Godod morning, everyone. My name is Doug Richardson, I'm the Company Secretary of Count Limited. Thank you for joining us today for Count's FY 2026 results briefing for investors and analysts. The results were released to the ASX earlier today and are available on our website. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I pay our respects to elders past and present. We extend that respect to all First Nations people joining us today. Shortly, you'll hear from Hugh Humphrey, our Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, who will take you through the key highlights and strategic progress for the year. Keith Leung, our Chief Financial Officer, will then cover the financial results in more detail before we open the line for questions.
When we approach question time, please use the raise hand function in Teams and we'll invite you to speak in turn. Alternatively, we have the chat function in Teams to allow you to ask a question. I will now hand over to Hugh.
Thank you, Doug, and good morning everyone. Financial year 2026 was a significant year of delivery for Count. We delivered strong revenue and earnings growth, continued to improve margins, completed another 10 acquisitions, not including Oracle, and delivered on our commitment to further expand the earnings contribution from wealth. In addition, the Oracle acquisition, which completed in July of 2026 and therefore is not included in these numbers, ensures that we are well-placed to drive further organic and acquisitive growth post-integration, and as a platform for the coming years. It expands our employed advisor footprint and gives us greater exposure to financial planning and wealth management. Today, I'll walk through the key insights and discuss the drivers of the results. Later, we'll hear from our CFO, Keith Leung, for further analysis and commentary of our numbers. There were many highlights to be very pleased about in this year's result.
What pleased us most this year was seeing the revenue and earnings growth come from all three of our operating segments. The flywheel turning a little faster and all segments working together and lifting. Wealth continued to be a standout. Equity partnerships delivered another good result and services grew. We delivered select AI solutions and automation in all segments of the business to enhance productivity like AI file noting, professional standards file reviews, business activity statements for our accounting businesses, processes, and financial reporting. We have subtly evolved our brand to Count Group, creating a more contemporary framework to support our new ventures like Count Wealth and the future expansion that we have planned. We have a pipeline of interesting technology developments. We're also seeing more interaction between the segments.
Our investment solutions are supporting advisors, our services businesses are helping firms to scale, and our equity partnership model continues to provide attractive opportunities for growth. Two years ago, we introduced the concept of the flywheel as the framework for how we would build Count, driving results between the segments as well as within the segments. Today's results show that model working as intended with each part of the business contributing to and strengthening the others. The business is stronger, more diversified, and better positioned, and we operate in a market with growing demand. Turning to the headline numbers, FY 2026 was a strong result. Revenue was up +16%. Underlying EBITA increased +20%. Underlying NPAT attributable increased +27%. Underlying EBITA margin increased to just over 20%. This performance is a result of focused execution to capture the growing demand.
Importantly, we've remained disciplined on both cost management and the deployment of our capital, and that discipline underpins our ability to keep investing for the long term while continuing to deliver better shareholder returns. As a 46-year young business, we continue to take a very long-term perspective on growth and returns. A standout in this year's result was the continued growth in wealth, and we participate in three different growth areas. The financial planning revenues within our equity partnership segment, the investment solutions income, and the AFSL licensing revenues that appear within the wealth segment. Funds under advice increased to AUD 43 billion, and funds under management increased to AUD 6.5 billion, including Oracle. FUM growth over the last 12 months was a very strong +AUD 2.6 billion. We now have 101 firms in various stages of embracing the CARE philosophy.
This is pleasing as it shows our investment solutions are resonating with advisors and their clients. CARE is not just an SMA product conversation. It's helping advisors to run better businesses, have better investment conversations with clients, and that is a key reason we know it has further room to grow. We completed another 10 acquisitions during the year while maintaining a clear focus on balance sheet discipline. Reflecting the strength of the result, the board declared a final dividend of AUD 0.03 per share, the highest second half dividend in nine years, taking total dividends for FY 2026 to AUD 0.05 per share, fully franked. I'll now turn to the segment results. One of the key themes this year is that all three operating segments contributed to earnings growth, providing greater diversification and resilience across the business. Wealth benefited from stronger funds under management and improved advisor economics.
Equity partnerships benefited from acquisitions, increased holdings in key firms, and continued growth in financial planning revenues. Services also performed, supported by outsourcing, education, and actuarial services. Keith will go into the analysis of our numbers in a bit more detail shortly, but I wanted to touch on a few of the strategic points first. Starting with wealth, revenue was AUD 45.8 million, and EBITA was AUD 15.1 million, pleasingly with the EBITA margin increasing to 33%. The key drivers of this were funds under management growth, the transition of the Count Portfolios in-house, continued CARE adoption across the network, and stronger gross business earnings per advisor underpinned by advice process enhancements and AI initiatives across our network. Our advisors continue to serve more clients, so we're releasing more capacity into the market, meeting more client needs, and this is how we will meet the rising demand for wealth advice.
Equity partnerships delivered revenue of AUD 87.1 million and EBITA of AUD 19.3 million. Financial planning revenue within the equity partnership segment grew by +15%, which is important because it indicates strong organic growth in the financial planning revenues, which is where we have a laser focus on driving higher organic growth. Services delivered revenue of AUD 33 million and EBITA of AUD 11.1 million. This result was helped by the McGing acquisition, growth in outsourcing, and the continued expansion of our education and actuarial capability. There remains a very significant cross-sell opportunity in services. Only 29% of our clients within the network currently use one or more of Count service offerings. Overall, the segment results show a business that is benefiting from scale, along with a demonstration of our flywheel.
