CRM for financial advisers in Australia, and how to choose one.

A CRM for financial advisers is the system an advice firm uses to keep each client’s record: the household, contacts, meetings, file notes, documents and the next step. In Australia it also has to support advice workflow, ongoing fee consent, review cycles and record keeping, so most firms choose CRM and practice management together.

These words get used loosely, but they describe different jobs. Most firms need all three, from one vendor or several.

Some products cover all three layers; others cover one or two and connect to the rest. Neither suits every firm. What matters is that client information is entered once and stays consistent. Ask each vendor which layers it covers and which it expects you to keep elsewhere.

Much published CRM advice is written for US advisers. Australian firms work under different rules, so test any system against these six requirements.

1 · Ongoing fee arrangement consent

The rules changed under the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms (the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Act 2024). From 10 January 2025, the annual fee disclosure statement was removed and renewal was streamlined into one written client consent, signed and dated. Arrangements already in force moved to the new rules from their first anniversary after that date.

Under ASIC’s current guidance, the renewal period starts 60 days before the arrangement’s anniversary, or an agreed “reference day”, and ends 150 days after it. If no written consent is in place by then, the arrangement terminates and no further fees can be charged under it. A consent to deduct fees from an account must state the account holder’s name, the account number and the fee amount or a reasonable estimate. These records must be kept for at least five years. ASIC INFO 286 ↗

“FDS” and “opt-in renewal” are terms from the old rules, described in ASIC’s earlier guidance (INFO 256 ↗). On the current rules, track the consent window instead.

What the software needs: each arrangement’s anniversary or reference day, the window dates, consent status, the deduction consent details, and the signed form kept with the client.

2 · File notes and record keeping

ASIC expects licensees to keep records of how personal advice was given. Its examples include the advice document, file notes and records of conversations, fact-finding documents and audio recordings. Records of personal advice must be kept for at least seven years after the advice is given. ASIC RG 175.333–175.342 ↗

What the software needs: file notes on the client and meeting, with author and date; documents filed with the right client; and history you can still find years later.

3 · SoA and RoA workflow

A Statement of Advice (SoA) is still the document for personal advice to a retail client. For further advice, where the client’s relevant circumstances and the basis of the advice have not significantly changed, a Record of Advice (RoA) can be kept instead. ASIC says it looks at the full client file, not an RoA in isolation. ASIC INFO 266 ↗

What is changing, and what is not. In March 2025, Treasury released draft legislation proposing to replace the SoA with a “client advice record”. On 19 August 2026, the Government said it would progress legislation for a wider reform package (Minister’s release ↗), and industry bodies report that streamlined statements of advice are part of it (FAAA DBFO hub ↗). As at October 2026, none of this has changed the law. The current SoA and RoA rules still apply.

What the software needs: each piece of advice tracked from request to SoA or RoA, with who prepared and checked it, every version kept, and templates you can change when the law does.

4 · Review cycles

Clients with ongoing advice usually have an annual review, on a different date from the fee consent window. Both need tracking.

What the software needs: review dates driven from the client record, and a record of the services delivered under each fee arrangement, so the firm can show what the client paid for.

5 · Investment platforms and data feeds

Client holdings usually sit with investment platforms, super funds and insurers, and many advice systems take data feeds from them.

What the software needs: feeds that are live today for the providers your clients use, a known update frequency and cost, and a plan for when a feed stops. Don’t assume a connection exists until you have seen it working.

6 · Privacy, security and data location

For organisations covered by the Privacy Act, Australian Privacy Principle 11 requires reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. OAIC: APP 11 ↗ The Act does not require data to be stored in Australia. But under APP 8, a firm that discloses personal information to an overseas recipient is generally accountable for how that recipient handles it. OAIC: APP 8 ↗

Cybersecurity is also a licensing matter: in 2022, the Federal Court found that AFS licensee RI Advice had failed to adequately manage its cybersecurity risks. ASIC 22-104MR ↗ And from 10 December 2026, privacy policies must explain where a computer program is used to make or inform decisions that significantly affect individuals. OAIC, 30 September 2026 ↗

What the software needs: a clear answer on where data, backups and AI processing sit; multi-factor sign-in; access by role; and a log of who changed what.

