I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andrew Alcock, Managing Director. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome everyone to the HUB24 FY 2026 full-year results announcement. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we meet today. Our office here in Sydney is on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples with us today. It's a pleasure to be here today talking to you about our results. With me, of course, is Kitrina Shanahan, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll be covering some highlights of an operating view of our business, talking about our financial results in a bit more detail, covering strategy and outlook, and then opening up for some questions.
As always, we remain focused on our customers to support them achieve their financial goals, through our purpose of empowering better financial futures together, which we take very, very seriously in our business. We do that to make sure that we deliver a range of investment and superannuation retirement solutions that support their goals and create great outcomes for customers, create offering choice and flexibility. Very topical today, very topical this week in the context of superannuation reform potentially coming out from Dr. Mulino tomorrow. But certainly, wanting to make sure there's choice and flexibility that creates great engagement and outcomes for members and investors, whilst at the same time increasing that engagement through innovating technology and leveraging that technology to improve customer experience. Today, we service or look after about 600,000 customer accounts across the HUB24 business.
It's quite a large number, and we take that very seriously. We're very, very focused on building a sustainable business that drives outcomes for customers and shareholders. Turning to our FY 2026 results, highlights and operating review. We had strong profits for the year. Uplifts in both revenue and earnings. On the revenue side, our group revenue is up at just over AUD 500 million, up 23%. The platform at AUD 406.7 million, up 26%. Tech Solutions also up 9% at AUD 84 million. Translating into underlying EBITDA with a total group result of AUD 211.4, which is also up 30% on PCP. Platform up 31% at AUD 186.7. Tech Solutions up, growth of 8% to AUD 29.3 million .
That's resulting in a stat NPAT of AUD 120 million, up 51%. A strong underlying NPAT up 40% at AUD 137.3. A fully franked final dividend of AUD 0.42 per share, which is 31% up on last year. And underlying EPS diluted of AUD 1.667 per share. Very, very strong results, very, very consistent results along with our track record. In terms of how we finished FY 2026 with funds under administration, the total FUA of AUD 164.3. Platform at AUD 139.5, as previously reported. It was AUD 144.1 as at August 13th last week. Our PARS were at AUD 24.8 billion.
I'm sure we'll unpack some of those statistics and figures a bit later on in the presentation. Putting the FY 2026 results into context of our long-term performance trend, you can see on the left-hand side of the slide there that we have a full-year CAGR of 27% group revenue increase and underlying EBITDA full-year CAGR of 32%, which demonstrates increasing margins. So long-term consistent growth trends there are both revenue and EBITDA, and with an indicator of revenue, the key indicator being FUA seeing the CAGR of funds under administration also at 26% over a full-year period. In summary, we continue to deliver strong, consistent growth in terms of revenue, lead indicators, and profitability. We certainly aim to continue doing that moving forward.
Summarizing our achievements and highlights for FY 2026, c ertainly from a leadership and growth perspective, we've been focused on our strategy to lead today with record net inflows of AUD 18.9 billion, if you exclude the large migrations or one-off migrations from last year. Annual offers are gaining strong market traction. We'll talk about that a bit later in the presentation. Our largest annual increase in Class accounts since 2018. NowInfinity growing at twice or more than twice the system growth. At the same time as delivering those leading results, we've been executing our strategy, having commenced development of the evolution of our ecosystem, now known as myhub, a wealth tech solution that's integrating leading advice technology with our group capabilities, licensee capabilities, and other capabilities in the market. Engage is also still racing along with our 7,200 advice practice users.
We've enhanced our proposition for all life stages of customers, including the launch of innovative retirement solutions. We'll talk about that a bit later in the pack as well. Class and NowInfinity are delivering on a multi-year enhancement program. We've also continued to lay foundations for the future. We've aligned our organization to drive execution and strategy with Jason Hair starting with us last week, as our head of our Chief Innovation and Operating Officer. We've brought together key people in our business into an enterprise solutions team focused on building the enterprise solutions that service both our tech solutions and platform business like Engage, like myhub, like HUBconnect licensee, and our data products, bringing that together to build that for the future. We are certainly continuing to leverage off innovative technologies with AI helping us with customer value proposition offers.
We will talk a bit about some things that are coming up shortly and also underpinning operating efficiency in the business. It has been a year to be active, actively advocating on behalf of our customers and our industry for positive change, with a strong focus on risk and governance. There are some announcements tomorrow in Canberra with Dr. Mulino resulting from the Shield and First Guardian piece and all the consultation papers the government and treasury is doing with our industry. We will certainly be strongly advocating for that for great retirement settings and good settings for consumers and members. We are making great progress on bringing the HUB24 super fund trustee in-house, which we hope to have completed by the end of this calendar year. A lot of mix there in terms of what we are doing with our products, our strategy, laying foundations for the future.
As a result, though, once again, we have grown our market share ahead of the market. HUB24 as a platform is now ranked number six, up from position seven last year with 9.9%, just shy of 10% market share. As a participant, we have increased our market share by more than any other participant at 1.3% over the last 12 months. We have had the number one net inflows for 10 consecutive quarters against our industry. Interestingly, the industry itself is growing with AUD 45 billion of new net flows over the last available data at the 12-month period with our PCP of AUD 36 billion. So we are growing strongly. We are increasing our market share. We are gaining market share faster than our competitors in an industry that is also growing.
You overlay that with the trends and the amount of people looking to retire, and the success of Australia's superannuation system, it all bodes well for a very strong growth profile for the business moving forward. Looking through that on an advisor lens, there are now 37% of advisors in Australia using HUB24. On the left-hand side of the slide, you can see that increase from 21% in June 2022 to 37% in June 2026. Continual ongoing growth, with a full-year CAGR of 13%. Our market share having doubled from 5.1% in 2022 to 9.9%, almost doubling it at 9.9% over the last four years as well. Staying with deeper look at the advisor scenario in the business, our business has significant growth opportunity from both existing and new advisors.
Once again, you can see the mix there of reliable recurring revenue driven from flows from existing licensees and advisor relationships at about 83%, a slight uptick. I think that represents the increasing share of book or share of customers that advisors are choosing to put on HUB24. Also seeing success in us getting 14% of our new flows from new advisors that belong to existing relationships we have in the market, and 3% from new licensee relationships all together. A strong lead indicator for our future growth, there were 552 new advisors actively using HUB24 in FY 2026, taking us up to 5,649. That all bodes well for ongoing flows from existing, but also new flows from new advisors. A great lead indicator moving ahead. Our share of funds under administration per advisor was up to AUD 25 million, up from AUD 14 million in FY 2022.