I wanted to show how the shape of the business has evolved in line with our very deliberate and stated and consistent intent over the last four years. We have grown funds under management from AUD 0 as we entered FY 2023 to AUD 6.5 billion as we enter FY 2027. Funds under advice has also increased from AUD 12.1 billion in FY 2023 to AUD 43 billion over the same period including the Oracle Investment Solutions and our funds under advice as at 30 June 2026. At the same time, group EBITA margin has improved from 11.4% in FY 2023 to around 20% in FY 2026, and dividends have increased from AUD 0.0375 per share to AUD 0.05 per share.
For me, the key message here is that the business is benefiting from the industry tailwinds and the execution of our strategy, and our flywheel is underpinning the financial performance to date.
We now have a larger wealth base, a stronger advice footprint, more services being used across the network, and a clearer pathway to keep growing recurring wealth revenues. What we do really matters to our clients' lives. This slide shows one of the most important shifts in the group. In FY 2023, wealth related earnings represented 31% of total EBITA. In FY 2026, that has increased to 44%. Post the Oracle acquisition, it increases further on a pro forma basis as announced to the market in March 2026. The Oracle acquisition further accelerates that shift to higher growth wealth revenues. It gives us a larger employed advisor network, and it strengthens our financial planning capability. The composition of the group continues to evolve with a greater contribution from wealth and advice, supported by a strong and growing accounting and services foundation.
One of the most encouraging trends we are seeing is the continued growth in our investment solutions business. Funds under management set a new record AUD 6.5 billion, including Oracle FUM, with growth coming across CARE, the Count Portfolios, the Managed Discretionary Accounts, and the Oracle Investment Solutions. Importantly, this is not being driven by a single product or proposition. It is the breadth of the offering and the freedom of choice that is resonating with advisors and their clients. CARE has continued to build great momentum across the network, while we are also seeing growing adoption of our broader investment solution suite. What gives me confidence is that we are still at an early stage of that journey. As more firms adopt our investment solutions, it creates a better experience for clients, it strengthens advisor engagement, and it grows funds under management.
We continue to see adoption upside for our investment solutions with limited penetration despite the growth delivered. It takes some time for a firm to fully embrace the entire philosophy, and when they do, it releases benefits for their clients, their business, and Count Group. I see this as a steady, long-term growth opportunity that we will continue to invest into. Before moving on, and in response to some questions, historically, it's worth spending a moment on what makes CARE different and a whole lot more compelling than generic SMAs. At its core, CARE and the associated tools provide an end-to-end advice business model and holistic client engagement tools. It's designed to keep the advisor at the center of the client relationship. It's a philosophy, not just an investment portfolio.
It's a framework that helps advisors guide clients through investment decisions and stay focused on long-term outcomes, and that's an important distinction. Generic investment solutions often focus solely or primarily on portfolio construction. CARE combines investment management with education, technology, structure, and ongoing client engagement. We think that approach aligns well with how advisors want to work and how clients want to be supported, always ensuring it is in the client's best interest. That's what makes it a differentiated offering within the market. The historic client returns, of course, that aren't guaranteed, have been strong, and the data's unequivocal. Firms that use CARE do better. Turning to Oracle, which completed on the 20th of July 2026, there's no contribution to these results. This is the most significant transaction we've completed since Diverger, and it materially increases our exposure to financial planning and wealth.
What attracted us to Oracle was not simply its size. It was an alignment with where we see the market heading. The transaction expands our employed advisor footprint and gives us greater presence in a number of markets where we previously had limited scale. Just as importantly, it gives us a platform to pursue a broader range of acquisition opportunities. Whether that's succession transactions, advisor tuck-ins, or larger advice businesses, we now have greater capacity to acquire, integrate, and support those opportunities within Count Wealth. We partner with 500 advice firms, and that is the market for us. While FY 2027 will include a strong focus on integration and investing in capabilities and people, the bigger opportunity is what this platform allows us to do in the coming years. One of the things that we're particularly pleased with is the progress we've made on integration.
A significant amount of work was done prior to completion, which has allowed us to move quickly under our ownership and minimize disruption for both clients and advisors. All key employees had signed new contracts and other major milestones, such as the Count Wealth brand launch, technology integration, operating model changes, establishing the leadership structure, and policy alignment have already been completed. The focus now shifts from integration to optimization. Over the next 12-24 months, we'll continue to invest in aligning systems, processes, simplifying operations, and starting to realize the benefits that come from greater scale. Importantly here, we are not starting from scratch. The foundations are already in place, and we're entering the next phase of stabilizing the business with a clear plan and strong engagement from the team.
We remain optimistic about the long-term outlook for advice, particularly with the federal budget proposed changes, improved regulatory dialogue, increase in client demand, and the sector focus from superannuation funds. The reality is that financial decisions are becoming more complex. Whether it's retirement planning, superannuation, self-managed super funds, business structuring, tax changes, or intergenerational wealth transfer, clients are increasingly looking for advice on how to navigate those complex decisions. At the same time, advisor numbers remain below historic norms. We're seeing growing demand for advice in a market with constrained capacity, and that represents a significant opportunity for firms that can provide high-quality advice in a scalable way. What we like about Count Group's position is that we participate across the advice value chain. Through our accounting firms, financial advisors, investment solutions and services businesses, we're well-placed to support clients as those advice needs emerge.
