Technology boosts education but doesn’t replace adviser
Online financial advice solutions cannot cater to a client's feelings about risk, strategy and investment decisions, but technology can play a role in boosting financial literacy among Australians, Integra Financial Services adviser, Deborah Kent said.
Kent said that while education around financial advice was non-existent when she entered the industry in 1988, she was seeing an evolution where technology and the availability of information at one's fingertips would allow people increase their financial literacy, which she welcomed.
However, while it was easy to find online investment solutions at the click of the button, she emphasised that emotional intelligence was vital in financial advice and this would not be found in online solutions.
"Clients expect us to be technically competent, which comes with education yes, but we connect with people and that connection is on a very deep level," she said.
"I often say to people when they come to an adviser you are going to kind of strip yourself bare because we're going to ask you some very probing questions and connecting with that person is all around emotional intelligence."
Emotional intelligence especially played a vital role in helping women gain financial security, with 47 per cent of women still retiring with insufficient superannuation.
Kent said she had seen cases where women faced broken marriages, domestic violence and divorce where they were financially abused.
"[They have] never dealt with anything their entire life and all of a sudden here they are in their 60s and their husbands have decided to leave and they're left with no knowledge, nothing. So these women can be left quite broken," she said.
However, Kent said there was still work to be done in restoring trust in the advice industry.
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Unadvised Australians believe they need $2 million to retire comfortably, according to Colonial First State, a wide variance compared to advised individuals which estimate $1.3 million.
