AI Receptionist for Australian Financial Planners — Never Miss a Prospect or Client Review Call

Rebecca is a financial adviser at a small practice in South Yarra, working under an external AFSL. Two advisers, one paraplanner, one client services officer (CSO). They specialise in pre-retirement and retirement planning for clients with $500K-$3M in super and investible assets.

Tuesday afternoon, Rebecca was three hours into a Statement of Advice delivery meeting — a complex case involving SMSF rollover, contribution strategies under the new transfer balance cap, and Centrelink optimisation for the client's wife. Phone on silent. Standard practice.

When she came out at 5:30pm and checked her phone, she had four missed calls and three voicemails:

• Voicemail 1: Existing client. Just received an inheritance of $180,000 and wanted to discuss “what to do with it.” (High-priority.)
• Voicemail 2: A potential new client referred by an accountant Rebecca worked with regularly. Recently sold a business for $2.4M and wanted advice on tax-efficient structuring. (Very high-value prospect.)
• Voicemail 3: Existing client asking about TPD claim process after her husband's stroke. (Urgent and sensitive.)
• Two missed calls: Existing clients (one returned by message, one Rebecca didn't recognise the number).

Rebecca did her best Tuesday evening. She called the existing client about the inheritance — happy outcome, booked a review for the following week. She called about the TPD matter — emotional conversation, important relationship preservation, no immediate revenue but right thing to do.

She left the new prospect (sold business for $2.4M) until Wednesday morning because it was already 6:30pm. When she called Wednesday at 9am, the prospect had already engaged a different planner Tuesday evening — someone who'd answered when he'd called next.

Conservative estimate: $2.4M of investible assets engaged elsewhere = $24,000-$48,000/year in lost recurring revenue, plus potential SOA and implementation fees, plus lifetime client relationship value. Realistic Year 1 revenue lost: $35,000-$80,000.

This is structural. Financial advisers deliver advice in 60-90+ minute meetings. Phones must be silent. Voicemail catches the call. By callback time, prospects who valued speed have moved on.

This page is about how to fix this without breaching your AFSL obligations or compromising on advice quality. We'll cover the workflow, how Steve works alongside XPLAN and Midwinter, AFSL/CPD/RG175/ASIC compliance considerations under the Corporations Act 2001, and real ROI maths.

Rebecca's story is an illustrative composite based on common patterns across Australian financial planning practices. Real named AAA customers with permission to publish include Line Marking Australia and Dinar Exchange.

Long advice meetings. SOA delivery is typically 90 minutes. Fact-find is 60-90 minutes. Review meetings 60 minutes. Discovery calls 30-60 minutes. Phones must be on silent — not just out of courtesy, but because professional standards demand it.

Compliance-heavy environment. ASIC RG175 sets out conduct and disclosure obligations. RG244 governs scaled advice. Voicemail-and-callback within compliance windows is stressful.

Time-sensitive prospects. A pre-retiree, business seller, or inheritor calls multiple advisers. First-responder wins, especially when emotional weight (loved one's death, business sale stress, retirement anxiety) is involved.

Complex enquiries. Most prospect calls aren't simple “do you do super.” They involve life events — divorce, redundancy, inheritance, death of spouse, business sale, illness. CSO handling requires sensitivity.

Insurance claim distress. Existing clients calling about TPD or trauma claims after a serious event are vulnerable. They cannot get voicemail. The relationship is permanently damaged if they do.

CSO bottleneck. One CSO handling phones + admin + scheduling + paraplanning support gets overwhelmed quickly. Calls back up. Voicemails accumulate.

FOFA/Best Interests Duty. Quality intake is foundational to fulfilling the Best Interests Duty. Voicemails with three words don't meet this.

Result: The average Australian financial planning practice misses 25-45% of inbound calls. For a practice doing $1.5M in revenue across 2-3 advisers, lost prospect pipeline alone is $200,000-$500,000.

Steve answers within 2-3 rings with your configured greeting in a natural Australian accent.

Steve qualifies the call type:

• New prospect — life stage, advice scope, urgency, referral source
• Existing client review request — scheduled review or ad-hoc question
• Existing client urgent matter — claim, life event, market concern
• Adviser callback request — what topic, urgency
• Compliance/administrative — PDS request, FSG copy, fee statement, ASIC referral
• Paraplanner/back-office contact — third-party fund manager, platform, insurer

For new prospects, Steve captures:

• Name, contact details, best callback method
• Life stage (working, transition to retirement, retired)
• Investible asset scale (qualitative — “are you primarily looking at super, super + investments, or larger estate-level planning?”)
• Advice scope (super strategy, investment, retirement income, insurance, estate, divorce, business succession, redundancy, intergenerational)
• Existing adviser relationship (none, switching, second opinion)
• Urgency / decision timeline
• Referral source (accountant, lawyer, existing client, web search)

Steve books discovery meetings into your calendar:

• Google Calendar — built in, appointment held
• XPLAN — connected at setup where possible; otherwise the booking and intake reach your team to enter
• Midwinter — connected at setup where possible; otherwise the booking and intake reach your team to enter

Steve handles common questions:

• “Do you do SMSF?” — Configurable yes/no/specialty
• “What's your fee structure?” — General range (specific fees in SoA)
• “Are you authorised representatives?” — Your AFSL and AR numbers
• “Do you take new clients?” — Current capacity status
• “Where are you located?” — Office details

Steve notifies advisers instantly. Email + SMS within 5 seconds. Different routing per call type: prospects to senior adviser, existing clients to their adviser, urgent matters to on-call mobile.