We certainly hope to continue that trend of winning share from advisors. Having said that, the transition typically takes six years for new advisor relationships to move the bulk or the portion of their books they are moving to HUB24 over. The industry average for an advisor is AUD 83 million. We have got an average of AUD 25 million. A long runway there for existing advice, particularly when you consider the accolades and our position in the marketplace, and plenty of growth to pick up new advisor relationships as we have done in FY 2026 as well. We are continuing to support existing and new advisors through our strategy and our execution. Very pleased to be able to once again summarize our recognition from customers and industry researchers, with the next slide from the Investment Trends Competitive Analysis and Benchmarking Report.
Our number one platform overall for four years running, and you can see the other accolades there. Best product offering, decision support tools, reporting, and online business management. In Investment Trends Advisor Technology Needs Report, number one NPS, number one for actual advocacy, and a host of awards there as well. In the Investment Trends Managed Accounts Report, number one for overall satisfaction. Turning to Advisor Ratings, also number one in terms of NPS, and we ranked first in nine platform categories, with Advisor Ratings. For Wealth Insights, also number one for NPS for all platform users with a range of number ones there as well. A great result for us that we worked very hard at and we hope to continue to do in the future. Taking a look at our tech solutions businesses, with Class having a stable market share of about 30.5% and growing.
Having the highest growth, largest annual increase in accounts since FY 2018. Interestingly, we believe superannuation is more and more attractive moving ahead with the economic policy settings the government announced recently in terms of a great vehicle for people to grow their wealth for their future. NowInfinity, having a market share of 25.2% on the corporate messenger side and growing at 2.1 x system growth. Great results there from Class and NowInfinity, but also both were recognized as industry leading solutions with Class ranked number one in innovation and brand awareness, in the Investment Trends 2026 SMSF report. NowInfinity also ranked number one for the most used legal document provider and number two for brand awareness. Examples of all of our business living today, that strategic pillar, and we are very proud to be able to talk to you about that.
We would like to acknowledge our amazing and focused team, and I say that very clearly. Our team is very focused on customer outcomes, and you see that in the awards and the recognition from our customers. We believe in our purpose, and we act accordingly. Certainly, we are investing in our people in terms of leadership and talent. We are investing in career growth across all levels of business and empowering female leaders for long-term success. We also have award-winning graduate and early careers programs that strengthen our future talent pipeline. We are a very values-led culture and organization driving strong performance with 80% employment engagement, ranking HUB24 in the top quartile of employee engagement. We have a diverse workforce and flexible, collaborative, inclusive workplace that aims to attract and retain talent.
Of course, we're building a future-ready workforce, strengthening our executive team with recent appointments, using AI and technology to drive productivity and growth, and innovating for the future with our innovation incubator or innovation lab, building talent and capability. If you turn to our ESG focus, our focus is clearly on building a robust and sustainable business, as seen through our results, and it's echoed in our sustainability priorities. On the right-hand side there, you can see our focus areas, and there's more details in our published reports about our ESG areas. On the left-hand side, some progress, clearly delivering for our customers, market leading NPS, high employee engagement. We've made significant progress towards our 2030 net zero goals for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and we've adopted the AASB S2: Climate-related Disclosures .
Maintaining a whole lot of gender diversity targets across the business, and continued commitment to United Nations global compact. The role we play is very important for our community, and we're very focused on that. We are committed in HUB24 to robust governance and advocating for a stronger retirement system. Superannuation in our country is 34 years old. Trust is very, very important to play the role we play to help Australians take choice and ownership and engagement for their future. There's an expectation of strong governance. We're certainly committed to that. We have a continued focus on robust governance and consumer protection. We've been actively collaborating with the Financial Services Council, in fact, to build standards that the industry can adopt. We're working to move the HUB24 trustee inside the business and certainly working with the trustee ensure that governance practices align with customer regulator expectations moving ahead.
We've been championing for choice, actively championing for choice for people to take control of their money and their superannuation, their retirement savings, to have the flexibility and the right choice they need. Advocating for greater access to quality financial advice and playing our role very seriously in the Australian financial services community. We don't want people left behind. We don't want us to be looking behind. We want to be looking forward and ahead and shaping great outcomes for our industry and better outcomes for Australians. I'd now like to hand over to Kitrina Shanahan to give you an update on our financial results.
Good. Thank you, Andrew. Moving to the financial slide, we have the group snapshot with the group revenue of just over AUD 500 million, AUD 501.1 million, an underlying EBITDA of AUD 211.4 million. Platform segment contributes the majority, with AUD 406.9 million revenue and AUD 186.7 million underlying EBITDA, and 5,649 advisors actively using the platform as at June 30th. Tech solutions, which comprises the Class business, NowInfinity and HUBconnect businesses, delivered AUD 84 million of revenue and AUD 29.3 million of underlying EBITDA across over 6,800 financial professionals.
Moving to the next slide, we have the group results reflecting strong operating leverage with revenue growing 23% to AUD 501.1 million and operating expenses growing 19% to AUD 289.7 million. The strong positive jaws delivering 30% growth in underlying EBITDA to AUD 211.4 million, an underlying EBITDA margin expansion of 2.3% to 42.2% for the group for the year. EBITDA, including share-based payments, grew 33% to AUD 198 million, underlying net profit after tax up 40% to AUD 137.3 million, and statutory net profit after tax up 51% to AUD 120.2 million.
Turning to the platform segment. Platform custody FUA grew 24% to AUD 139.5 billion, with total FUA, including the PARSS non-custody up 20% to AUD 164.3 billion. Platform net inflows were AUD 18.9 billion in FY 2026, with no large migrations during the year. On a headline basis, that is 4% down on last year. However, when you exclude the AUD 4 billion of large migrations in FY 2025, underlying net flows are up 20% year-on-year. Positive markets also contributed AUD 7.9 billion during the year for the custody FUA. In the platform total segment, the revenue grew 26% to AUD 406.9 million. Expenses were up 31% to AUD 186.7 million, lifting the underlying EBITDA to 31% to AUD 186.7 million, and expanding margins growing to 45.9%, up 1.7% on FY 2025.
Continuing on with the platform segment. This slide shows the tight relationship between the FUA and the revenue growth. Platform revenue is up 26% to close to AUD 407 million, which is tracking FUA growth closely over the five-year period, which you can see in the graph on the right-hand side. The bottom graph on the right-hand side, custody revenue margin declined one basis point over the year, driven by a reduction in admin fees from fee tiers and caps as account balances grow. In the second half, there was a reversal of the benefit from the first half where the seasonally higher cash balances. Platform underlying EBITDA grew 31% to AUD 186.7 million, a four-year CAGR of 32%.
