Yellow Brick Road (YBR) has reported a 20% rise in life insurance premium under management to $14.7 million in the six months to December 31.

It has also recorded a 26% increase in life insurance application completion volumes for the half-year.

YBR has streamlined its product range and focused training across narrower lines, which has “empowered our advisers to be better informed on a selected number of products, leading to productivity and conversion improvements”, it says in an investor update.

Back-office reforms have enabled advisers to write their own statements of advice without the need for head office support or external paraplanning.

YBR has selected Rubik Financial’s Provisio scaled advice software for its adviser network.

This includes point-of-sale tools and statement-of-advice capability, including life insurance recommendations. It will let advisers write 80% of advice recommendations in-house.

YBR GM Wealth Adam Youkhana says Provisio aims to lift branches’ margins and efficiency by allowing advisers to spend more time talking to clients.

“Our focus is on further enhancing and expanding our wealth dealer group services to accelerate advice and improve efficiencies,” he said.

“Wealth momentum continues to grow across revenue. However, the focus is on greater participation of branches across all aspects of wealth.”

The YBR group reported an after-tax profit of $393,000 for the six months to December 31, compared with a $4 million loss in the corresponding period of 2015.