You action in the portal between client meetings. See every call, full transcripts, AFSL-clean intake data, one-click actions:

• New prospect: call back within 24hrs / send FSG / book fact-find
• Existing review: schedule annual review meeting
• Urgent client matter: call back priority / brief paraplanner
• TPD/trauma claim: immediate empathic callback
• Adviser callback: topic identified, prepare response

For practices using Iress XPLAN:

Where bookings go: Steve books discovery meetings into Google Calendar out of the box. Connecting Steve to XPLAN is scoped as part of setup where it's possible; otherwise each booking and intake reaches your team by email and SMS to enter in XPLAN. We'll confirm how it works with your XPLAN setup on the free demo.

Existing clients: Steve asks callers whether they're an existing client and who their adviser is, then routes them to that adviser.

Prospect intake: Qualified prospects are captured with name, contact, life stage, advice scope, urgency and source — structured so your team can create the XPLAN prospect record quickly.

Existing client routing: Clients calling about active SoAs, review schedules, or implementation progress get routed to their allocated adviser with the reason for the call.

Call records: Every call's summary and full transcript are kept in your AAA portal for your compliance trail, including for ASIC audit purposes if requested.

FSG/PDS triggers: Where required, prospect intake flags the FSG so your team can send it ahead of the discovery call.

For practices using Midwinter:

Existing clients: Steve asks whether the caller is an existing client and routes them to their adviser.

Meeting scheduling: Discovery meetings and reviews are booked into Google Calendar out of the box. Connecting Midwinter is scoped at setup where possible; otherwise each booking reaches your team by email and SMS to confirm.

Modelling questions: Steve does not run modelling or discuss a client's model or SoA — those questions go straight to the adviser.

Prospect intake: New prospect data captured and sent to your team, ready for Midwinter file creation.

Call records: Call summaries and transcripts are kept in your AAA portal for your compliance trail.

This is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Verify your specific obligations with your AFSL holder, licensee compliance team, or Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA).

Aussie AI Agency Steve is configured to support — not replace — your compliance obligations as an Australian financial adviser.

No advice provided. Steve is configured strictly to gather information and book discovery meetings. He does NOT:

• Provide personal financial product advice (Corporations Act s766A)
• Provide general advice in regulated form
• Make any product recommendations
• Comment on market outlook
• Confirm SoA content

This keeps Steve as an inbound intake tool, not a representative providing financial services. Your AFSL governance framework should explicitly document Steve's defined role.

ASIC RG175 / RG244 alignment. Steve's intake supports your conduct and disclosure obligations under RG175 by capturing prospect circumstances cleanly for the adviser's fact-find. Steve does not engage in scaled advice (RG244) territory.

Best Interests Duty. Quality intake makes meeting Best Interests Duty easier. Steve's structured prospect intake gives advisers clean starting context for fact-find conversations.

FSG/PDS workflows. Where prospect engagement requires FSG (Financial Services Guide) delivery before advice, Steve flags this for your workflow. Configurable to your licensee's specific process.

Privacy and APP compliance. Call data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and we never sell caller data. Some of our service providers may process data outside Australia — our privacy policy lists them. Aligned with the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles compliant. Sensitive financial data handled per APP requirements.

Call recording disclosure. Steve provides state-appropriate call recording disclosure at call start under state surveillance device legislation (e.g. NSW and Vic Surveillance Devices Acts).

Code of Ethics. Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 (Standard 6 — diligent and prudent service) is supported by Steve's structured intake and prompt response model. Standard 4 (no advice without proper basis) is preserved because Steve never gives advice.

AFCA compliance. Where calls relate to complaints, Steve flags for your IDR process. Unresolved complaints retain client right to AFCA.

For your specific compliance configuration, we work with your licensee's compliance manager during onboarding.

Boutique private wealth practices dealing exclusively with $5M+ relationships and family office mandates — AI receptionist may not fit the brand. Use a dedicated CSO instead.

Robo-advice / digital-first practices where phone is rarely used — Steve adds limited value where the channel itself is secondary.

Solo practitioners with under 5 calls/week — Starter plan economics get tight. Most practitioners don't fit this bucket.

Very recently licensed AFSL holders still in compliance framework establishment — talk to us before deploying so we can configure correctly for your specific authorisation conditions.

For everyone else — solo planners, two-to-five-adviser practices, accountant-affiliated planning firms, super specialists, retirement income specialists, intergenerational planners — Steve is the obvious right answer.