Growth came from higher FUA and associated revenue, partly offset by continued investment in people and resources to support growth and our strategic objectives. Margin expanded 1.7% to 45.9%, demonstrating the scale benefits in the model while we continuing to invest in the strategy and future opportunities that we can see. Moving to Tech Solutions. Tech Solutions delivered underlying EBITDA growth of 8% to AUD 29.3 million, with revenue up 9% to AUD 84 million, which included price increases and volume growth. As Andrew said, the Class count had the best year in the last four to five years. Class counts are up 5% to just under 227,000. Operating expenses are up 10% year-on-year, with a full-year inclusion of share registry fee costs. We also started a multi-year program of enhancements to the NowInfinity software. That left underlying EBITDA margin slightly lower at 34.9%.
Moving to group expenses and margins. Total expenses, excluding acquisition amortisation, increased 18%, with the biggest drivers being employment-related costs with employee numbers up 14%. We had just over 1,000 employees with 1,096 employees at June 30th. Administration costs are also up year-on-year. You can see that in the graph on the right-hand side, up AUD 14 million year-on-year. This represents the growth in our suppliers, which also includes external technology suppliers. Moving to profitability. Profitability grew strongly, with underlying NPAT up 40% and statutory NPAT up 51% to AUD 120 million. The effective tax rate for the year was 17%, which is down from 20% in FY 2025. This reflects the timing impacts of purchases and utilisation of treasury shares for the service of the employee share plan, and also includes R&D benefits for the group.
M oving along, we have the balance sheet and cash position, which both remain very strong. Operating cash flows for the year were AUD 197.5 million, with a 93% correlation to underlying EBITDA and a four-year CAGR of 34% for group operating cash flows. Some of the uses of cash in the year, as I mentioned on the previous slide, AUD 56 million of treasury share purchases to service the employee share scheme. There was a AUD 75 million drawdown in the year for the super fund operational risk financial requirement, the ORFR capital for the super fund. That's a total loan of AUD 78 million at June 30th.
And we've also included in this slide a quick note at the bottom, that when we in-source the trustee, which is expected, as Andrew mentioned, later this calendar year, it's nominal consideration, and we're not expecting material movements to the underlying EBITDA for the group for that transition. O n the last financial slide, we have the fully franked dividends. So we have the AUD 0.42 per share dividend up 31% year-on-year. That takes the total dividend for full-year 2026 to AUD 0.78, up 39% year-on-year. And we have a dividend full-year CAGR of 41% and a total shareholder return full-year CAGR of 39% for the year. With that, I'll hand back to Andrew for the strategy and the outlook.
Thanks, Kitrina. Our strategy remains consistent, to build on our success to date, and it's captured on this slide here. We certainly tend to deliver shareholder value through leading today. That's the left-hand side of the slide. With a strong growth outlook in our existing established businesses, the HUB24 platform, well-positioned to increase its market share from the current 10% and to continue to benefit from industry transformation. At Class and NowInfinity, accelerating growth, supported by structurally growing markets with an ongoing investment in those businesses as well. But taking the opportunity to create additional customer and shareholder value as our industry continues to transform, and there's some trends and environment that certainly much plays to this, which we'll talk about on the next slide, with increasing demand and the need for technology to solve industry problems.
So creating additional shareholder value through our technology strategy, talking about myhub, which is bringing our ecosystem together, and HUB24 investing in solutions that continue to lead and continue to transform the industry. Leveraging our capabilities as a group to build outcomes that provide great outcomes to financial advisors and their clients, enhancing the client experience. Leveraging our unique data capability, which we'll talk about in a few slides as well, to provide secure and integrated access to high-quality data to get better outcomes for advisors and their customers. And strengthening our advocacy and leveraging the group footprint to deliver more products for more customers through the building of that technology. Supporting growth of the platform, Class and NowInfinity and our tech solutions and our technology businesses together. Transforming and working together to create today, sorry, to lead today and also create future value for tomorrow.
We believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on structurally growing markets and industry transformation. There is a strong set of tailwinds in our industry and strong growth we expect to be driven by those tailwinds. Superannuation system is growing. That will be reinforced, we believe, by the proposed tax changes, which are making superannuation an attractive vehicle for growing wealth compared to property and other asset classes. There is a demand for retirement solutions as superannuation retirees are retiring with more in their nest egg than they thought, and more and more each year. It is now 34 years old. So every year, there are additional Australians retiring with additional funds than previously thought, and there is demand for advice and solutions to support that growth so that people can take control of their retirement outcomes. Intergenerational wealth transfer and the demand for advice continue to increase.
Strong tailwinds for our industry for growth. The industry dynamics themselves are also favorable. There is an ongoing shift towards leading providers offering a better client experience and outcomes. We see ourselves as one of those leading providers. There is the emergence of large-scale advice networks leveraging technology and scale. The complexity issue is still there in our industry, and we seek to solve that in terms of solving compliance issues and data issues to drive productivity for advice firms. Emerging technologies and new global capabilities such as AI are creating opportunities for enhanced efficiency. There is a demand for safe, reliable, and trusted solutions, and we certainly are investing in our industry to do that and continue to be an industry leader. There is significant market share opportunity with the platform consolidation of 80% of industry net flows captured by two platforms over the last year.
HUB24 capturing 45% of those. 42% of advisors are now using a single platform for new account openings over the last 12 months, with a further 38% using two platforms. That is really interesting when you think about the utility and the range of products and services that we offer through our platform, which we will also cover in the next couple of slides as well. It means we can cover more client use cases and for more advisors. Looking at how we focused on this strategy on one page. On the left-hand side, our four strategic pillars are there. Lead today, create tomorrow.
Build together, we certainly see ourselves as an industry participant that is open architecture, working across the industry to bring the best of breed solutions together for our clients, and also thinking about our future and making sure we are ready for what is yet to come. We do that to be the best provider of integrated platform technology and data solutions. That is certainly our vision. The graphic there looks at our capabilities across our business and how we intend to integrate those and wrap them around with myhub. All aimed to enhance productivity for financial professionals and deliver solutions that meet the needs of customers across their life cycle. Looking at that life cycle on the next stage, HUB24 is solving customer needs across multiple segments and life stages.
