part of recognising Xplan as part of the “backbone of the financial planning industry”, is responding to customer needs and “making changes to our software and our services to better support them as the business models evolve”.

“The industry 10 years ago, compared to where the industry is today, looks different, and we want to make sure that our product is fit for purpose for today’s industry, plus the future of where the industry is going,” Mr Ong said.

“We want Xplan, at its core, to do what we promised it to do, and that’s really what it comes down to: ensure that it’s really fit for purpose, it matches the needs of the customer, it matches the needs of the industry.”

The business is also looking at the advice process from start to finish, Mr Ong added, to understand how its products can enable greater access to advice.

“We’re working out where our product helps enable that, where there might be some roadblocks, and where we need to lean in and focus in on and then making sure that we match up our development roadmap and our internal development roadmap with what the industry actually wants,” he said.

“It doesn’t all just focus on product though. We’re doing some things like our Advice Efficiency Survey, which is outside of the product. We’ve got a community that we’ve launched recently, called Advisely. It’s a community platform that’s investing in the future of the advice industry through providing real practical sort of expert support and collaboration to build efficient advice businesses.

“All these things are, I guess, what we’re trying to give back to the industry. The product is the core, we want to make sure that we’re delivering to that, but we understand that we can use our stance within the industry to do more for the industry as well.”

To hear more from Kerry Ong, tune in here.