While individual policy settings will change over time, the broader trend is clear. Advice is becoming more valuable, not less, and we believe that provides a favorable backdrop for the group over the years ahead. The new class of advisor, as announced by the minister, will create a pipeline of future advisors for us. Our PY professional year program already has 50 participants, and we'd like to see that grow to over 100 in the next year or so. Superannuation funds getting interested in advice is good for attention on the sector. I hasten to say they know they must do it the right way, but the fastest growth will not come from more advisors. It will, and indeed is, coming from our advisors seeing more clients.
As a point of reference, in the U.K. market, which is the most relevant market comparison for advice to Australia, and where there are actually fewer advisors per head of population than Australia, 400 clients per advisor is not unusual. In response to advisor shortages, succession challenges, and increasing regulatory complexity, we're seeing a growing number of firms looking for scale, support, and succession solutions turning to us. Over the past year, we've sharpened our focus on financial planning opportunities, primarily within our existing network, but also outside and across the broader market. That's reflected in the transactions we completed during financial year 2026 and the opportunities we're seeing in the market today. What's different today is that we have more options than we've previously had.
Through our equity partnerships firms and now through Count Wealth, we've got greater capacity to support growth, undertake tuck-ins, and acquire advice businesses where there's a strong strategic and cultural fit. We also see a significant opportunity within our own ecosystem. Many firms are dealing with succession planning, advisor recruitment, and capacity challenges, and increasingly, we're able to provide solutions that help keep clients, advisors, and revenue within the broader Count Group network. The opportunity ahead is substantial. We'll continue to be selective in adding quality advisors, quality client relationships, and opportunities that strengthen the broader Count Group platform. And we're deliberate with our terms, return on investment, and accretion hurdles, deferred payments, and where appropriate, we leave behind the licensing risk and secure warranties and indemnities. Before I hand over to Keith, I wanted to touch again on our technology evolution, AI, and automation.
We've spent the last year moving beyond experimentation and focusing on practical applications across the business. That's already resulted in some new revenue opportunities through client-facing solutions, while also improving some efficiency within our own operations. We are seeing benefits in areas such as software development, compliance processes, and workflow management. Importantly, we've taken a measured approach. We're being deliberate and cautious in how we roll these tools out with appropriate governance and training in place, and an eye to the cost of these solutions. It's an area where we're already seeing positive results and further opportunity ahead. It's early days, and we know that these developments will make a meaningful difference across the business, particularly in the advice and accounting client experiences. This will help us to double the number of advised clients.
At the end of the day, our people are our product, and their relationships are the key. AI and automation will enable them to expand the number of client relationships they can effectively hold. The ratio of client-facing time to admin for our accountants and advisors is still out of proportion, and there is a lot of upside. I'd now like to introduce Keith Leung, our CFO, and hand over to him to take us through a greater level of detail around our FY 2026 financials. Keith, over to you.
Thank you, Hugh, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to welcome new and existing investors on the call today and look forward to engaging with shareholders over the coming weeks. I will take you through the financial results for FY 2026, starting with the key financial highlights before delving into individual segments. Turning to the financial results, FY 2026 was another exceptional year of growth for the group. Underlying revenue increased 18% to AUD 165.9 million, and underlying EBITA increased 20% to AUD 33.4 million compared to prior period. Underlying NPAT attributable increased 27% to AUD 13.9 million, and underlying NPATA attributable to shareholders increased 20% to AUD 17.6 million. The result reflects strong growth across the business, supported by organic growth, particularly through FUM growth and acquisitions completed over the last two years, including Count Adelaide and WSC Group becoming subsidiaries.
Financial planning revenues within equity partnership segment continued to grow as we target 50/50 financial planning revenues within the segment, noting that it currently represents around a quarter of the segment revenues. This will increase further in FY 2027 following the Oracle acquisition. Overall cost increased at a slower rate than revenue, which contributed to the improvement in profitability during the year. Finance costs were lower than FY 2025 following the capital raising completed in April and May, and we maintained strong cash flow management across the group. I'll now step through the main drivers of the result. On the next slide, we can see the key waterfall bridge between the FY 2025 underlying EBITA to the FY 2026 underlying EBITA. The first point to note is that the growth came from both organic and acquisitions.
The growth was driven by a combination of pricing, financial planning revenue growth, new clients, and continued expansion of our service offerings. We also increased our FUM by AUD 1.8 billion during the period, which has contributed to increased investment income. More pleasingly, we achieved record inflows in FY 2026. Overall, we saw good contributions from both organic growth and acquisitions during the year. Within the segments, starting with equity partnerships, revenue increased 27% to AUD 87.1 million, and EBITA increased 34% to AUD 19.3 million. We delivered nine out of the completed 10 transactions into the equity partnership segment, in addition to increasing our holdings in WSC Group. We continue to experience one-off integration costs related to acquisitions and write-offs during the period, especially in a period with significant M&A within the firms. We have assisted firms in implementing stronger integration and change management processes.