Whether you are starting out or you are in wealth drawdown and preservation, or you are undergoing intergenerational wealth transfer, we have a range of solutions across our businesses to cater for those different life stages, and certainly to cater for them with different client demographics. The mass market, mass affluent, and private wealth, high net wealth type clients as well. With a range of solutions from our simple Discover superannuation offer through to Private Invest, which is a wholesale-only investor solution as well, which has non-custodial assets as well as the HUB24 platform with it. A range of solutions, as I said earlier. Advisors are more and more choosing to use one platform for new business.
It is partly because the scope of our platform does cater for those different life stages and those different client demographics as well, in one easy to navigate ecosystem where you can move across different products over time. As an example of that, we have continued in FY 2026 to expand our superannuation offer to meet customer needs, empowering our advisors with greater confidence for retirement.
We enhanced that by adding lifetime superannuation solution, an Innovative Retirement Income Stream, they call it an IRIS, in partnership with TAL, providing income for life, managing longevity risk, and getting concessional treatment for central asset tests. Pension payment flexibility is also enhanced when we deliver retirement space in this year. The demand for super retirement solutions has grown with AUD 4.4 trillion of super assets expected to grow to AUD 11.2 trillion by 2043, and 3.6 million Australians transition to retirement over the next 20 years.
68% of Australians say they are worried about outliving their retirement savings, which is why one of the solutions we added, the IRIS, plays to that particular need, providing guaranteed income for life. We are continuing to innovate and provide efficiency and enhance the client experience. Some of the other features we have during the year was a multi-step transitions enhancement, a digital capability allowing advisors to seamlessly execute complex advice strategies at the same time. Avoiding the need to be out of the market, allowing customers to move from accumulation to pension or recontribution to pension with greater efficiency and accuracy, and not having the risk of being out of the market while they implement those strategies, which in some cases for our competitors take three to four weeks.
Another example this year is our leading high net worth offer, expanding our reach and of our platform across segments and delivering growth. We are recognized as the number one platform overall for high net worth focused advisors, with flexible tailored offerings across those channels. We have a large growing footprint. We launched Private Invest. It is an innovative solution for wholesale clients. It is now contributing greater than AUD 1 billion of FUA in less than 12 months operation. It has integrated non-custodial assets as well as assets in custody on the HUB24 platform and a reporting service. There is a significant opportunity for high net wealth solutions with AUD 4 trillion of high net wealth assets across 760,000 investors, and 35% of advisors primarily focused on that.
Not to take away from our previous slide, which talked about superannuation, which drives resilient ongoing flows into our business as well with a very strong footprint in superannuation for accumulation and a strong footprint in high net worth as well. Turning to myhub. In addition, myhub on the page here, gives a graphic for how myhub is bringing together the HUB24 ecosystem of Class, HUBconnect, the platform, and the businesses that we own. There is a couple of businesses in there, InvestStream and Advice Design, which we have minority investments with. Bringing that together, that ecosystem together to work with practice technology on the left-hand side, the tools that advice practices have, and integrate that seamlessly in a modular and open architecture ecosystem designed to get better outcomes for clients, designed to get better outcomes for advisors, allow advisors to see more customers, and see them more efficiently.
Certainly our strategy to continue to transform and change the shape of how platforms work with advice in the Australian industry. There will be progressive rollout of myhub from 1H 2027. There is integrated AI prompts around the platform that will be coming out shortly. We have an AI-enabled advice review tool that we are in conversation with large licensees. They can use our advice review tool to put their advice documents pre and post-publishing through to look for compliance issues and speed up that process of getting advice to market. That is a commercial offering that we are taking to market as part of myhub. The Engage reporting, also part of myhub, is expanding to include customer data being fed through from Class, where Class has hundreds of data feeds from across different financial services providers in the industry.
We are collaborating with our customers and partners to streamline the advice process, across the board with small practices through to large national groups as well, by bringing the best that we have and the best that the market has in an ecosystem that is open and flexible. Moving ahead, there is a significant opportunity for growth, and value creation for both our customers and our shareholders. We are very excited to have the position we have in the market, and certainly focused on delivering more as we move ahead.
We have structurally growing markets, and the demand for integrated solutions is increasing. We see our role as closing that gap and allowing more people to get advice and growing our market and the addressable market. Strong and reliable growth for HUB24 from existing and new customers, as we covered. A continued focus on governance and risk culture and great customer outcomes. Leveraging our unique footprint to unlock value and leverage our technology leadership with a scalable operation in enabling both EBITDA growth and margin expansion, as well as ongoing investment at the same time.
Our balance sheet is strong, we are profitable, we have robust cash flows, and we are generating great shareholder returns. We have updated our FUA target for FY 2028. So at the end of FY 2028, we expect to be in the range of AUD 186 billion - AUD 200 billion of funds under administration. That target comprises ongoing growth, and Kitrina, I am sure, will unpack that for us a bit later, and a range of market growth assumptions. That is up from a target of AUD 160 billion - AUD 170 billion at end of FY 2027. So looking forward a year later than that, it is AUD 16 billion up at the bottom of the range, and AUD 200 billion at the top of the range there. I'd now like to open up for any questions, and hand it over to yourselves on the line.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. In the interest of time, we ask that analysts please limit themselves to one question and one follow-up question. Your first question comes from Tharan Jeyathasan with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
T hanks, guys, for taking my questions. Just the first question on net flows, please. So importantly, net flows in the second half slowed down quite materially on the first half, and compositionally there seems to have been a step up in gross outflows as well. Just if you can help us understand this a little bit. Are you attributing most of that slowdown to the post-budget environment? Or is there something else we should be aware of? If it is post-budget related, then do you expect this to normalize? When do you expect this to normalize? Should we be thinking that there's a sharp redeployment of funds that's just sitting on the sidelines as one of your peers has implied? Just how you're thinking about the FY 2027 in context of all of this, please.
Thank you. It's a logical conclusion that it has something to do with the budget and the prevailing economic conditions. If you unpack that, our superannuation flows are very resilient. In fact, we saw them tick up in the last quarter. It's a story of two different parts of our book of business. The superannuation business is growing. In fact, our gross flows for the first part of FY 2027 are up on last year. But there is an uptick in outflows in discretionary funds under administration, i.e., our IDPS book, which you see that happen sequentially in certain economic conditions. It logically suggests that the budget settings are driving people thinking differently about how they invest in the future. I expect that's just a time basis.
If you look at the fundamental lead indicators in our business with the demographic trends, the number of advisers using the platform, I think it just is timing, and we will see that settle down as people get their settings certain for the future, and we are still waiting for some certainty about some of the legislation around the budget. I see that as just part of what is going on at a macro level, not an indicator of our business. All the lead indicators for our business are strong and robust, in fact, stronger than they were 12 months ago if you look at them indicatively in terms of gross flows and advisers. It is an economic cycle, and we go through those periods from time to time.
