Latest changes to the North platform

We’re continuously improving the North platform and our service offering to bring you greater efficiency and control, leading to a better experience for your clients.

Continue reading to find out more about our latest enhancements which will come into effect on 29 August 2022.

Digital consent for advice fees

As part of our latest release, existing clients will now be able to provide consent for advice fees through North’s new digital consent process. This process means you will no longer be required to upload client consent forms or IDs to prove clients have consented to advice fees. Instead, advisers will be able to trigger an email to the client prompting them to approve or decline the fees via an online consent process. Once approved, North will automatically apply the advice fees and no further action is required. We hope that this straight-through processing will provide a better experience for both you and your clients.

We encourage you to read our digital consent how-to guide and watch the digital consent instructional video which will show you how to use the new feature. These support tools will be available under the training resources section on North Online.

Updating contact details

From 29 August, only clients will be able to update their mobile number. This is being introduced to enhance security features for clients who will use digital consent as well as the North client app. Clients can update their mobile number easily through North Online or via the app.

Advisers can now only enter a client’s mobile phone number when creating a new client. Please remember to record a new client’s mobile number at the time of set up.

Expanding North Switch capability with CGT & ROA data

North investment switching capability has been recognised as one of the most intuitive and efficient processes when it comes to managing your client’s investments. Reduce errors by showing how the proposed switch will impact your client’s cash account and auto investment instructions, and model a client’s proposed asset allocation and fees post the change in investments. In this release, we will introduce two further enhancements:

ROA data in Word template

Currently, ROA input data can already be downloaded to Excel via the pre-submit documentation page. With this release, you will now be able to export pre-formatted tables, charts, graphs and diagrams to a Word document, making it easier to integrate into your ROA template. After speaking with many advisers, we hope that this new feature will help save you time and better showcase the impact of the switch to clients.

An instructional video to show you how to use our ROA template will be available under the training resources section on North Online.

CGT modelling

We’re also introducing a proposed taxes tab within your client’s switch screen which displays the estimated CGT impact of an investment switch, prior to execution¹. To preview the tax implications relating to a proposed transaction, simply enter the switch details and the tool will estimate the capital gain or loss associated with that particular switch.

An updated how-to guide on switching and an instructional video will be available under the training resources section on North Online.

Changes to manual form submissions

Lastly, we’re making some changes to the standalone upload area within North Online. Currently some manual forms can be submitted using the document upload section. As part of this release, you will now be able to upload two new document types; contribution splitting and guarantee removal requests.

Separately, you will no longer be able to upload the following documents within the standalone upload area of North Online. These documents can be submitted using North’s online functionality which allows straight through processing which is more efficient for your practice and enables quicker processing by the North Service Centre.

• Advice fee consent form- upload must be completed within the advice fee screens using the online functionality.
• Client identification – proof of ID is mandatory for various requests on North, and where required the option to upload ID is available within the activity itself.
• Condition of release – is applied automatically as part of the relevant activity.

An on-demand webinar in educationHUB is available which demonstrates the online functionality for advice fees.

Lastly, a success message will now appear on screen once the document has been uploaded. A reference number will also be provided allowing you to better track the progress of forms. Date stamps, including the user who submitted the request, will be included in case notes and the uploaded document will now be visible under the attachments section of the activity.

Financial planning download changes

We have also made some updates to the financial planning downloads pages on North to improve its useability. As part of this release, we have changed the name of the COIN option to EPI V4.0. No action is required however, we encourage you to check out our how-to guide for financial planning download changes. You will also notice that this page has a new look.

As part of our continuous platform improvement plan, we will be introducing further enhancements to our digital consent offering and updating our ROA template to include CGT, risk profile and other information, over the coming months.

For more information, please contact your North Business Development Manager or call 1800 667 841.

Please note if the release date changes, we will update this article accordingly.