We continue our laser focus on driving higher organic growth through the financial planning revenues, which experienced 15% revenue growth in this segment. Within wealth, revenue increased 8% to AUD 45.8 million. EBITDA increased 16% to AUD 15.1 million. Growth was driven by increased FUM through the transition of Count Portfolios and strong CARE net inflows and higher advisor licensing revenues. EBITDA margin increased from 31% - 33%, and we continued our technology investments into Game of Money, our client engagement tool for advisers during the period. In services, we delivered growth with revenue increasing 8% to AUD 33 million, and EBITDA increasing 21% to AUD 11.1 million. This result benefited from the McGing acquisition, growth in outsourcing, and continued demand across our education and actuarial businesses.
Corporate costs increased during the year as we continued to invest in technology, marketing, M&A capability, and Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing compliance initiatives.
We ensured tight corporate cost management with the overall corporate costs at 7.3% of total revenues. We continue to target corporate cost as a percentage of total revenues downwards as we increase our revenue base over time. The corporate cost initiatives we made during the period ensures we continue to support ongoing growth initiatives, uplifting maturity for future periods, particularly around adoption of AI, cybersecurity risks, delivering our M&A objectives, meeting compliance requirements such as AML/CTF, modern slavery, and payment times reporting due to our increased size and scale. This slide shows how the business has developed over the last four years. As you can see, we have made tremendous progress in every operating segment, not just where we have invested, but also reflects the progress we have made in how we operate our business units in terms of capability, maturity, and operational efficiencies.
The numbers on the page reflect a combination of acquisitions, organic growth, and improved scale across the business segments. This is really strong evidence of a flywheel in action. Following the Oracle acquisition completion, we expect the overall business EBITDA margins to further improve. When you step back and look at the trend, the business today is significantly different to three years ago. Turning to cash flow, we again produced strong cash generation during the period. Net operating cash flow increased 41% to AUD 31.1 million, driven by the growth in earnings across the business and a strong continued focus on working capital management. Importantly, cash conversion remained strong, with underlying EBITDA cash conversion of 102%, broadly consistent with the prior year.
Interest costs were lower than FY 2025 due to the placement in April, and the share purchase plan completed in May 2026, while our tax payments increased in line with higher profitability. The cash flow profile of the business continues to provide flexibility to fund acquisitions, invest in growth initiatives, and support increasing dividends. Turning to the balance sheet, we finished the year in a strong position. Cash at year-end was AUD 63.9 million, and gross debt reduced to AUD 37.8 million, resulting in a net cash position of AUD 26.1 million. The balance sheet shows strong operating cash flows together with the capital raising completed in April and in May ahead of the Oracle acquisition completion. We operate with significant headroom within our debt facilities, and we have approximately AUD 35 million of undrawn headroom as at 30 June.
This increased to around AUD 52 million following the completion of the Oracle transaction in July and the refinancing through the new Commonwealth Bank of Australia debt facilities. In addition, we also established a AUD 33 million accordion facility, and that gives the business plenty of flexibility to continue to fund our disciplined M&A strategy. Overall leverage remains comfortably within our banking covenants and provides flexibility to continue pursuing acquisition opportunities as they arise. The board has declared a final dividend of AUD 0.03 per share, fully franked, bringing total FY 2026 declared dividends to AUD 0.05 per share, up from AUD 0.045 in FY 2025. This dividend falls within our dividend payout policy range of 60%-90% of maintainable earnings, and the increased dividend is a result of the strong earnings and better cash flow generation during the year.
Dividends continue to be funded from operating cash flow, and we finished the year with approximately AUD 20 million of available franking credits. The dividend reinvestment plan is once again available to shareholders and will operate at a zero discount. This represents an opportunity for shareholders to further increase their holdings, and the funds from the DRP will assist with additional cash to enable Count to enable deploying capital at accretive returns. We have a strong focus on capital discipline and optimizing returns through new and existing investments, and we are very focused on accretive initiatives where we can improve and grow our earnings. Thank you for your attention, and I will pass back to Hugh to share his views on the outlook for FY 2027.
Thank you, Keith. Can I please also acknowledge your tremendous work throughout the year to support these successes. Well done, and thank you. Before we move to questions, I did want to spend a moment on where we are focused over the coming years and the outlook for the business. Our ambition remains to build a stronger accounting advice and wealth business that delivers true value to clients and shareholders. The four pillars on this slide reflect the areas where we are directing our attention. Expanding our advice capability, strengthening our education and expertise offering, continuing to grow our investment solutions business, and building scale through our equity partnerships. Supporting that is continued investment in our people, technology and AI, and our operating model. We know that we face choppy investment markets ahead.
We'll make long-term investments into Count Wealth, and we're doing the hard work now for the payoff in the years to come. While the plan itself has evolved a little over time, the underlying objective has remained constant. Grow the business, deepen client relationships, and improve returns, and all in service of our purpose, which is simply make it count. As we look ahead, the opportunities in front of us remain significant. We see substantial upside across financial planning, investment solutions, services, and of course, our mergers and acquisitions. We know that we're well-placed to continue building on the momentum of recent years. We remain very focused on growing our financial planning capability, increasing adoption of the CARE philosophy and Count investment solutions, supporting our equity partnership firms, and continuing to expand the take-up of our services across the network.