Okay, thank you. Perhaps just a follow-on question, just around the competitive environment now that your peer has launched its individual HIN capability for private wealth and stockbroking clients I assume Private Invest is your equivalent solution. Firstly, is that correct? I think you have pooled roughly AUD 1 billion of FUA there. How are you thinking about the growth trajectory for that product, and what are the economics like for you?
Private Invest is a solution for that part of the market, but we have far more FUA in other high net worth products as well. So we have got exposure to high net worth clients in our Choice platform and in non-custodial services. Private Invest is a little bit different in that it is an MIS scheme that has different treatment for the wholesale investor test. So it is not representative of our only foray into that market.
It makes it easier with different settings to use that product. It has been in the market for a short period of time, but we have for a long period of time been in the high net worth space, for a long period of time been dealing with broker clients, with Evans and Partners and Urbanet being key marketing clients in that space. We are very comfortable with our value proposition there.
We have got a dedicated team. As for Netwealth solution, I am happy for them to talk about that. From our perspective, we have been in this part of the market for a long period of time, and we are ranked number one according to Investment Trends in that capability set.
Thank you. If I could sneak in just a third question around HTFS. I know that you will complete the acquisition in the first half of 2027, and you flagged that it should be EBITDA neutral. From what I understand, APRA have imposed some license conditions, and part of that is an independent expert to be appointed to review everything. Just if you can provide us with some color around this process, what the milestones are, and any risks that you think are worth highlighting or costs associated to that process?
Sure, t here will be some costs in our run rate for the project to bring HTFS inside. Those license conditions are imposed on HTFS, which we do not own. It is owned by EQT, and their obligations that EQT is working on it. We are working on with them. We do expect the trustee, when it is in-house, to be neutral to us from a cost perspective. We are maintaining that view. In terms of some of the milestones, we are very comfortable with our investment governance processes.
You would be aware that we did not have exposure to Shield and First Guardian. The license conditions on the licensee are similar to those on the sister company that EQT have, and similar to four other platforms in the marketplace as well. Whilst there is an independent expert reviewing our menu, we do not expect that to cause any issues for our business, any material issues at all. That process is underway, I expect that to be completed in the next few months, and there will be an ongoing upkeep.
I think you will not see any operational or economic impacts of the trustee transition to HUB24. That is our strong belief. We are certainly focused on bringing it in-house, and certainly excited about having the trustee board, having the proximity to us as a business rather than the trustee board looking after 12 different funds. That is a benefit for members and for shareholders as well. No impact there. There is a process. The investment menu is being reviewed. It is not stopping us from running our business. It is not stopping us from adding new investment options to the platform. It is just part of the industry having to lift the bar, and we very much welcome that bar being lifted on behalf of members and consumers.
That is great. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Elizabeth Miliatis with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. The first one is just on the EBITDA margin for the platform business and then the group overall. What is the outlook over the next couple of years? I think consensus has 2% of margin expansion over the next few years for the platform business. A bit of color on that would be great. Thank you.
Yeah, I am happy to take that one. You can see in the historical performance of the platform business that we have continued to deliver underlying EBITDA margins. The intention, we can clearly see operating leverage in that business, and we know that we can deliver operating leverage in that business going forward. The balance that we have talked about in the past and that we continue to do is the investment level. We can see opportunities for growth and to expand our reach and to expand our target market. So we are continuing to invest, and Andrew talked about some of the strategies that we have got out there, including myhub. We are doing lots of things. We have got the TAL offer out there for the Innovative Retirement Income Stream Retirement Solutions. So we do continue to invest in new solutions plus the myhub strategy.
When it comes to the group margins, when you look more at 2027, as Andrew sort of mentioned, when we are looking at the FUA and the net flows, the outflows on the IDPS side have been elevated compared to last year. So that may have an impact on the revenue growth for the year. But we are still going to continue to invest. So you may see flat to slightly growing underlying EBITDA margins. They will certainly come back on the growth that you have seen in 2026, is my expectation.
Okay. Thank you. Just that flat to slightly growing, is at the group level? Just confirming that.
Sorry, Elizabeth, just confirming, you could say that one again. I think you said that you were expecting flat to slightly growing. Is that what you said?
Just clarifying, [inaudible], so your final comment there about flat to growing EBITDA margins.
Yeah?
Is that at the group level or at the platform level? Just to double check.
That would be at both the group and the platform level.
Okay, cool. Just the second question from me today is just the fee margin. Obviously, there's been up and downs on the trading and cash fee income that we've seen flow through that. Is this 31 basis points range, should we assume this is the sort of steady state or perhaps the exit rate as we see it, and re-base our numbers from here?
The 31 basis points for the custody revenue margin. We always say that you can expect to see anywhere around 0.5 -1 basis points of margin compression as you see people's average balances grow and they move into higher tiers, or they hit a cap. That trend, you can expect to see that. When you roll forward to 2027, I'd still expect there to be anywhere around 0.5-1 basis points of margin compression on the custody revenue margin.
Okay, got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Nicholas McGarrigle with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for taking questions. Just one on the first six and a bit weeks of the year. Can you give us the split between market and flows for that AUD 4.6 billion of growth?
Yeah.
Sure. Do you want to take a turn at it?
Yeah, I am happy to take that one. So roughly, it would be about AUD 2 billion would relate to net flows for those six weeks up to August 13th, and therefore you have got roughly about AUD 2.5 billion, AUD 2.6 billion of markets in there. I think everybody knows that the S&P/ASX 200 has been sort of circling around that 4%. So we are lower correlated than that. Obviously, we have got a much lower impact on the markets than, say, the S&P/ASX 200.
Okay.
As I said earlier-
Go ahead.
Are the gross flows so far consistent or higher than last year? I think what you are seeing is, as we said earlier, there is uncertainty in discretionary funds and money moving around in IDPS, which happens at times like this, and then it tends to come back at subsequent times.
That just is my follow-up question. If there are higher gross outflows, where do you think that they are going? Are they kind of being parked outside the platform until the tax environment is more certain, and people want to have a more clear vision of how they want to deploy that in terms of product, or is it tax structure as well?
