How Moorr helps you prepare for your Empower Wealth appointment

If you’ve recently requested an appointment with Empower Wealth, you may have been asked to set up Moorr before you meet with our team.

If Moorr is new to you, that might naturally raise a few questions.

What is Moorr? Why are we asking you to use it? And why might you be given the option to use Open Banking?

Here’s what you need to know.

First, what is Moorr?

Moorr is a household finance, money and property platform within the same Group as Empower Wealth.

It originally grew from the financial and cashflow tools developed within Empower Wealth to help households better understand, organise and model their finances. Learn more about Moorr and its relationship with Empower Wealth here.

Available on both web and mobile app, Moorr is used by over 69,000 users and brings together 60+ features and insights across areas such as income, expenses, assets, loans, property, goals and household finances.

So when we ask you to use Moorr before your appointment, we’re not sending you off to an unrelated third-party platform. We’re using a tool built around the same philosophy that underpins our advice:

Understand where you are today before deciding what comes next.

Why do we ask you to set up Moorr before your appointment?

At Empower Wealth, our advice process follows five key steps: Clarify, Evaluate, Plan, Implement and Manage.

And it all starts with Clarify. This first step is about getting a clear picture of where you are today, including your current financial position, your goals and what matters most to you.

Moorr helps make that easier before your appointment by bringing key information together in one place. That means we can spend less of your appointment gathering the basics and more time understanding:

• what you’re hoping to achieve
• the questions you want answered
• your current financial position
• your priorities and goals
• what options may be worth exploring next

And importantly, Moorr doesn’t just collect that information for us. It also gives you a clearer view of your household finances, so you can better understand your own starting point too.

Setting up your Moorr Account via Open Banking

Building a detailed picture of your finances manually can take time.

Depending on your circumstances and how good you are with paperwork, completing your Moorr setup manually can take from 30 minutes up to 1.5 hours, as you work through your accounts, balances and the hardest part, your spending habits.

That’s why, during setup, you may also see an option to “Connect Bank Accounts”.

This is Moorr’s Open Banking option.

With your consent, Open Banking can securely bring eligible banking information into Moorr automatically, helping reduce the setup process to around 2–10 minutes and cutting down a lot of the manual entry.

But the benefit doesn’t stop at setup.

Having more up-to-date financial data in Moorr can also help power clearer insights across the platform, from understanding your spending and cashflow to visualising how money moves through your household and tracking progress towards your goals.

In short, less time entering numbers and more time understanding what those numbers are telling you.

You can learn more about how it works on the Moorr Open Banking Hub.

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking in Australia operates through the Consumer Data Right (CDR), a government-regulated framework that gives you greater control over how your banking information is shared.

If you choose to use it, you’ll be shown the information being requested and asked to provide consent. You’ll then be directed to your financial institution to verify your identity and confirm the eligible accounts and information you want to share.

The Australian Government describes the process as:

Consent → Identity check → Confirm what you want to share → Secure data transfer. See how the Consumer Data Right works on the Australian Government website.

Importantly, you don’t give Empower Wealth or Moorr your internet banking password.

Your financial institution handles the authentication step, and the information you authorise is then transferred through the CDR framework.

If you’d like to understand the framework in more detail, Moorr has put together a detailed guide to the Consumer Data Right here.

How does the data access and flow works?

Open Banking in Moorr operates under the CDR Representative Arrangement. Under this model:

• an accredited business acts as the CDR Representative Principal
• another business operates as its CDR Representative
• the CDR Representative Principal collects CDR data on behalf of the Representative
• the Representative can then use that data to provide the agreed product or service to the consumer

The Australian Government explains that a CDR Representative can participate in the CDR system without holding its own accreditation, provided it has a formal arrangement with a CDR Representative Principal that holds unrestricted accreditation.

Now, if you have requested a free initial consultation with Empower Wealth, there is separate, optional step involving a Trusted Adviser which is defined as recognised professionals and businesses such as financial advisers, mortgage brokers, accountants, lawyers and tax agents under the CDR Framework.

In simple terms, the flow looks like this.