Thank you for your attention, and I will now hand back to our Company Secretary, Doug Richardson, who will take us through the process to open up for questions and answers.
Thanks, Hugh and Keith, for your presentations, and thank you to the investors and analysts for your attention. We will now open the line for your questions. As mentioned at the start of the presentation, if you'd like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function in Teams, and I'll introduce you by name. Please ensure that you have yourself off mute before you speak, and we'll open the line to you from this end. If instead you'd prefer to post a question, please use the chat function in Teams. We'll read out the written questions after we've worked through the raised hands. Would anyone like to ask a question? I've noticed there's a few hands up. We might go with you first, Ollie, because I've noticed you've had your hand up the longest. So we'll take it to you. So we'll take you off mute.
Hi, guys. How are you doing? Congrats on
Thanks
The strongest result I think I've covered on you, which I think is the 10th now. Obviously pre-date your time, Hugh. Maybe just on the M&A pipeline for Keith. Have you seen any change in the multiples there? How has the capability that you've built on M&A allow you to execute those deals better with more or less risk? Of the AUD 52 million, how much do you think you'd be willing to actually let go without the board starting to stress about leverage levels?
Thanks, Ollie. The M&A pipeline continues to be very strong. We do get a lot of inbounds, and that's constantly increasing at the moment. I think where we're seeing the multiples is, it is quite a heated space. We do see a slight nudging of the multiples in some areas. But really, it is in the Ts and Cs where I think that's still a big matter or differential, particularly to the vendors and how they think about the overall transaction. It depends on the model itself. So where vendors are staying or they're looking for 100% divestment, that's a very different outcome in those scenarios.
But we do see that being played out a lot more in the Ts and Cs in terms of deferreds and earn-outs, and I think that is a very important distinction to call out where our model very differs to some of the other private equity players that are looking for a type of 100% type acquisition. I think in terms of the headroom, that always is subject to how accretive transactions are. But we've got significant headroom in our debt covenants. As we stand today, the new CBA facilities provide us a lot of comfort around that. So we'll continue to be able to execute on that. For at least the foreseeable future at this stage, obviously, a bit different for large transformational type acquisitions, but our BAU acquisitions is we can continue to maintain that run rate going forward.
Might add a couple of comments as well, Keith, just on that, just to draw out a comment you made around, certainly, Ollie, while we are seeing a lot of interest in the market, both in advice and accounting, and a lot of that being foreign capital. What we're also finding is that our proposition has a lot more strength than just the headline offer. Increasingly, with more players in the market, I think advisers and accountants are wising up to comparing the propositions, and they generally are looking for more than just an injection of capital. So where foreign capital might take out 100%, or a minority investment, but not come to the table with other support and services and a future pipeline of M&A and other things, it's less attractive than what we offer to the market.
The second thing I'd just say is, in addition to building an M&A pipeline, Keith and I have been very focused on building out a very strong integration capability, and we now have two program managers within the business that ensure that when we bring these businesses in, we land them really nicely. Obviously, the quicker that we can integrate and get them up to speed, the better we can drive the returns.
Yeah. No, that's perfect.
Any further questions, Ollie?
Yeah. Just in terms of the technology capability, you seem to have invested reasonably heavily on that. How do you see the payback on that? Are you charging the underlying firms that you don't necessarily have equity interest in for that? And what are the capabilities specifically that you funded? And I suppose what's the outlook into 2027 for any tech build there?
Yeah. Thanks, Ollie. I will start with that, then I will invite a couple of comments from Keith, who has oversight of our equity partnership segment as well. I think we think about technology in three ways. Firstly, for our financial advice partners in the licensees, we have a team of technology experts that will do reviews of emerging capabilities, help with workflows, provide consulting services into firms to help them to improve the way they do, to negotiate agreements, et cetera. That advice technology team plays a big role, and our firms pay through their licensing fees for that. The second area is the technology initiatives that we run across our equity partnership segment, and that is obviously where we might take a more active involvement in helping to develop and to deliver solutions there.
As an equity owner in the firm, and then, at an extreme, if you take Count Wealth, clearly that has a big and significant payback for us. The third is our corporate tech, and really what we have called out in this pack is if you go back three or four years ago, Ollie, we had one kind of IT manager in the business. Today, we do have a small but well-formed team of technologists who are looking at those different segments and creating opportunities to improve how we do business. More specifically, the projects that we are working on, and I hasten to add, we are very cautious with our technology budget, so we are not anticipating some sort of big or material change in the proportion of spend.
However, it is becoming increasingly important, and so we are developing AI capabilities to sit on top of our Knowledge Shop helpdesk. We are looking at programs of work. We have a technology program to build out the CARE philosophy, Game of Money, and Pathway to Wealth to continue to enhance those tools for advisers and clients. Those initiatives are obviously critical in terms of driving growth in the business.
Yeah, look, I think just to add to Hugh's, and really his response was quite extensive, I think.
Oh, thanks, Keith .
