The financial advice process, stage by stage.

The financial advice process is the path a client takes from the first meeting to advice that is in place and reviewed. Most Australian advice firms run some version of eight stages in four phases: engage, strategy, activation and implementation. Each stage hands work to the next, and each one ends with a decision a person makes.

Firms name the stages differently, and many combine or split them. The order matters more than the names. In most firms, advice slows down in the handoffs between stages, not in the advice itself.

Stage 1 · First meeting

The first meeting builds trust and sets out what the client wants help with. The adviser explains how the firm works, and the client receives the firm’s Financial Services Guide (FSG).

The output is a file note of what was discussed and the next steps both sides agreed, checked by the adviser. If the meeting is recorded, it is recorded with the client’s consent and under the firm’s policy. What a good file note records ↗

Where AI can help. Draft the file note and next steps from the recorded conversation. The adviser checks the draft against their own recollection before it becomes the record.

Stage 2 · Discovery and fact find

Discovery goes deeper: the client’s current position, their goals, the plan they believe is possible, their attitude to risk and their insurance needs. Documents from the client’s accountant, solicitor, banker and existing providers are requested early, because a missing document is one of the most common reasons advice waits.

The output is a fact find and risk profile the client has confirmed, and a documented view of their current strategy.

Where AI can help. Organise what the client has already said and supplied into fact-find inputs, and flag gaps or conflicts for a person to resolve instead of filling them with assumptions.

Stage 3 · Research and modelling

The adviser researches the options and models the client’s current and proposed position, such as cash flow, retirement, investment and insurance scenarios, using the firm’s modelling and comparison tools.

This is where strategy and product judgement sit. It stays with the adviser.

Where AI can help. Carry the confirmed fact-find inputs into the modelling, so figures are not retyped. The adviser validates every scenario.

Stage 4 · Strategy presentation

The adviser presents the proposed strategy in plain language, with what implementation and ongoing advice will cost. The client decides whether to go ahead, and may ask for changes first.

Where AI can help. Assemble a presentation draft from the adviser’s notes and the firm’s templates, for the adviser to edit and present.

Stage 5 · Client go-ahead and SoA request

Once the client says go, the strategy discussion and the client’s instructions become a request for the Statement of Advice. A complete request means the paraplanner is not left chasing gaps.

Where AI can help. Assemble one request pack from the fact find, documents, strategy summary and modelling notes, with each source linked. The adviser checks the pack before it goes to paraplanning.

Stage 6 · Statement of Advice

A Statement of Advice (SoA) is the document that sets out personal advice to a retail client, the reasons for it and what it costs. The paraplanner prepares it, the adviser reviews it, and the adviser presents it to the client. The adviser remains responsible for the advice and for acting in the client’s best interests. The rules are in Part 7.7 of the Corporations Act 2001 ↗, and ASIC explains them in Regulatory Guide 175 ↗. Read more in our guides to the Statement of Advice and the best interests duty.

For further advice where the client’s circumstances have not significantly changed, a Record of Advice (RoA) may be used instead of a new SoA. ASIC’s Information Sheet 266 ↗ covers when.

Where AI can help. Prepare the inputs and check the draft against the request. AI does not decide the advice: the adviser does.

Stage 7 · Authority and sign-off

Before anything is implemented, the client confirms the details are accurate and gives authority to proceed. The adviser then signs off what will be implemented.

Where AI can help. Fill the authority paperwork from the verified client record, and summarise what was recommended against what the client authorised.

Stage 8 · Implementation

Each recommendation becomes a set of actions, such as applications, rollovers, insurance changes and product switches. Each action has an owner and a due date, and is completed through the firm’s usual channels.

Implementation ends when every action is confirmed and the first review date is set.

Where AI can help. Propose tasks with owners and due dates from the authorised advice. Nothing is lodged with a product provider until a person authorises it.

Advice does not end at implementation. Clients with ongoing advice have a review cycle, usually annual, to check the strategy still fits and update it when their circumstances change.

Where a client pays ongoing fees under an ongoing fee arrangement, the firm needs the client’s consent, renewed each year, and should be able to show the service was delivered. ASIC’s INFO 286 ↗ sets out the current rules, and our fee consent guide walks through them.

A review is easier to start on time when it begins from the client’s real dates, with what has changed since last year prepared before the meeting. How reviews and fee consent work in Command Centre ↗

Three decisions in the process are easy to blur. Keep them separate:

• Client approval. The client agrees to the recommended strategy and gives authority to proceed.
• Adviser sign-off. The adviser confirms the advice and what will be implemented.
• Implementation authority. A named person authorises each action before it is lodged.

A clickthrough is not advice approval. Whatever software you use, each of these decisions should be made by a named person and recorded with the time it was made.

Counting the documents a team produces says little about whether clients are moving. Three measures say more:

• Time to implemented advice. From the first meeting to the last implementation action.
• Administrative effort. The hours spent assembling, retyping and chasing, per client.
• Rework. Requests sent back, documents chased twice and corrections after review.

If fees are tied to milestones, agree what counts as complete for each milestone before you start measuring. Then look for the stage where work waits longest. That is usually the place to start.

Bunya AI builds Bunya Command Centre, the practice operating system for Australian financial advice firms. Command Centre supports these stages inside your firm’s own Microsoft 365: Bunya prepares the work for each stage, and a person on your team checks it, decides and moves the client on.

The stages on this page are an example. Your stages, names and approval points are agreed in your Blueprint, so the journey matches how your firm already works.

• Client onboarding: the whole journey, with an owner for every handoff.
• SoA preparation: stages 5 and 6, from meeting notes to a verified request.
• Advice implementation: stages 7 and 8, from sign-off to advice in place.
• Reviews and fee consent: the cycle after implementation.