🤓Xplan Hint: DBFO consent comes to Xplan Risk Researcher
Did you know Risk Researcher now enables you to document client consent for insurance commissions? As many of you know, from 9 July 2025, advisers providing personal advice on life insurance will need to obtain informed client consent before implementing advice or receiving commissions. (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) Act 2024,) Now, you can easily record client consent using the new Insurance Commission Consent (ICC) column in Risk Researcher’s recommendations screen. It allows you to indicate whether consent has been received for each product you recommend. And yes, there’s new merge syntax available so you can include the details in your documents. This update was the result of conversations with several of you. Many shared that consent would typically be captured in their Advice documents (e.g., ATP) or other consent forms. For more information, check out the community article Meeting DBFO informed consent requirements in Xplan. Now that Risk Researcher supports consent tracking, and lets you include it in your documents, we’re also thinking ahead. Are there other ways you’d like to use this data? We’d love to hear your thoughts around any other use cases you see for insurance fee consent. Let us know in this thread!🤓 Xplan Hint: Policy Search
Did you know you can quickly and easily interrogate client insurance policy details using the Policy Search feature in Xplan? Policy search is specifically designed to search across existing insurance policies - it enables targeted searches that would be difficult to achieve with regular advanced search criteria. Ever wanted to segment clients based on policy attributes such as the type of cover, renewal dates, annual premium or product provider? Policy search enables you to tailor communications and service offers to clients meeting specific criteria, improving client engagement and service delivery. Select Admin from the left-hand navigation menu then choose Business > Policy search and select from the comprehensive criteria options. You can save criteria to use again or choose bulk actions to email the policy owner or life insured or merge the details into a Xmerge report. What would you use this feature for? Would it help you target clients for review? Share specific updates on product or industry changes? Engage clients with or without certain policy features in educational campaigns? I'd love to hear from you.🤓 Xplan Hint: Tracking Super Contributions
Did you know that there is an element that summarises Super Contributions. It gives you a clear and consolidated view of your client's superannuation contributions, making tracking and compliance easier than ever. Key Features at a Glance Tracking: The element calculates the total sum of concessional (CCs) and non-concessional contributions (NCCs) for each financial year. Historical Data: Contribution tracking starts from the 2018/2019 financial year onwards. How the Data is Calculated The contribution figures are calculated based on the data entered in the Contributions tab within the superannuation plans. Flexibility and Compliance Details Manual Overrides: You have the option to manually override the calculated figures for both CCs and NCCs if needed. This is done via the Edit screen for the specific financial year. While in the Edit screen you can also capture: Total Super Balance (TSB) Refunded Excess CCs Refunded Excess NCCs Notes and Document linking You can link a Note to easily consolidate all relevant documents/statements for each financial year's contributions in one place, which helps keep all relevant information organized. Xtools/Xtools+ Contribution Cap Calculations The Super Contribution Summary is about to get even more powerful! Contribution cap data will be imported into the following Xtools: Xtools+, Optimiser, Retirement Funding, TTRAP and Lifestyle Goals. Cap Calculations Xplan will calculate your client's Personal Concessional and Non-Concessional Cap data by leveraging the existing Contribution Summary information. Concessional Contributions (CCs): The system will calculate your client's unused and used concessional cap for each financial year, using previous eligibility for the carry-forward rule. Non-Concessional Contributions (NCCs): The system will determine the financial year in which your client has triggered the bring-forward rule. If you can't see the Contribution Summary on your Xplan site, reach out to your site administrator to have it added to the interface. For more information refer to this Community article🤓 Xplan Hint: Email Signatures That Stick!
Did you know Xplan recently updated how email and SMS signatures work when using the 'Override From Address' option? Why the Change? No more worrying about an email going out with the wrong signature The system now guarantees the signature always matches the sender based on the chosen 'From address' It ensures consistency across your communications How It Works Now Signatures are now dynamically appended at the time of send, not when you're drafting the email. This applies to personal, site, and group signatures. Signatures are no longer inserted into the content when creating an email, SMS, or selecting a template. The correct signature is appended based on the selected 'From address' when the email is sent. Editing a pre-loaded signature before sending is no longer an option. For bulk emails, when previewing, the signature shown is determined using the first client. The sender’s signature is no longer included in the message for notifications or acknowledgements. This updated signature handling applies to: Scheduled Email Tasks, Single Email, Email to All, Campaigns, Portfolio Positions, and Diary. Pro Tip 💡 If you frequently use the 'Override From Address' feature, perhaps covering for a colleague or sending on behalf of a different adviser, this update is a massive win! It eliminates the risk of human error in manually adjusting signatures, making your compliance team very happy.🤓Xplan Hint: Link to another Xplan page
Did you know you can add hyperlinks to another page in Xplan? This is useful if you want to direct users in Xplan to another client or wizard page. One example is if you want to direct a user to the job queue after completing a wizard doc merge, so they can see where they are in the queue. Check out this Community piece for instructions. Can you think of other ways to use this feature? Let us know!🤓 Xplan Hint: Editing existing insurances inside Risk Researcher