The equity firms definitely is still ripe for that kind of disruption. I think you look back at a lot of the businesses, particularly in that small to medium enterprise, cannot afford to have AI technologists to help them drive efficient processes. So there is still a lot of upside in driving that, and that will come through to us not just in dividends, but also the model itself and the value proposition that we will have to other equity firms as well.
Yeah.
Thanks, Ollie. I might give an opportunity for Andrew to ask a question then, followed by Nick. Go ahead, Andrew.
Thanks. Morning, team. Let me just start on equity partnerships, just in terms of, I guess in the medium term, we have got an expectation that the margin will lift slowly as financial planning becomes a bigger part of that business. But in the nearer term, do you think there is any upside to that margin as a function within accounting that as you get the review of taxation and more people come in, where accountants previously had sort of lower utilization at different parts of the year, that gets bumped up by that extra activity that is going on?
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew, and good morning. We have seen, as you look across the equity partnership, some steady improvements in margin over time. I think our view would be on the accounting side, that that sort of gentle trajectory would continue. As you point out, probably the most significant lever there is the introduction of those accounting clients into the wealth side of the business, and we know that we're nowhere near where we anticipate to be in the future. That we see, as you rightly point out, as the margin growth. I think in the accounting side, we are and will see some modest improvements in the processes that'll allow for some efficiencies. I don't think that we've forecasted sort of a dramatic change in that space.
Again, importantly, a lot of those conversations, again, as you rightly point out, are quite complex discussions around family offices and small businesses and complex tax matters that aren't just transactional. They do require sort of strategic work and so forth. But the more time we can free up from our accountants, the more time they can put in front of their clients. The other thing I would say is that I think over the last sort of four or five years, we've also done a good job of really smoothing out the annual workload of accountants, because a lot of that work doesn't need to wait until the 30th of June. It can be done throughout the year. So we have a pretty tight resourcing model. Keith, did you want to touch on anything there?
Yeah, I think definitely, to add to Hugh's point is we continue to be focused, obviously, in driving that better margin. But offsetting that is the number of M&A opportunities that the firms are also ingesting. So it's a balance between that.
revenue growth and earnings growth and the margin. As you ingest in acquisition that first 12 - 18 months, there is some one-off costs that we saw in the last financial year that did hit that segment, and a bit more moderated this year, obviously. But that's the balance you have between a really healthy business that purely focuses on organic and the balance between having to have that business distracted with some of those integration activities. So we are balancing that out, and the balance between revenue and the margin itself.
Thank you. Could I just turn your attention to the services division. It was a nice margin improvement there. I noticed that you've identified some of the operating efficiency come as a function of AI tools. I'm just after a description of where you think that process is up to. As in, does that have more to run with respect to improving the back-end efficiency of that division leading into margin?
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. Specifically in our actuarial consulting business, we build a lot of models to help businesses solve complex calculations and the revenues that we're generating there and the cost efficiencies come from the ability to use AI to build and test those models and reduce the turnaround time for that. So we see that clearly enabling some of the revenue growth from the actuarial consulting business. Where it's earlier days is the potential to, I think, create those operational efficiencies and as we're starting to see AI and automation take effect in our outsourcing services and as I alluded to, in businesses like Knowledge Shop where we have a huge amount of complex information that we can serve up to answer specific client needs that as asked by accountants to us, then we see some efficiencies over time.
We think that'd be probably be a combination of really allowing us to generate more revenue from the cost base that we have, as opposed to necessarily seeing a reduction in the cost base, particularly once you include the cost of some of these technology solutions. But certainly, we think it's still at a very early stage, and the figures that we've shared today are relatively modest. The other point to make in another part of the business, not services, but in advice, and I think I've made this point before. As we transition from reviewing some advice documents after they've been implemented for the client to a state where we review all advice documents before they're delivered to the client, there's a transformational change in terms of the client experience, the advisor experience, and the precision. It removes the rework.
It gives us a much greater degree of confidence around the risk profiles, et cetera. So there are some fairly dramatic improvements that we are anticipating. That might not just be cost, they might be revenue, but they might also be associated to the risk profile of the business as well.
That is great. Thank you. I will get back in the queue.
Thanks, Andrew.
Welcome to the call, Nick. Go ahead with your question.
Great, thanks for that. Can you talk through the kind of conversations that advisers and accountants are having now around the budget, the proposed tax changes in the budget? Is there any action happening now, or is it really waiting for legislation to then undertake some restructuring?
Yeah, look, I think great question, Nick, and it is probably a combination of all of the above. As always, yeah, it depends on the individual client's circumstances and their objectives. What I would say is there are an awful lot of conversations happening. It is not just a sort of a one-off. These proposed changes and subject to all of them being implemented and in what shape and form, not all of that is clear as yet. There is going to be multi-year implications, potentially sort of intergenerational implications from some of the changes proposed through the federal budget. So it has driven a lot of inbound and outbound activity from our accountants and our financial advisers. Lots of questions about restructuring, obviously, with things like the changes to the non-recourse loans within self-managed super funds.
That was a time-based thing, so plenty of activity around that space through the month of August. In other areas, there is a bit of wait and see until there is the confidence of exactly what those changes look like so people are not jumping the gun too soon.
Is it potentially more of a benefit to back end of FY 2027, maybe into 2028 in terms of actually fee events?
