The best AI file note software for financial advisers in Australia (2026)

We make CallNote, so we have a horse in this race. We have tried to write the roundup we would want to read if we were running an advice practice: what each tool does, what it costs, and where a competitor is the better pick. Every competitor fact below was checked on that company's own website in September 2026. Check again before you buy, because this market moves quickly.

What an advice file note has to do

A meeting summary and an advice file note are different documents. The file note is part of the evidence that you met your obligations, so judge every tool on the note it produces, not on the transcript.

• Best interests duty, Corporations Act 2001 s 961B. The safe harbour in s 961B(2) has seven steps: identify the client's objectives, financial situation and needs; identify the subject matter of the advice sought; make reasonable inquiries where information is incomplete or inaccurate; assess whether you have the expertise; investigate and assess products where you recommend one; base all judgements on the client's relevant circumstances; and take any other step that would reasonably be regarded as in the client's best interests. A good note shows the first three happening in the client's own words. Our plain-English guide to the s 961B steps covers each one. Treasury has proposed removing the safe harbour under the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms, but that is not law at the time of writing.
• Record keeping. ASIC Corporations (Record-Keeping Requirements for Australian Financial Services Licensees when Giving Personal Advice) Instrument 2024/508 requires records of personal advice, including the information relied on and the basis for the advice, to be kept for seven years after the day the advice was given. ASIC's RG 175 sets out what ASIC expects of licensees and advisers giving personal advice. Your file notes are a core part of that record.
• Recording consent. If the tool records, state law applies. NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT require every party's consent. Victoria, Queensland and the NT let a party to the conversation record it. The federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 separately prohibits intercepting a call without the knowledge of the person speaking. The safe practice everywhere is to tell the client and note their consent.
• Data residency. Client meetings contain tax file details, health information for insurance advice, and family circumstances. Many licensees want that data hosted in Australia. Ask where the audio, the transcript and the note each live, and for how long.
• Audit trail. A note that can be quietly edited a year later is weak evidence in an AFCA complaint or a licensee audit. Look for a timestamp, a record of who changed what, and ideally a locked final version.

The Australian adviser-built tools

Claras

Claras is the name most advisers hear first. You record the meeting in the app or upload a recording from Teams, Zoom or your phone, and it identifies each speaker and writes the file note. Its site says data never leaves Australia, it displays SOC 2 and Australian Privacy Principles badges, and it exports to Xplan and Word, with Salesforce and Microsoft 365 connections. Pricing is public: Pay as You Go at $50 a month for 4 file notes then $10 each, or Unlimited at $139 a month per adviser and $39 per assistant. There is a free trial with no credit card.

Pick it if you want one tool that records the meeting and writes the note, you work in Xplan, or your volume is low enough that pay-as-you-go makes sense.

Paradino

Paradino goes further than the file note. You record in the room on your phone, or upload a recording or transcript, and it produces the note. From there its AI agent helps generate strategies, paraplanning requests, ROAs and SOAs. Its site says the platform is hosted in Australia, is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, and deletes video and audio recordings after 30 days. Listed integrations include intelliflo office, RetireMap, Microsoft 365, Worksorted, ProductRex and NEOS. Pricing per adviser, excluding GST: Starter $149 a month (unlimited meeting summaries), Pro $239 (adds unlimited strategies, paraplanning requests and ROAs), ProMax $349 (adds SOA generation).

Pick it if you want the meeting to flow straight into paraplanning and advice documents, not only a file note.

Marloo

Marloo covers the widest range of capture. Its Australian site lists Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex, plus phone conversations, voice notes and client documents, with Outlook and Google Calendar connections. It states SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR compliance, and lets you set recordings or transcripts to delete automatically. The Australian page talks about data staying under your control but did not name a hosting location when we checked, so ask. Pricing in AUD: a free plan with 10 meetings, Plus at $99 per adviser a month with unlimited meetings, and Pro at $299 with document generation workflows. Support staff use it at no extra cost, which matters in a practice with two admin staff per adviser.

Pick it if you want a low per-adviser price with free support staff seats and capture across video, phone and in-person.

Filenote.ai

Filenote.ai works through the recording you make in Microsoft Teams or Zoom, including using those apps on a phone or laptop to record an in-person meeting. Its privacy stance is the most distinctive here: the site says it does not store client data, recordings are purged immediately after the file note is created, processing is in-country, and it is SOC 2 Type II certified. Notes are emailed to you or saved straight to your SharePoint or OneDrive. Standard is AUD $139 a month per user excluding GST (file notes, client summary emails, transcripts, engagement letters). PRO is $249 and adds ROAs, strategy papers, flowcharts and templates. There is a 21-day free trial.

Pick it if your practice already runs on Teams and SharePoint and you want the vendor to hold as little as possible.