• Basiq is the CDR Representative Principal. Basiq is an Accredited Data Recipient with unrestricted accreditation under Australia’s Consumer Data Right.
• Moorr, through Achieve Moorr Pty Ltd, is the CDR Representative.
• And, where you nominate and consent to it, Empower Wealth Australia Pty Ltd is the Trusted Adviser.

Importantly, that final step is separate and does not happen automatically. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) confirms that a CDR Representative must have the consumer’s consent before CDR data can be disclosed to their nominated Trusted Adviser.

The Basiq and Moorr CDR Representative arrangement is publicly listed on the Australian Government’s official CDR provider register. You can verify the arrangement yourself on the Australian Government CDR provider register.

Or, if you’d like the plain-English version, read Moorr’s guide to CDR Representative Principals and Basiq.

There are also some important privacy distinctions once data is disclosed to a Trusted Adviser, so we’ve created a separate guide on Moorr explaining exactly how this works. Read: What is a Trusted Adviser under the Consumer Data Right?

For independent information, you can also read the OAIC’s official guidance on Trusted Advisers.

Do I have to use Open Banking to complete my Moorr account?

No. Open Banking is optional.

You can still complete your Moorr setup manually, and there are also options to import transaction information using CSV files where available.

Open Banking simply provides a simpler and quicker way to bring eligible financial information into Moorr with less manual updating. As mentioned earlier, completing your Moorr setup manually can take around 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, as you work through your accounts, balances, income, expenses, loans and other financial details while if you select Open Banking, the process can be brought down to 2 – 10 minutes.

Australia’s Consumer Data Right is itself an opt-in system. The Australian Government explains that consumers choose whether to participate, what information they want to share, who they share it with and when they want that sharing to stop. (Consumer Data Right)

So if Open Banking isn’t right for you, you can choose another way to set up your information.

Can Empower Wealth see every Moorr users’ data?

No. Empower Wealth can only access relevant information for clients who have specifically consented to Empower Wealth Australia Pty Ltd being their nominated Trusted Adviser.

Majority of Moorr users have no professional relationship with Empower Wealth at all. And hence, Empower Wealth does not have access to those users’ data.

This is an important distinction.

Bringing eligible banking information into Moorr and sharing selected financial information with Empower Wealth are separate actions.

Simply choosing Open Banking in Moorr does not automatically give the Empower Wealth team access to your CDR data. That only occurs where applicable and after you separately consent to Empower Wealth Australia Pty Ltd being your nominated Trusted Adviser.

Can Moorr or Empower Wealth move money from my bank account?

No. The Open Banking experience we’re discussing is about sharing eligible financial data, not moving money.

It does not give Moorr the ability to make payments, transfer funds or make changes to your bank accounts. You also remain in control of your CDR consent. The Australian Government states that consumers can see and manage the data they have consented to share and can withdraw their consent at any time.

Why go through all of this before the appointment?

Because we’d rather use your appointment to talk about you, your unique circumstances and your unique lifelong goals, not spend most of it collecting basic information.

Having a clearer financial picture beforehand can help our team better understand your starting point and spend more time exploring the areas that matter to you.

And for you, Moorr isn’t just an onboarding form. It gives you a place to see more of your household finances together, explore your cashflow, keep track of goals and continue building a clearer picture of where you stand.

Open Banking can make that picture easier to keep current, but whether you use it is entirely your choice.

The simple version

If you’ve requested an appointment with Empower Wealth and we’ve asked you to use Moorr, here’s what to remember:

• Moorr and Empower Wealth are part of the same Group.
• Moorr is a secure online platform that helps organise your household financial picture before your appointment.
• Open Banking is optional and can reduce the amount of information you need to update manually.
• You choose what eligible banking information you consent to share.
• Moorr does not ask for your internet banking password.
• Because you’re requesting for a free initial consultation with Empower Wealth, you’ll be asked for separate consent to nominate Empower Wealth Australia Pty Ltd as Trusted Adviser

The goal is simple: less time gathering information, and more time focused on your financial position, your questions and what you want to achieve.

Want to learn more before connecting?

• Explore Open Banking in Moorr
• Learn how Basiq and the CDR Representative model work
• Read about Trusted Advisers and CDR consent
• Visit the Australian Government Consumer Data Right website
• See how CDR data sharing works