myprosperity, in partnership with HUB24, have launched a digital education resource to help financial advisers navigate the cyber landscape and to address the increasing risk of cyber security attacks.

In collaboration with other industry experts, the CyberHUB delivers interactive content including insights, tips and case studies to educate and enhance financial advisers’ knowledge of cyber security and the solutions available to them to help mitigate the risks.

Last financial year, the Australian Cyber Security Centre received more than 36,700 calls to its Cyber Security Hotline, an increase of 12% from the previous year, with the average cost of cybercrime for a small business increasing 8% to $49,600, and $62,800 for a medium business.¹

Over the past 12 months, exposure to cyber security threats has emerged as an increasing risk for licensees and financial advisers due to the large volume of sensitive client data required to build tailored financial plans for their clients, and the reliance on email to exchange this information. As of 31 December 2024, technology research and solutions consultancy Finura Group found 69% of advisers send documents such as Statements of Advice (SOAs) by email.

Given more than 27% of licensees are privately owned and made up of 1-10 advisers, smaller businesses often lack the resources to identify and manage cyber incidents, making them vulnerable to attacks.²

According to HUB24 Executive Group Strategy, Greg Hansen, advice practices are increasingly sharing their experiences and are seeking solutions to address their security concerns.

“Advisers want to be more productive, but with emerging technology comes new risks including cybercrime, which is not only on the rise, but leaves financial professionals significantly exposed given the large amount of personal information they rely upon to provide tailored financial advice.”

The HUB24 Group is investing in technology solutions to enable financial professionals to leverage technology to enhance productivity and enable accessible advice for more Australians.

Client portals such as myprosperity play a critical role in strengthening cyber resilience in advice practices and empower advisers to enhance client engagement and drive business efficiencies.

“Most advisers and licensees understand it is not a case of if a cyber incident occurs, but when, and this is motivating them to find a solution and integrate it efficiently into their businesses,” said Tracy Williams, General Manager, myprosperity.

Once advisers have adopted an effective client portal solution, advisers and their clients experience the broader benefits a client portal can provide beyond facilitating trust and security to include better client service and collaboration with other financial professionals.

“Advisers are increasingly recognising the range of benefits client portals can provide their clients as well as their capability to strengthen value propositions,” said Williams. “It comes at an important time in the advice industry’s evolution where trust, security and service, are top of mind for clients.”

To discover all the great information that the CyberHUB has on offer visit hub24.com.au/cyberhub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹ Australian Signals Directorate Annual Cyber Threat Report 2023-2024

² Q4 2024 Adviser Musical Chairs Report Adviser Ratings –https://pro.adviserratings.com.au/docs/Musical_Chairs_Report_2024_Q4.pdf

Case study

Advice business: Prime Advisory

Location: Sydney, NSW

Client base: 1500 clients including retirees and pre-retirees

Age of practice: 20 years+

 

Selecting a client portal and transitioning clients across is not hard if you plan, communicate, reinforce and commit.

Prime Advisory’s transition to a client portal was prompted by demand from clients for a safer way to transfer documents, and its licensee’s desire to see less information shared over email.

However, the business understood that the wider benefits of client portals made them a compelling customer solution.

“Data security, all documents in the one place, better client experience, streamlined way of doing business – it’s a good story for clients,” said Angus Rodgers, Director Prime Wealth.

 

 Deciding on a client portal

While the business tried to build its own client portal using Salesforce, this proved difficult, so after hearing feedback from other business leaders on what they used, Prime Advisory chose myprosperity.

“We wanted to go with something that had great infrastructure, was set up and ready to go,” said Harrison Cockburn, Head of Operations, Prime Advisory.

myprosperity is owned by HUB24, and this was also attractive to Prime Advisory.

“We prefer to partner with technology providers that have got a solid track record,” said Rodgers. “We like everything that HUB24 is doing.”

He added: “They are innovative, and we think that myprosperity has transitioned into the right hands and its acquisition compliments their existing offering.”

 

Transitioning clients with a project plan

Prime Advisory has two divisions – Prime Wealth and Prime Accounting – which together looks after more than 1500 clients.

Based in Sydney and with a 20-year history, the advice and accounting practice services a broad range of clients including retirees and pre-retirees which include doctors, lawyers and small businesses, and the total business has advises on approximately $800 million funds under advice.

In a strategy day last July, Prime Advisory decided to onboard myprosperity and implemented a three-month transition plan from October to December, an approach used by the business in other significant operational changes such as moving its CRM to Salesforce and changing modelling software providers.

“We are a dynamic business, open to change and always looking for improvements,” said Rodgers.

In October, an email was sent to all clients notifying them of the change and asking them to download the client portal application. A client portal page was established on its website to make it easy for clients to log on.

The business also committed to starting each annual client review meeting in December with a conversation about the client portal and a prompt to download the app. This is recommended as best practice by myprosperity, and it paid off for the business, as by January, all clients had downloaded the app, and the portal had almost 400 active users.

 

Conclusion

Prime Advisory is optimistic about the range of benefits the online portal will bring to its clients and business.

While still in implementation phase, the transition is a bit of work, but Rodgers said the business can “see the light at the end of the tunnel”.

Ease of use of the client portal has been a big positive for the business as has using the client app. “It’s very user friendly for all clients,” said Rodgers. Although getting clients to create multi-factor authentication requires a bit more effort, it is regarded as essential for cyber security.