I think it is a logical assumption, Nick, although we cannot tell because it is not going through a superannuation gateway. You certainly had outflows at the end of quarter four, which in some cases was people restructuring for tax or paying tax bills. We certainly saw some large withdrawals from people who had significant tax bills from really ultra-high-net-wealth customers, coming up to in May and June. Your question is really the answer. I think there is some uncertainty out there about the future of different structures for different types of people who have those sorts of investment products, and typically high-net-wealth people. And I think it is people getting reset at this point in time, and either chasing cash flows or thinking about markets and timing. But it is really in that discretionary space, not in the superannuation space.
Great. Thanks.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jeff Cai with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hey. Good morning, thanks for taking my questions. Just so first one in terms of net flows. To what extent are you seeing signs that the IDPS flows have started to recover in August? And is it possible the net flows remain quite depressed until the second half 2027?
Do we have that analysis?
We haven't seen a significant change in the trend for going into August 13th on the IDPS flows. For that first six weeks, we've sort of seen that elevated outflow from the IDPS side. As Andrew said, we have seen resilience on the super side. The super side of the business continues to grow. As Andrew said, the gross flows continue to come in, but on the IDPS, it's been fairly consistent coming out of June. It's been fairly consistent.
Okay, got it. Then a follow-up on the EBITDA margin guidance. To get to that flat or slightly higher EBITDA margins, are you sort of suggesting that core cost is going to be circa 10% year-on-year for FY 2027?
When you look at total expenses, it will be above that 10%. It'll be sort of in that low to mid-teens range.
Okay. Does that low to the mid-teens include the insourcing of the trustee business?
It includes any project and transition expenses. As Andrew said, we do have a program of work around the transition, and we are working with the existing trustee on uplift and license condition programs. It includes all of those costs. When the change in control takes effect and we take ownership of the trustee, then both the revenues and expenses will go up for that. That is not included, but that will have a net neutral underlying EBITDA impact. As we get closer to that, we will give you a pro forma so that you know how to model that.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Simon Fitzgerald with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, I was hoping to explore a bit more about the industry average FUA per advisor. Obviously, it is very high at that sort of AUD 83 million level. Part of that, I imagine, is that some books have been cut, or at least some of the legacy books where they have lost a lot of financial advisors, but maybe some of those assets are orphaned.
I guess, obviously, HUB24's average FUA per advisor has increased nicely, but I wonder if there is an effect in all of that as well, that maybe not a lot of that or not all of that AUD 83 million is actively managed. I guess I am asking you that in the sense that, is that a reasonable goal to be striving for that? Or could you at least hit those sort of numbers eventually over time?
Look, it is a blunt statistic based on the industry FUA divided by the advisors. You are correct, there will be some orphans or unadvised clients in that, but you will also have some advisors with well over AUD 100 million. It is just a statistic to show that there is a growth rate if you look at the averages. It is a proxy for us to say, and we have statistically a low level of penetration when you think about that moving forward, advisors will have one or two platforms.
Our share is far lower than the industry average. The statistic is there to illustrate that. When you unpack it, you are right, there will be some unadvised clients, there will be advisors with more than AUD 100 million. We have got advisors with more than AUD 100 million on our platform. It is just to demonstrate that there is a runway with our existing client relationships that we hope to increase the share of wallet, and we are seeing that number tick up. Basically, this says, "Hey, we are doing a good job at actually growing the share of wallet at the same time as getting new advisors." It is simply for those illustration purposes.
Yeah, good. Thank you. Then just one really quick question on the tech solutions. Class delivered its largest annual increase, I think, in terms. NowInfinity grew quite nicely as well. There have been some of those sort of metrics that we look at in terms of document handling and things like that, but I do not think the revenue grew anywhere near as much. So, I am just wondering what the sort of core drivers we should be thinking about the sort of tech solutions business in terms of revenue going forward.
Kit, you might pick that up. I do not know the revenue bit there.
Yeah, definitely. I t is clearly obvious when you look at the Class document, almost 15% growth, company, 11% growth. Class account, which was at 5% growth, is the largest part of that part of the business. The revenue growth because of CPI price increases and because of volume increases. The SMSF market for the 12 months to March grew slightly over 4%, and the Class number of accounts was slightly above the market, so slightly above where, so if the market was growing just above the 4%, Class was slightly above that. So it is really around the SMSF volume drivers, and then think of it as CPI revenue increases are the biggest factors that are going to hit the revenue in the tech solutions business.
The revenue is up 9%, but the-
It is up 8%.
8%. That is partly because of the cost of some of the investments and the registry fees, yeah.
Yeah.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Blake Dowsett with Jarden Group. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Thanks for taking my call. Just very quickly going back to the FUA number that you provided for the first six weeks. Just in terms of what you have seen in the past in these situations where there is a bit of outflow in IDPS. In your experience, does that tend to be FUA lost or is that FUA that you think of as deferred, it comes back onto platform at a later stage? I am just trying to get a feel for how the cadence of this could look going forward.
We have seen catch-up periods. We have seen periods where we have raced ahead, and outflows have surprised the market. You see that after COVID, you see it after other macro events. If you are like me, you are thinking about where do you invest. Do you invest in growth stocks or income stocks or the tax settings? Do you reset your portfolio? Generally, it comes in cycles. We see fits and spurts, we see a slowdown. We certainly see the level of outflows tail off as we have seen that in the past as economic conditions have stabilized. We have seen catch-up periods as well. That is the best answer I can give you.
A little bit of everything. Well, I appreciate-
Look, it is hard to know.
No.
We've got an interesting time ahead for the next 12-24 months as the budget settings roll through.
Looking at your FY 2028 FUA guidance, I guess is probably the biggest confidence point from all of that would indicate that you think this is relatively transitory. Maybe if you can just talk through some of the buildups that go into the bottom end versus the top end of that guidance, and whether you are forecasting any of this difficult period to play into that sort of number.
Sure. Before we do, the other comment I've got is that superannuation will become more attractive, and we're yet to see that come through. If you look at the policy settings in that superannuation has this concessional tax treatment, I would expect that over time, more people will top up their super more than before, and that's a very large part of our business. It might compensate or offset any other downturn you have on the other side of it. It's uncharted, but certainly superannuation is a growing pool of money. It's a growing market, and I expect that to actually benefit from budget settings. You may see that come through differently. Kit, did you want to unpack the flow?
Yeah. I think in the guidance that we've given out to 2028, there is obviously a varied range of net flows plus markets that you can get to still stay within the range. Just from a base case perspective, you could be anywhere around that sort of AUD 18 billion, AUD 19 billion, plus a 5%-6% market, and you're still sort of landing somewhere around that middle-ish of the range. Based on history that we've seen, it's unlikely that when you get this slower period because of macro environment, it's unlikely that it continues for two years onwards. You would expect by the time you get to 2028, this macro environment that we're in sort of does settle down a bit.
