The working-after-hours tax usually starts with the second pass.

If you've ever finished a client meeting and felt the work follow you home, you know where the pain is. In self-licensed practices, that load lands on the adviser more often, and it rarely announces itself as a capacity problem until it already is one.

The reform is addressing the wrong end of the problem

The advice industry is mid-reform. The Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) package proposes replacing the Statement of Advice with a Client Advice Record, a change the government says will cut red tape and reduce the cost of delivering advice. The intent makes sense, but the pressure point sits elsewhere.

Renaming the document does not fix what makes advice documentation expensive. As industry commentators have noted, most of the cost builds before an SoA is drafted: facts verified, best interest steps completed and documented, strategies developed, reviewed, and justified. The document is the output of that process. Changing the format may alter the presentation, but it does little to reduce the review loop around it.

What creates the after-hours load isn't the length of the final document. It's the number of times the file changes hands between the meeting and sign-off.

Eight hours to prepare.
Six weeks to deliver.

"How long does an SoA take?" is a question with two answers that rarely get separated.

Industry bodies put preparation at around a full working day.¹ That figure covers drafting only. The delivery timeline, once compliance checking, internal approval, pre-vetting, and revision requests are included, is a different figure entirely. Member consultations submitted to Treasury described end-to-end turnaround stretching to weeks in some cases.³ Trade coverage confirms the gap holds across practices of different sizes.²

Most practices feel this without having named it. In most practices, delays build through handoffs after the initial draft is done. Each handoff is a potential loop where context gets lost.

This matters now because the advice gap is real and growing. Australia has lost nearly half its licensed advisers since 2018. Median advice fees rose 18% in 2025 alone, a 67% increase over five years.⁵ The cost problem is structural and shows up in workflow design.

What the loop is actually made of

The second pass usually starts with one of two things: a missing input that only the originating adviser can supply, or an unresolved next action that gets flagged in review instead of defined in the file.

Both begin earlier in the process, but the cost shows up later. An incomplete input produces an incomplete first draft, which goes to review, comes back, and requires the original meeting to be partially reconstructed from memory. An undefined next action means reviewers are making judgement calls that add a round-trip to the approval cycle.

Fixing either reduces the loop more reliably than changing the document label, because the review cycle still has to be worked through.

RoA vs SoA

The specific obligations differ. Records of Advice (RoAs) apply where advice has been provided previously and circumstances haven't changed materially. Statements of Advice (SoAs) are required for new advice or material change.⁴ The drafting load differs too.

The process issue remains the same. An RoA that goes through three review cycles will still take longer to close than an SoA that goes through one. Document length affects writing time, but workflow shape affects how quickly work gets out the door.

What changes when the loop tightens

Practices usually notice fewer touches first: fewer version requests, fewer pre-presentation checks, fewer clarifications that arrive after hours. A file that moves through one review cycle and closes is a materially different operational outcome to a file that moves through three. At practice scale, the difference compounds. More clients, more files, more loops, unless the workflow that generates the loops is addressed directly.

How Paradino addresses this

The two upstream causes, inputs captured after the fact and next actions left undefined, are the design problems Paradino was built to solve.

Paradino captures meeting inputs at the point of conversation and turns them into complete documentation outputs: file notes, RoAs, and SoAs structured for review and approval, not for reconstruction. The rationale is built into the document as it's produced, which means the output is auditable against the meeting record without a second pass to make it reviewable.

In walkthroughs,

• teams have demonstrated RoAs in under 5 minutes (see walkthrough)
• SoAs in under 10 minutes including a client presentation (see walkthrough)

Once an SoA is generated, Paradino converts it directly into a visual, client-ready slide deck, removing one of the more time-consuming steps in the pre-meeting preparation cycle.

Built for MDS members

Paradino is a Platinum Partner of My Dealer Services (MDS). For MDS members, the setup is already done. MDS RoA and SoA templates are pre-loaded inside Paradino, so the workflow starts from a familiar structure on day one with no template configuration required.

FAQ

How long does it take to prepare a Statement of Advice in Australia? Around a full working day for preparation, based on FSC guidance, before review and approval cycles begin. End-to-end delivery, once compliance checking, internal approval, and revision loops are included, can run to several weeks depending on practice size and process complexity. Preparation time covers drafting. Delivery time includes review, approval, and revision.

What is the difference between an RoA and an SoA? A Record of Advice (RoA) is used when personal advice has been provided previously and the client's circumstances haven't changed materially. A Statement of Advice (SoA) is required when providing personal advice for the first time, or when circumstances have changed. ASIC's guidance sets out the specific conditions for each.⁴ RoAs are generally lighter to prepare, but both still need a compliant review process before delivery. For a practical walkthrough of producing an RoA, see Paradino's RoA guide in Strategy Assist

What is the Client Advice Record under DBFO? The CAR is proposed to replace the SoA under Delivering Better Financial Outcomes Tranche 2 legislation. It aims to simplify advice documentation and improve accessibility. In practice it retains most of the SoA's core content requirements. The main change is flexibility in format, not a major reduction in the compliance work behind it. Renaming the document does not remove the review loop.. The loop problem persists regardless of what the document is called.

Why does SoA delivery take longer than preparation? Preparation ends when the adviser finishes writing. Delivery ends when the client receives a compliant, approved document. In between: internal review, compliance checking, pre-vetting, potential revision, and approval sign-off. Each step can pause the file. The constraint in most practices is the number of handoffs, not the speed of the initial draft. For a walkthrough of how Paradino compresses this cycle, see Introducing Pro Max

What causes rework in financial advice documentation? Most rework tends to come from two places: inputs captured after the meeting from memory, and review processes where the next required action is not clearly defined inside the file. Both sit upstream in the process.

Can AI tools reduce SoA preparation time without creating compliance risk? The relevant capability is traceability, whether the rationale in the document is auditable against the meeting record, and whether the output is reviewable as-is without reconstruction before it goes to compliance. Paradino completed SOC 2 Type 2 attestation in July 2025, independently verifying its security, availability, and confidentiality controls. Read about the attestation Practices can also review Paradino's current security posture at the Paradino Trust Hub

References

1. Financial Services Council. (n.d.). Simpler advice documents. https://fsc.org.au/news/simpler-advice-documents
2. Professional Planner. (2022, March). Turnaround times for SoAs not a difficult problem to solve. https://www.professionalplanner.com.au/2022/03/turnaround-times-for-soas-not-a-difficult-problem-to-solve/
3. SMSF Association. (2022, June). Submission to Treasury: Quality of Advice Review (PDF). https://www.smsfassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/20220610_SMSFA-Submission-to-Treasury_-Quality-of-Advice-Review.pdf
4. Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (n.d.). FAQs: Records of advice (RoAs). https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/financial-services/giving-financial-product-advice/faqs-records-of-advice-roas/
5. Adviser Ratings. (2025). Australian Financial Advice Landscape Report. https://www.adviserratings.com.au