An EA for advisers, so your day goes back to clients, not paperwork.
Every adviser knows the maths. The hour spent rebuilding a review pack, re-keying a fact-find into Xplan or chasing a fee consent is an hour not spent with a client or writing advice. A virtual executive assistant takes that administrative weight off the desk, holds it to your process, and hands it back finished, so the time you bill and the time you enjoy both go up.
Book a free discovery callThe administrative load the EA lifts off advisers
These are the recurring jobs that quietly fill an adviser's week. Each one is delegable, and each one is administrative support, not advice. The line is deliberate: the EA prepares, schedules and records, while every recommendation, statement of advice and client-facing judgement stays with you under your AFSL authorisation.
What the EA owns
Review & meeting cycle
- Review prep support – pulling the client file, current balances, prior file notes and outstanding actions into a pack you walk in across
- Scheduling and rescheduling – booking annual reviews and ad-hoc client meetings, holding the diary, and rebooking when something moves
- Meeting coordination – agendas out ahead of time, confirmations, and the action items tracked through to the next review
- File-note capture – typing up the notes you dictate so the client record stays current and audit-ready
What the EA owns
Data & renewal admin
- Xplan and CRM data entry – fact-find capture, task and workflow updates, contact hygiene across Xplan, Midwinter AdviceOS or your CRM
- Fee-disclosure admin – assembling the FDS and consent paperwork from your templates, ready for your sign-off
- Renewal tracking – flagging which clients are due, logging dates so nothing lapses, and chasing the consents that have not come back
- Document collation – gathering the inputs for advice you prepare, so the file is complete before you sit down to write
Want the role in full, beyond the adviser context? Read more on our virtual executive assistants, or browse the wider executive assistant cluster for other ways advisers and firms use the role.
Where the adviser's week actually goes
The week before a review
Annual reviews stack up, and each one needs a pack built: current holdings, last year's notes, the open actions, the agenda. The EA assembles all of it against your checklist so you arrive prepared, while the analysis and the advice on the day stay yours. The review prep stops being a Sunday-night job.
The diary that keeps moving
Clients reschedule, life happens, and the calendar churns. The EA owns the booking and rebooking, defends your meeting blocks, sends confirmations and reminders, and keeps the review cadence on track so no client quietly drifts past their due date.
Xplan that never quite stays tidy
Fact-finds half-entered, workflows not ticked off, contact details going stale. The EA keeps Xplan, Midwinter AdviceOS or your CRM current, enters the data and dictated file notes, and keeps the client record in a state you would be comfortable showing an auditor.
The renewal and FDS grind
Fee disclosure and ongoing-fee consent run on a relentless annual clock. The EA tracks who is due, drafts the FDS and consent paperwork from your templates for your sign-off, and chases the clients who have not returned a signed consent, so renewals do not slip and revenue does not leak.
Financial adviser questions, answered
Can a virtual EA give my clients financial advice or talk product?
No, and that line is firm. The virtual executive assistant does administrative support only. Anything that constitutes financial advice, a recommendation, a product comparison or a statement that needs an AFSL authorisation stays with you, the adviser. The EA preps the review pack, books the meeting, keeps Xplan tidy and chases the documents you need, but the advice, the SoA and any client-facing recommendation are yours. We brief this scope explicitly in week one so there is no grey area.
Will an EA work inside Xplan, Midwinter or our CRM?
Yes. Most adviser placements run inside Xplan day to day, and we also support Midwinter AdviceOS and whatever CRM sits alongside it, whether that is a planning-specific system or a HubSpot or Salesforce setup. The EA does the data entry, file notes you dictate, fact-find capture, task and workflow updates and review scheduling inside those tools. Access is scoped to exactly what the role needs and credentials move through 1Password Teams, never plain email.
How does an EA help with fee disclosure and the annual renewal cycle?
The renewal and fee admin is where this earns its keep. The EA tracks which clients are due, drafts and assembles the fee disclosure statement and the consent paperwork from your templates, queues the renewal for your sign-off, logs the dates so nothing lapses, and follows up the clients who have not returned a signed consent. The adviser reviews and signs everything; the EA carries the chasing, the calendar holds and the record keeping that usually eats a practice manager alive.
Is the EA across the compliance side of financial planning admin?
They handle the administrative half of it: keeping file notes and fact-finds complete, making sure consent and disclosure documents are collated and filed against the right client, and flagging dates that are coming due. They are not a compliance officer and they do not make compliance judgements. Think of the EA as the person who keeps the file audit-ready and the diary honest, while the licensee obligations and any sign-off stay with you and your AFSL.
What does the review meeting prep actually cover?
Ahead of an annual review the EA pulls the client file together: current holdings and balances exported from your platform, the prior file notes, outstanding actions from last time, the agenda and any forms the client needs to bring or sign. You walk in across the detail instead of building the pack yourself the night before. The EA does the collation and preparation; the analysis, the advice and anything that interprets the numbers for the client remain the adviser's.
How much does an EA for a financial planning practice cost?
EA placements sit in our specialist tier at $18-25/hr AUD excluding GST, which suits the adviser role because it leans on prior executive-support experience and discretion. At a typical 20 hours a week that is roughly $1,500-$2,200 a month, well under the loaded cost of a local practice-manager hire once you add super, leave and payroll tax. There is no lock-in, and a $500 refundable deposit covers our recruiting and placement work. See the full breakdown on our pricing page.
Book a free discovery call
Thirty minutes with Jenn, DotVA's founder. Walk her through how your practice runs, how many clients you review, what sits in Xplan and where the renewal admin piles up, and she will give you a straight read on which two or three jobs an EA should take first and what the placement costs. No obligation, and the advice line stays exactly where it should: with you.
More on the role: virtual executive assistants · the EA cluster · pricing
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