Non-aligned financial advisers are using technology to build co-operative referral networks continuing a trend of outsourcing for skills they do not possess according to a planning software provider.
Adviser Logic head of product development Daniel Gara said his group was working with advisers and receiving requests from others to use software to create networks where they can work with others and offer specialist skills and information to peers in the sector.
"Financial advisers can communicate with each other like never before and are looking at outsourcing non-core advice functions to focus on their own specialities," Gara said.
"At the same time technology creates efficiencies that allow advisers to grow their businesses without having to increase staff or office space. This is an important consideration for many smaller practices who have found that the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation has driven up costs and reduced efficiency."
Gara also stated that financial advisers were typically early adopters of new technologies but were generally cautious of making new technology purchases and decisions during the lead up to the introduction of FOFA and the subsequent moves around amending the legislation.
His comments reflect those of FinaMetrica co-founder Paul Resnik who last week stated that Australian advisers use less sophisticated technology and software than their US and UK counterparts and have focused on compliance and not technology spending in the past two years.
However Gara's view differs from Resnik in that he believes the lag evident in the planner technology sector was not in what was on offer to planners but in the uptake of current offerings caused by uncertainty around FOFA.
"Advisers have been reluctant to commit to technology and software until FOFA had been completed despite the local market having great breadth in products and functionality. The advice market here is very advanced and advisers are keen to invest but they hesitated for while during FOFA and that was not the norm for the sector," Gara said.