The flex between the bottom end and the top end, is that coming through your assumptions on flow, or is it more your assumptions on market return?
It's a combination of both.
Okay. Appreciate your time. Thanks, team.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrei Stadnik with RBC. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Can I ask my first question just around your positioning across the different customer segments? You are currently all the way from mass affluent up towards high net worth, potentially ultra high net worth. Are you happy with your positioning and your products, or are there any areas you would like to see more or better integrated?
Look, I think we are very happy with our positioning. If you look at the research from Investment Trends, they actually have us as leading in each of those segments as a platform offer. So we are very happy with the positioning. We see all parts of our business growing. And we think that is part of our strategy is to think through the lens of the customer or the advisor as opposed to a particular market or product, is to have multiple solutions with different legal structures, super, non-super, MDA, MIS schemes to cater for those.
We are very happy with the positioning. We continue to work in all of those, and we are active in all of them. I think in general, the problem to solve for Australia and the challenge that we are looking into and certainly investing in is making advice more efficient regardless of which segment you are in. Making delivery and implementation of advice on the platform and the steps before it as efficient as possible plays to all those segments.
That is our focus as opposed to positioning a product differently in a segment. It is how do we get more throughput, how do we make it easier for customers to get the help they need and help advisors do that? That is the lens through which we look at the business. We have got advisors operating in all those segments and across those segments. Our focus is on that efficiency piece for them and the choice and flexibility.
Thanks so much, Andrew. For my second question, can I ask around platform revenue margins, particularly around the trading side. Is there anything you can do in terms of product features, to encourage more trade and more activity among clients?
Look, I don't think we're thinking about how do we get more trading revenue in terms of encouraging people to trade. We're encouraging people to save long-term and have good advice. So that depends on the advice on what's going on in the markets. We're not necessarily a trading platform. We're a long-term investing platform. So we certainly though see those things happen. So you see more cash statistically in the first half as dividends come in and income come in. Then you see more trading as that gets settled in the market. You see it over a 12-month period. Certainly, we think about different products and different revenue opportunities for the business, but not actually actively encouraging trading as such. That's driven by markets and driven by client needs, and we think that should be done robustly and safely.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Olivier Coulon with E&P. Please go ahead.
Hi, Andrew. Just on the Molino commentary tomorrow, what sort of industry input has there been into that from the platform side of the industry to try to counter some of the, I guess, rhetoric from the superannuation funds that are trying to protect their back books for want of a better word?
Look, there's been a huge amount of effort and conversations occurring from all parts of the industry. You're seeing some being more vocal in the media. Certainly, there's been a lot of work done through the Financial Services Council collectively on behalf of platforms and investment managers and advice businesses, as there has been from individual businesses like ourselves. So there's been a lot going on. We've had private meetings with the minister. We've had collective meetings with Treasury and regulators. There's been a lot of activity there. I think that we'll wait and see what comes out tomorrow, but there does need to be real clear advocacy for choice and engagement in our industry. After all, it's our citizens' money, and you've got some actions. I don't need to comment on the politics of it.
You've got some actions where you've seen lots and lots of people moving towards platforms and advice because they need help. So our goal is to provide that help, and the government very much recognizes that help's required. I think you'll see some sensible outcomes tomorrow, but can't preempt that. There's been a lot of work, Olivier.
Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jack Lynch with Taylor Collison. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Andrew, for answering my questions. First one is just on the super component of the flows. Clearly, it has been strong over the last 12 months. Sounds like individuals trading up that as well. The funding pools, they have accelerated the last three quarters. I am just trying to get a sense of your guidance there. Have you assumed IDPS flows are just cyclical, and they recover? Or do you assume an acceleration in super flows coming out of some of the stronger performance that you have seen over the last 12 months?
I think with the range that we have got for those net flows, any of those outcomes could fit within that range. We generally, when we look at forecasting out for the full-year guidance, we take the market conditions that we can see and the momentum and the pipeline within the business that we can see, and then we assume normal markets. We have not. Even if you take the first six weeks of August, and also you could see it when you were coming out of Q4, the last quarter of FY 2026, and then the first six weeks, we have kind of seen that uplift in outflows on the IDPS side.
Even with that rate continuing, you would still get within the range that we have put in there. If there was a shift and an acceleration in superannuation, that may well get you to the top end if that continued with everything else. So the range would cater for every scenario.
In terms of our approach, we look at a model and we think about where we will sit, and we try and build a range around it with multiple sensitivities. We do not want to be changing guidance. Last August, we had an AUD 14 billion range as well, and the February following that, we shrunk that down to an AUD 10 billion range, and we added AUD 10 billion to it. It is not as if we think about individual factors. We think about where we think we are heading, and then we go, "Okay, what is the margin on top of that? What is the margin below that?"
Whether it be market sensitivities or flow sensitivities, it is a model, and we do not want to be updating guidance. So our approach is not as sophisticated to think about what will we get for IDPS and super. We think about a range of activities and try and give some guidance where we've got a range either side.
Yeah, thanks for that. You mentioned tomorrow some potential outcomes coming out of what's going on in Canberra. Just trying to get your sense around what gives you confidence in a more competitive neutral outcome in terms of switching, bundling of costs. Then on the cost side as well, just keen to see how positioned HUB24 is if there is an increase in codified due diligence and higher compliance costs coming through the platforms.
I think if you look at the demand, and you look at the DBFO reforms, and the fact that you've got industry funds saying they want to be able to deliver advice, then advice is not available as openly as it needs to be. Any sand in the gears or shift that detracts from that is actually potentially going to have negative impacts on consumers and members, and certainly not have Australia capitalize on the huge investment it's got having the envy of the world in our superannuation system. I think it just defies logic to actually put constraints around delivery advice. I think the issues that we're dealing with are not based on advice issues as such as multiple failures across an ecosystem, MIS schemes, auditors, and so forth.
I know from discussions with our colleagues and with regulators and with others, and even with some others on the industry fund side saying that they themselves don't want to put sand in the gears in terms of provision of advice and access to advice. I think that would be negative for Australia and negative for Australians, and I don't think we'll see those sort of policies come out.
You might see some uplift of the bar and codification of what's expected for people to deliver. I would see that as HUB24 would welcome that. I don't think it's going to add significant cost. I don't know what the announcements are, but I'm certainly comfortable that we need to play our role, that the industry needs to adapt. It will continue to, as it always has. I'm not expecting negativity from that. But again, I don't know what's being announced, but from our discussions, I'm fairly confident that there'll be sensible outcomes.
Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Anthony Hoo with Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Just the first one, just on myhub. You're saying that you're rolling it out in this half. Can you talk a bit about any sort of revenue upside? What's the model there? What are your expectations?
Some of the stuff we are rolling out, and it will depend on the client group, and we are still working through the commercialization model for different client segments. For example, the advice review tool will be a product that we receive fees for, as a software service. From that perspective, there will be some increments in revenue, but not sufficient to turn the dial I would have thought in the short term. It is an incremental rollout. Some of the things are features that you would expect a platform to have, like an AI product around it. I think you should just model our financial services, right, execute in terms of follow the trend already?
Yeah. We haven't baked in any particular upside in 2027 from increased commercial out revenue from executing on the strategy. We are focused on executing the strategy and working with clients to make sure that we get that right.
I think the strategy is aimed at increasing flows, and creating advocacy and winning more of our share in the future, as well as some additional revenue.
That is great. Thank you. Second one, just in relation, just following up, there has been a lot of discussion already around your FUA target for FY 2028, and talking about your assumptions around flows. But in the context of you are still adding or growing your advisor network very quickly. If I look at slide 10, you have got the chart showing the yellow bit, in particular, 14% coming from new advisors. In that sort of context, why would not we be more optimistic around inflows growing? Because as those advisors continue to mature, you would expect that to bring in even more inflows, right? And you are still growing currently as well.
I am just wondering, how do you think about that as you continue to add more advisors, but yet the inflows are kind of, you are talking about AUD 18 billion -AUD 19 billion, which is still sort of flat versus last year.
Thank you. We actually do see inflows growing at the gross level. If you unpack the net flow number, as our base or our filler balance grows each year, there is about 12% of outflows in pension payments and withdrawals. Actually, to hit those net flow numbers, you need to increase your gross flows by AUD 4 billion or AUD 5 billion a year to hit the same numbers. While the net flows might appear to be flat, the gross flows actually have to increase to levels that others have not done. In fact, our gross flows are at industry record levels currently. It is uncharted territory. Assumed in that is gross flow increases, so we certainly hope to outperform that. We do not like to give guidance or outlook statements that we have to revise downwards.
We are certainly happy to revise them upwards if we think so in the future, as we have done in the past. So we take a fairly judicious approach to it. But there is assumed increases in gross inflows. Part of our job is to pay pension payments and allow people to withdraw. So that is the answer there in terms of when you unpack it is the 12% outflows of your base. Every year you have more outflows and it is a consistent one. They are industry leading outflow numbers, i.e., they are very low outflow numbers compared to peers. Hopefully that helps on that. Yeah.
Yeah. No, that is great. Thank you. Thanks for that.
You get a growing FUA base and growing margin or growing the earnings on that larger FUA base, but your flow level is a story of in and out.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Bales with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to circle back to advisor behavior post-budget. As a result of that, is there any change in your go-to-market, your product priorities, or advisor education? Is there opportunities in terms of market share or deepening relationships and finding solutions for these customers?
I'm sorry, I missed the start of the question.
Just post-budget and the changes that have seen people waiting on legislation.
Yep. Look, as I said earlier, I think there's certainly a trend or a drive towards superannuation. We are the leading platform for superannuation inflows in Australia. In fact, we have the highest level of switching inflows across any super fund, including industry funds. That is with consumers who are choosing, or members who are choosing to move their superannuation. Certainly, we are focused on strengthening that proposition, the efficiency, the outcomes. Hence, we're bringing the trustee inside. We see it as a core part of our business. So yes, in simple terms, our focus on super will continue, and we continue to look there. I think that's the best opportunity from that perspective. In terms of others, look, we will focus on other segments. We are waiting to see some more details on how the tax legislation goes, but there are other product opportunities.
For example, insurance or investment bonds. Will they be more attractive moving ahead? And we're certainly actively working towards launching products in that vein, where you could have a 10-year concessional tax treatment, which will be a better outcome than sitting in the current structures that are there. So there are opportunities to do that. We're active in that space as well as active in the superannuation space. And we will work with our customer bases to look for solutions that maximize opportunities coming out of this.
Then maybe one quick follow-up. Just on the tax rate and the decline in 2026, what should we expect looking forward into 2027?
The expectation is that the tax rate will tick up again. The reason why it is low at the moment is just the timing. Largely because of the purchasing of what we call treasury shares to service the employee share scheme. We had a large performance rights issue that was issued back in 2020, that vested last year, and that really drove quite a large movement in the treasury shares. When you move into 2027, you should expect the tax to come back into something with a 20 in front of it. So it should be in the low, possibly mid-20s for the tax rate.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from James Bisinella with Unified Capital Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, Andrew, Kitrina, appreciate the time. Just getting back in the weeds, just keen to understand maybe the comment on the expense growth in the low to mid-teens range, just noting employee expenses were only up AUD 1.5 million in the second half. I guess just trying to understand, was some of that hiring more back weighted on the employee numbers, and admin expenses did tick a bit higher as well. So a few moving parts. Just keen to understand a bit more detail there. Thank you.
Yeah. When you go forward to 2027, we gave guidance for the expense growth of 18% - 20%, and we obviously landed right in the middle for full-year 2026. When we roll forward to 2027, we are not giving necessarily a physical guidance like we did because it will come back to normal levels, which is that low to mid-teens. The drivers of that is always to do with employee headcount increases. Employee headcount increase will slow in 2027 compared to the 2026 rate. You will probably see anywhere up to around that 100 employee growth in line with the growth in the volumes that we see come through on both sides of our mature businesses, being the platform and the Class, and NowInfinity side. There is also CPI increases on our supplier costs.
There is also increase, as you mentioned in that administration place line, you could see some upticks there, and that includes our external technology providers. The same with every company, we have a real strong handle on our cloud costs and where they are going. You can see some of that coming through in 2026 and into 2027. So they are the main drivers of the cost there.
Excellent. That makes sense. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Mr. Alcock for closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for coming along and for your questions. In summary, I just want to say, look, I think we are very well positioned, and whilst there is uncertainty, people are asking questions about current IDPS and markets and so forth. We are hiring people. We are investing. We see the thematic structural changes as beneficial for our customers and shareholders, and we are absolutely committed to continuing to do that as well and leveraging our market leading position and our execution and strategy to continue to grow into the future and beyond. We are very excited about what is ahead. Bumpy road maybe for some, but certainly we are focused on our strategy as always, and looking forward to delighting you at our next results as well.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.