I think what we think it does, Nick, is it just really emphasizes the importance of having great accountants and having a financial adviser. I am sure you would feel the same, everyone you talk to, there is a lot of confusion, misinformation out there around what these budget changes actually mean and then what might come next. Seeking assistance, seeking help, certainly we are seeing elevated demand and we expect to see that continue out for some time. Obviously, we have still constrained capacity, both in terms of accounting and financial advice, so more demand than we can meet. The other, I think, significant and big system change that this budget has enacted is a real sharp focus on the value of superannuation and investments, particularly to younger generations who are now perversely locked out from property ownership and other asset classes becoming less attractive.
The tax benefits of paying circa the 15% on your super contributions and circa 15% on the earnings within that environment are very, very attractive for people. We think that super moves into a new phase of attractiveness across generations that perhaps in the past have been less focused on that.
Well, maybe just a question on Oracle. You obviously provided an update on the contribution or the earnings of that business in 2026. How should we think about the momentum of that business into 2027? Should it be above the circa AUD 9.1 million contribution that they booked in profit for 2026?
As you know, we don't provide guidance, but I'll get Keith to share a couple of thoughts in a moment, Nick. I think, just to recap, obviously, when we announced the transaction towards the beginning of the year, we were very fixed on the earnings multiple, and that was the basis of the negotiation of that. As you know, we used an early forecast to do that. We've structured into the agreement a mechanism to ensure that we would do the wash up on the full year results to adjust the actual price paid to reflect that. There are a range of adjustments that we've talked about in there. We're pleased with that outcome. Indeed, the structure of the acquisition had deferrals, as I mentioned at the start of the call, shares, restraints, and other mitigants to reduce the risk of that.
Very comfortable with the economics of the transaction. To your point, therefore, the EBITA contribution, the baseline, now we know exactly what it was rather than what it was expected to be, and that would go into the model. Did you want to talk, Keith, a little?
Yeah, look, I think it gives a good guide point. As always, the first year of integration, there's new SOAs to be written, partly because they're changing from a license. They were self licensed, and they're coming into the Count Financial license. There is, from an adviser perspective, if I look at what they currently do, they will have to write more
More work
More work SOAs instead of ROAs for maybe a good portion of their clients. That will have some implications, obviously, for the financial year. But, I think the 9.1 is a good guide point to the future.
Just to put a bit of color on that, Nick, if you think about an adviser's workload in any given year, it might be a third of the advice they give is an SOA, statement of advice, and two thirds might be ROAs or reviews of advice. This year for Count Wealth, 100% of those will be SOAs, as each client, their advice is rewritten onto the Count Financial AFSL and our policies and standards. There is some heavy lifting to do, and ultimately, I guess that will soak up potentially a little bit of the capacity that might've been put into seeing more new clients. That'd be the view for this year.
Thanks, Nick. I might go back to Ollie.
I am just. Yep. Go ahead, Nick.
I am just going to ask a follow-up on the FUM. You have put the Oracle fund is included in that number, but obviously no earnings on the wealth management side from that, right, in the FY 2026?
Yeah, spot on. Just because of the timing that that completion was in July and just how we get that data from the platforms, it is all included. But yeah, certainly from an earnings perspective, that AUD 740 million FUM was not included.
Thanks, Nick. I will go back to Ollie. Ollie, you got another question for the team?
Yeah, just on the CARE product, because it is obviously the higher margin product that has a bigger bearing on revenue and earnings in the wealth segment. Really good momentum that you continued to see through the year. Maybe just commentary on the earlier stage pipeline. I think you have 101 using it. Are you continuing to see really good conversations earlier than that? Then, I guess just on the Oracle Investment Management funds management capability that you have just rebranded, have you made any determination as to what you are going to be doing there? Because I am aware that at the moment it is all directly managed and you may have a different view of the future strategy on that FUM on a go forward basis.
Yeah, thanks, Ollie.
I will make a couple of comments and I will invite Keith to contribute as well. So if you think about the 101 firms that are now using CARE, probably, Keith, maybe about a third of those would be very active and have really embedded the proposition through their business and out to their clients. About two thirds of those would be in the earlier stage of adoption. Again, just as a bit of a reminder, because of its point of difference to just a generic SMA, it is not about just putting all of the client's investments into an SMA, it is about really understanding how technology, processes, operating model, client experience, communications, and the investment solutions work together to create a more efficient firm. So we go through a process of introducing businesses to the full suite, including, and primarily, a range of external solutions as well.
The CARE proposition stands alone as a business model. Because it is a business model, it takes more time and effort to implement. But then, of course, the payback, as you point out, is a lot more interesting, both for the client, the adviser, and for us. So we are really focused on that. I would just say we are still at a very early stage. A lot of the contribution to the growth in CARE has come from the CARE firms, the core CARE firms. We still see a lot of upside. We do see some upside as we introduce CARE into Count Wealth as well to sit alongside the Oracle Portfolios, which not all of the clients in that business were embedded in those portfolios. On the Oracle Portfolios, you are right, different philosophies, and the plan was to bring those together. So we have.
We've merged the investment teams into a single unit, which has worked really well, and those investment committees and the policies and everything's now been aligned. That function is now working through the right timing to apply changes to the way that we manage those portfolios to align them to our philosophy of how we run investments. But that will take some time and we'll make those decisions at the right moments.
