NAB has stressed that its new online advice service will not be a replacement for face-to-face advice and has distanced itself from the idea that it would be a robo-advice style offering.
NAB, executive general manager – Wealth Advice, Greg Miller, said the new Prosper digital advice service, which will go live in early October, was designed to allow NAB customers to engage with education and information about their finances and use those to make decisions around seeking advice.
He said NAB moved to provide an online advice offering as it found that every age demographic of its customers was using technology but many were not prepared to seek personal advice in the early stages of their decision making.
“There is a technology shift taking place and we have to understand and incorporate that into the financial services sector,” Miller said.
“With digital advice it is important we understand the definitions around that which we see as education and information. Our research found customers were unsure about understanding their circumstances and Prosper allows them to do some work themselves without feeling like they are asking silly questions.”
Miller said the move into digital advice was not the first for the bank and it had been offering online advice and information solutions to corporate superannuation clients for the past two and half years.
He said this model had not changed NAB’s commitment to face to face advice in the corporate superannuation sector and Prosper would be an add-on, not a replacement in the retail advice sector.
“We see Prosper as complementary to our advice channels and expect that some clients may use it for some time before going to see an adviser, usually for help around a critical event,” Miller said.
“We already run large advice networks and we want to expand those and we see digital advice working hand in hand with those networks.”
He said the transition to personal advice had been built into Prosper with users given prompts to access phone based advice or to make contact with a NAB licensed adviser.
According to Miller Prosper will automatically direct customers to make contact with an adviser in the event they state they have specific needs around issues such as self-managed super or defined benefit funds.
As reported at the time NAB announced the roll-out of Prosper, 40,000 clients will initially be provide with access to Prosper, with plans to offer it to around ten times that number during 2016 before making it available to the wider NAB customer base of around three million people.