Did you know that you can now edit existing insurances directly within Risk Researcher? A new Edit button has been added next to each existing insurance policy in the scenario. Once clicked, you are redirected to the Client Focus > Existing Insurance section, where you can make the necessary changes. Upon saving the edited policy, you will automatically be taken back to your scenario page, and all policies marked as "not considered" will be refreshed with the updated details. A small change on our end that will help make a huge difference to the quality of your data on your end!🤓 Xplan Hint: Visualising Aged Care
Did you know you can use Visualise to help your clients feel connected to a tangible future when talking Aged Care? Visualise provides an easy, intuitive ,and interactive way to model aged care possibilities with your clients. With Visualise you can: Enter client data quickly Model aged care entry (fees and income support) Compare scenarios such as: Keep and rent out their home Sell their home Pay or partially pay the Accommodation Deposit Draw down the Accommodation Deposit Because Visualise is powered by Xtools+: An Xtools+ scenario is automatically created in the background, giving you full flexibility to refine it further Charts, tables, and modelling outputs can be merged directly into your advice documents What are you waiting for? For a quick introduction, explore the Visualise Aged Care course in the Iress Learning Centre. Have you tried Aged Care in Visualise?🤓 Xplan Hint: Stop Scrolling and Master Your File Notes
How often does this happen? You open a client file and spend the first five minutes scrolling through years of note history, desperately looking for that one critical note or maybe all the notes related to a specific topic. Using Notes effectively isn't just about capturing the note. It's about making it findable for you and your team in the future. Here is the 3-layer system to master your file notes: Layer 1: Type & Subtype (The Filing Cabinet) This is your primary, structured classification. Think of it as the mandatory filing system for your entire practice. Type: The high-level category (e.g., Advice Document, Meeting, Call, Email). Subtype: The specific item within that category (e.g., SoA, RoA, Initial meeting, Review meeting, Adhoc meeting, Enquiry). Your practice should have a clear, consistent structure for these. But this rigid structure can't capture everything. What about the context of the note? Layer 2: Tags (The Flexible Search Filter) If Type/Subtype is the "filing cabinet," Tags are the flexible, adhoc "hashtags" you stick on the file. Tags are not meant to replace your Type or Subtype. You wouldn't create a Tag called "Review" if that's already a Subtype. Instead, Tags should capture the context or topic that the rigid structure doesn't. How It Works: When creating your note, you still select your Type and Subtype as normal. Then, in the 'Tags' field, you add your labels. Unlike Subtypes, you can add multiple tags to a single note. Tags must be setup in the Note|Tags field definition by your system administrator. Some examples might be; Super, Investment, Insurance, Draft, Needs review, Final Why do it? Your Type and Subtype might be Meeting and Review, but the Tags Super and Investment tell the story of that meeting. Now, you can filter all notes for any client that has the Super tag, regardless of whether it was an email, a call, or a review meeting. Layer 3: Pinning (The "Must-Read" Thumbtack) This final layer is for visibility. You've classified your note (Type/Subtype) and made it relatable (Tags), but what about that one note that is more important than all the rest? That's where Pinning comes in. How It Works: On the client's 'Notes' page, find the critical note and click the 'Pin' icon (it looks like a thumbtack). This immediately replicates that note to a separate "Pinned" section at the very top of the list, where it will stay until it's unpinned. The Pro-Workflow: Using All Three Here is how you combine them for a perfectly managed client file: Scenario: A paraplanner has just finished drafting strategy notes for an upcoming client SOA. Type/Subtype: They select Advice Document and SoA. (The what) Tags: They add the tags Draft, Needs Review and Super (The context) Pinning: They Pin this note as it is the most important right now. This note may be superseded in the future and then you would unpin this note. Stop scrolling and start structuring. Using these three layers together saves time and makes your team more efficient. You can find more information in this Community Article🤓 Xplan Hint: Let your clients Visualise their future from the get-go
Did you know you can use Visualise as part of your onboarding process, providing clients with a projection of their potential financial future within minutes? Instead of spending your first meeting collecting data, use Visualise to engage your clients right from the start and effectively demonstrate the value of your advice immediately. Transform your client onboarding: Fact-Find playback: Start by playing back the pre-completed (or partially completed) fact find. Use the Visualise fact find screens to confirm the data easily and flesh out further details together. This process allows you to facilitate a two-way conversation rather than a Q&A-style first meeting, building trust instantly. Map out the client's goals: Move beyond facts and deep-dive into goals and objectives. Visualise is perfect for capturing your client’s "dream" future. Seeing their aspirations mapped out on screen makes the process instantly more tangible and emotional. The "What if you do nothing" reality check: Once you have a clear picture, the true magic begins. You can immediately generate a financial projection that shows your client exactly where they will be in the future if they change nothing. This projection is a powerful, non-confrontational way to highlight the potential gaps in their current strategy. Demonstrate instant value: Now, pivot to the power of Visualise. You can instantly demonstrate the financial benefit of simple, practical strategies. What’s the impact of increasing super contributions by just 2%? How does an interest rate increase really affect their cash flow? You can model these scenarios live, allowing the client to participate in designing the strategies that will best work for them. Using Visualise in the first meeting allows you to move from being a data-collector to a future-forecaster, making the client instantly excited about the journey ahead. Transform your advice conversations with Visualise. What simple strategy do you find clients react most positively to when you model it for them in Visualise? 👇 Let me know!