AdviseWell

AdviseWell describes itself as an AI operating system for Australian advice firms. File notes are the entry point. Its free tier covers one adviser and includes meeting capture, transcription, source-cited file notes, summaries and follow-ups, with no credit card. Paid tiers are $99 a month per adviser (client profiles, branded exports, CRM integrations) and $299 (SOAs, annual reviews, compliance checks, audit logs), GST inclusive. The site says all data is stored in Sydney on Google Cloud, it is SOC 2 Type I certified with Type II in progress, and data is not used to train third-party AI models.

Pick it if you are a sole adviser who wants free meeting notes now, or a firm planning to move SOA production onto the same system later.

AMP North's AI FileNote assistant

North launched its AI FileNote assistant in March 2025. AMP says it transcribes audio recordings of client meetings and produces a full transcript and a structured, editable file note, designed for client review meetings. It is available exclusively through North. AMP's announcement does not state a separate cost to advisers.

Pick it if your clients are largely on North and most of your notes are review meetings. If you use several platforms, a platform-tied tool leaves you with two note processes.

CallNote

This is ours. CallNote does not record anything. It takes a transcript that already exists and turns it into a file note in your own format in about two minutes. The transcript can be pasted, uploaded as a .vtt or .txt export from Teams, Zoom or Meet, forwarded by email, or sent automatically from Dialpad or Aircall. After an in-person meeting you can dictate a voice memo instead. Paste one of your old file notes and it builds a template with your headings and shorthand. There is also a financial advice system template.

You review the note, then publish it it. A published note is sealed with a SHA-256 checksum and cannot be edited. Amendments are append-only and there is a full audit log. Data is hosted in Sydney, encrypted, and not used to train AI. Pricing is Solo $149 a month or Team $99 per seat, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card.

The limits are real. CallNote has no native Xplan, AdviserLogic or intelliflo integration. Notes go across by copy and paste, PDF, or Zapier where your system supports it. It pushes to HubSpot, Notion and Slack. It stops at the file note and does not draft ROAs or SOAs. And if nothing in your practice produces a transcript today, a tool that records for you will be less work.

Pick it if you already get transcripts from Teams, Zoom or your phone system, your licensee does not want another vendor holding audio, or you want a locked, tamper-evident note.

The US adviser tool: Zocks

Zocks is a strong product built for US advisers. Its site says it never records client conversations, offers 40+ two-way integrations including deep eMoney sync, and has a 14-day free trial. Pricing was not shown on its site when we checked. Its integrations and compliance framing are American, so there is nothing for Xplan or the s 961B record. It suits an Australian practice only in unusual cases, such as a firm with a US arm.

General tools: Otter, Fireflies and Copilot in Teams

**Otter records and transcribes meetings. Its free plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month, Pro is US$16.99 per user monthly, and Business is US$19.99 per user billed annually. Fireflies** sends a bot to record the meeting. Its site says customer data is never used for AI training and lists SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance. Both are good at what they do and cheap. Neither writes an advice file note, neither documents Australian hosting on its pricing page, and a visible recording bot in a client meeting is a conversation you need to have with the client first. Fathom, tl;dv, Granola and Jamie sit in the same general-purpose group.

Microsoft Copilot in Teams is the one many practices already own. It needs the add-on Copilot licence. For a recap you can return to after the meeting, Microsoft's documentation says the meeting must be transcribed. The output is a meeting recap with action items. It will not structure the note around objectives, scope and inquiries unless you prompt it to every time, and the recap can be edited freely. A practical middle path is to let Teams produce the transcript, which your Microsoft 365 tenancy already governs, then turn that transcript into a proper file note with a dedicated tool.

Side by side

Prices are per adviser per month as published on each vendor's site in September 2026. Some are quoted excluding GST, so compare like with like.

What a good note looks like

Whichever tool you choose, this is the standard to hold it to. A fictional annual review, written so anyone could follow it:

That note shows scope, objectives, changes in circumstances, the inquiries made, what was discussed and what happens next. Our guide on what to record in a financial advice file note breaks down each part, and the file note template library has a starting template.

Which one for which practice

• Sole adviser, tight budget. Start with the free tiers from AdviseWell or Marloo, or Claras pay-as-you-go if you only write a few notes a month.
• Xplan practice that wants notes in the client record. Claras lists Xplan export. Test the export on a real client before you commit.
• Practice that wants meeting to ROA or SOA in one system. Paradino, AdviseWell, Marloo Pro or Filenote.ai PRO. Compare the advice documents they produce, because that is where the price difference goes.
• Microsoft shop with a cautious licensee. Filenote.ai if you want the recording purged immediately and the note saved to SharePoint. CallNote if you would rather no outside vendor handled audio at all and Teams already gives you the transcript.
• Adviser who does most reviews by phone. Marloo lists phone conversations. CallNote takes transcripts automatically from Dialpad and Aircall. Claras accepts an uploaded phone recording.
• Most clients on North. Try the North AI FileNote assistant first, since it is already in the platform.
• Licensee or audit focus on tamper-evident records. CallNote's Publish seals each note and logs every amendment. AdviseWell lists audit logs on its $299 tier. Ask every other vendor exactly what happens when a note is edited after the fact.

Common questions