AFSL licensing, paraplanning and compliance for super funds. Underneath everything else.
This is what a fund is really buying when it buys a member advice capability — who carries the licence obligation, who supervises the advice, who writes it up, and who reads the file afterwards. Take the whole arrangement, or outsource the one piece a self-licensed fund cannot staff.
Four services underneath a member advice capability.
Take all four or one of them. Funds most often start with the licensing or the consulting, and pick up the rest once the shape of the advice offer is settled.
AFS & credit licensing
Advisers are authorised as representatives under AFSL/ACL 420367 for financial advice and mortgage broking, with the licence obligations and supervision sitting with us. The fund gets an advice capability without standing up and carrying a licence of its own.
Paraplanning & compliance
In-house paraplanning, compliance audits, and AI compliance scans that read every advice file rather than a sample of them. The scan is not a bigger sample — it is the whole population, every file, every time.
Consulting as a service
Advice strategy, advice operating model and licensing uplift. Bring us in to work out whether to build, buy or outsource, and what your member advice capability should look like, before anyone builds it — which is a cheaper conversation than the one after a build has gone the wrong way.
Clear points of contact
You have clear points of contact across advice, paraplanning, the contact centre and compliance, so your team knows who is responsible for each part of the service.
Three questions worth answering before you build, buy or outsource.
Most of the expensive mistakes in member advice are made in the scoping, not the build.
The risk committee asks about this part.
Not the avatar and not the software. Who holds the obligation, who reviews the advice, and where the people doing the work are sitting.
Authorisation is under AFSL and ACL 420367, held by Guideway Financial Services Pty Ltd. The licence obligations and the supervision of the advice sit with us.
Compliance audits are backed by AI compliance scans that read every advice file rather than a sample of them. A sample tells you about the sample.
Not a subcontracted queue. The paraplanning sits inside the same business that carries the licence and answers for the advice.
You know who is responsible for the advice, paraplanning, contact centre and compliance work, and how to reach them.
We do not compete with you. We work alongside your team to deliver advice for your members or clients, using the service model that fits your organisation.
Our advice, paraplanning, compliance and licensing teams work within the same group.
Questions about advice licensing, paraplanning and compliance.
Should a super fund build, buy or outsource its member advice capability?
Build if you want to own the whole thing and are prepared to carry a licence, an adviser payroll and a compliance function to do it. Outsource if you want members advised sooner and the licence obligation carried by someone else. Most funds land somewhere in between — own the member relationship, outsource the licence, the advisers or the paraplanning behind it. That decision is exactly what the consulting engagement is for, and it is cheaper to have it before a build than after one.
Can a self-licensed fund outsource only part of this?
Yes. Nothing here requires the rest. A fund that holds its own licence and employs its own advisers can take the paraplanning on its own, or the compliance audits and AI file scans on their own, and leave the licensing alone.
What is an authorised representative arrangement?
It is how an adviser gives financial advice without holding a licence of their own: the adviser is authorised by an AFS licensee, and the licensee carries the obligations and supervises the advice. Here, advisers are authorised under AFSL and ACL 420367, held by Guideway Financial Services Pty Ltd, so the fund gets an advice capability without standing up a licence of its own.
Whose licence do the advisers operate under?
Ours. Advisers are authorised under AFSL and ACL 420367, held by Guideway Financial Services Pty Ltd ABN 46 156 498 538. The licence obligations and the supervision sit with us, not with the fund.
Does the authorisation cover mortgage broking as well as financial advice?
Yes. 420367 is both an Australian Financial Services Licence and an Australian Credit Licence, so authorisation covers financial advice and mortgage broking under the one arrangement.
How does the paraplanning support work?
Paraplanning is handled in-house, with clear responsibilities and access to the same working information used by the advice team.
How much of the advice does the compliance review actually look at?
All of it. Alongside conventional compliance audits, AI compliance scans read every advice file rather than a sample of them.
Can you help before we have decided what to build?
That is what consulting as a service is for — advice strategy, operating model and licensing uplift. Funds bring us in to work out what their advice capability should look like before anyone builds it.
Do we have to take the licensing to use anything else?
No. Nothing here requires the rest. Take the piece that solves the problem in front of you and add the others later, or never.
Bring us the problem before you write the tender.
If you are weighing up whether to build, buy or outsource member advice — and who should be carrying the licence when you do — that is the conversation worth having first.