Four broad approaches overlap, and many firms run one as the core with others around it. This guide does not rank vendors; the right type depends on your process, team and existing systems.

The contract, not the sales conversation, decides what you can take with you. Check these in writing:

• Ownership. The firm owns all its client data: notes, documents, history and fee records, not only contact fields.
• Export. You can export everything in a usable format, with attachments and relationships, at any time, at a stated cost.
• Exit. Notice periods, the timeline for returning data, and what happens to backups.
• Hosting. Which country the data and backups are in, and which other services, including AI services, process it.
• Administration. Who holds administrator rights, and whether the firm can reach its own data without the vendor.

Start with your process, not a feature list. Follow one recent new client from first meeting to implemented advice, and note every system involved and every retyped detail.

• Process fit. Your stages, approvals and handoffs can be set up, and changed later, without starting again.
• Fee consent. Anniversary or reference days, renewal windows, deduction consent details and signed forms on file.
• Records. File notes, documents, SoA and RoA versions kept with the client and retrievable for seven years or more.
• Connections. Live connections to your modelling tools and investment platforms, shown working.
• Data and security. Hosting location, multi-factor sign-in, access by role and a change log.
• Ownership and exit. Export rights and costs written into the contract.
• Total cost. Licences, implementation, migration, connections, support and any overlap with the old system.

To compare recurring and transition costs with your own numbers, use the cost and capacity calculator.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The firm and its details are fictional.

1. Map the journey. Example Street Advice, a fictional three-adviser firm, follows one new client: the fact find was typed twice, and fee consent dates sit in a spreadsheet.
2. Shortlist by type. The principal shortlists three systems of different types for the CRM and practice management layers, keeping the firm’s modelling tool either way.
3. Script the demo. Each vendor shows the same fictional client through a review, with a fee consent window opening that week.
4. Test the exit. Each vendor provides a sample export and its contract wording on data return.
5. Decide on evidence. The firm compares the scripted demos, three-year cost and exit terms.

Matching record counts proves the records arrived, not that the team can use them.

• Inventory. Every record type, with an owner: clients, entities, relationships, notes, documents, fee arrangements, reviews and open tasks.
• Export rights. Confirm format, cost and timing with your current supplier before you set a date.
• Map by meaning. “Active” might mean an active client, an active fee arrangement or a record not yet archived. Agree each rule.
• Fee arrangements first. Carry each anniversary or reference day and consent status across exactly. A wrong date can mean a missed renewal window.
• Trial run. Migrate a sample first. Check relationships, open documents from the new record and confirm tasks have owners.
• Cutover. Decide how changes made after the final export are captured, and who approves go-live.
• Protect the exports. Keep working copies in controlled storage and remove temporary copies afterwards, while keeping what you must retain.
• Keep history reachable. Don’t close the old system until retrieval from the archive has been tested.

Ask the vendor to show, not tell, with a fictional client like one of yours:

• Show me a client whose fee consent window opens next week. What prompts us, and where is the signed form kept?
• Walk one advice request from file note to SoA. Where does it wait, and who owns each step?
• Which connections to investment platforms and modelling tools are live for firms like ours today?
• If AI drafts something, how is it marked, and who approves it before it is used?
• How do we export everything if we leave, and what does that cost?

This guide is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Sources were checked on 21 October 2026. Confirm how the rules apply to your firm with your licensee or compliance adviser.

Bunya AI builds Bunya Command Centre, the practice operating system for Australian financial advice firms. It covers the CRM and practice management layers: the client record, the advice work and the next step, built in and installed in your firm’s own Microsoft 365 and owned by your firm. AI prepares work such as file note drafts and SoA request packs, and a person on your team checks and approves every step.

Command Centre is not modelling software. It works alongside the planning and modelling tools your firm keeps, and your Blueprint records what stays, connects or is retired.

• Command Centre: the client record, advice pipeline and reviews.
• Falcon Financial Advisers’ story: a 75-step advice process running in Command Centre.
• Security and your data: where records live and who can see them.
• Getting started: from demo to migration, with a trial run first.
• Cost and capacity calculator: test a change with your own numbers.