Okay. No, perfect. Thanks. Appreciate it.
Thanks, Ollie. I'll now go back to Andrew. If you have some further questions, Andrew.
Thank you. Hugh, just extending that idea around CARE, I think you mentioned during the presentation that it's a productivity element beyond just an investment option for the adviser. Do you have any metrics that you're showcasing when you're talking to new advisers about potentially using the product, and how many more clients someone can take on, and what their individual P&L starts to look like versus not using that as an efficiency option?
Yeah, absolutely.
What we do, Andrew, is we often encourage our advice businesses to learn from each other. So, it is peer learning, it is the advisors talking about how they leverage the solution and the benefits that they see, and some of that you will start to see in this investment presentation, the investor results. On slide 11, we talk about a couple of metrics, which is that the average practice revenue growth for firms that use CARE is up about 20.5%. If you look at firms that do not use CARE, this is within our network, it is 16. And the average gross business earnings, the growth per advisor across the group was about AUD 66,000, and across the firms using CARE was almost AUD 100,000. So you start to see some of those come through in terms of advisor productivity, revenue growth, and the margins of the businesses.
As we develop a broader footprint, we will continue to demonstrate those results. But interestingly, what we find is that it really it sells itself, and that advisors that use the CARE philosophy are the biggest advocates for it out in the network.
Thank you. Keith, just a question on the corporate costs. I know you mentioned they have sort of tracked as a percentage of sales. So in thinking about them, do you think going forward they have a linear relationship, as in think about something in the low to mid sevens as a percentage of sales for corporate growth as you grow the platform? Or is it more a sawtooth relationship where it increases in a year that allows you to grow the business for a couple of years, and then it has another step change up in a couple of years' time?
Yeah, look, I think that is one of our big focuses when we go through our budgeting and forecasting process. We do target that coming downwards. I think this year also, it is also a reflection of a very good business outcome and increased scorecard across the business as well. So there is some of that hitting corporate costs. But there is also we are not going to always continue that kind of investment in people. So there is some sort of that element playing out in the corporate cost. But generally, look, we will monitor that. That will trend downwards. We are not looking to maintain it at where it is. It is anticipated to come down over time.
That's great. Thank you.
Thanks, Andrew. I'll go back to Nick. Nick, do you have some follow-up questions?
No, I'm all good for now, thanks.
Okay, great. Ollie, got any further questions there? No further questions from you, Ollie?
No, I am actually all right. Sorry, I should have
Excellent. Great.
put them down my notes.
There is one question in the chat, I will just read it out for the team. It is from Dean Holmes. "Given ASIC's active surveillance into the SMAs sector, specifically targeting conflicted REM, vertical integration in the use of related party products, could you speak to the current view of the board regarding the use of CARE SMA portfolios?
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Dean. I think we've probably largely answered this through the course of the conversation today around what CARE is, and how it differentiates from just generic investment solutions. Certainly from our perspective, when it comes to ASIC, we engage on a regular basis. We have engaged with ASIC around SMAs, and MDAs, and investment solutions more broadly, and shared our thoughts and views. They are very clear on the proposition that we take to market. What we take to market with CARE philosophy is a philosophy of running a business, and that is, as I mentioned earlier, one of our largest technology investments this financial year will be into the Game of Money, Pathway to Wealth, and CARE philosophy space. That is appropriate as we continue to add value there.
We monitor the relevance of and appropriateness of the fees that the clients are paying. We monitor, obviously, the performance that those portfolios deliver. We also monitor how well the philosophy is adding value to the advisers and the firms and creating those efficiencies, too. At the end of the day, we know how strong the proposition is, and we see it as our responsibility to help more clients get access to quality advice and solutions like the CARE philosophy. I hasten to add, when you look at those metrics, it is only a small fraction of the total FUA that the business supports, and we support a wide range of solutions. It is important as well, and the board would be on the same page as management. We do not build platforms, and we do not build investment products.
But we do create a solution around investments where we do monetize the expertise and the significant team that we have of now about seven or eight people, maybe more perhaps, with the Count Wealth team in there, eight or nine specialist resources who are constructing portfolios and solutions, and technology and processes, and experienced client events and communications to really support those client outcomes and the firms to deliver them.
Thanks, Hugh. I will see, Nick, you have still got a hand up. Do you have any further questions? If not, I will close down the question sector.
No, that's an inadvertent hand. Thanks again.
No problem, sorry. Thanks for joining us. All right. Thank you all for your questions. I'll now hand back to Hugh for the closing comments.
Thank you. Thank you, Doug, and thank you everyone for joining us today, and obviously to Ollie and to Nick, from Barrenjoey, welcome, and to Andrew, we appreciate your series of questions. Dean, thank you for yours as well. Thanks for your continued support of Count Group and of the board and the leadership team in particular. We were really pleased to deliver yet another strong set of results for our investors, and we get even more excited about the long-term growth prospects as we continue to invest in our new Count Wealth advice channel and across the business. As a proud 46-year young Australian-made, Australian-owned business, we'll remain focused on disciplined execution as we continue to deliver long-term shareholder value. I really appreciate your engagement today and the number of insightful questions asked. That concludes today's investor briefing. Good afternoon, everyone.