Allianz Retire Plus has partnered with Macquarie University on a research project which will work with Australian retirees and financial advisers to measure ‘happiness’ in retirement as a result of receiving holistic advice.
Led by the university’s associate professor, Joanne Earl, the project would track Australians transitioning to retirement. They would be guided to plan their exit or reconceptualise their participation in the workforce to allow them to revise their plans with each new input of advice. The project will research the impact of active planning across different buckets when transitioning to retirement.
“Rather than just financial advice, early on in the process, we’ll be introducing people to careers counselling or careers advice, as well as a medical assessment to challenge their thinking about health,” Earl said.
“Helping people to go through that decision-making process before they start talking to a financial adviser will give people a lot more information to work with. Those people that have been through this process should make better-qualified decisions than those people that are in a control group.”
The project would also assess the added value of individual advice and test the efficacy of more flexible models of delivery such as online and robo-advice compared to the traditional face-to-face. This would help determine how these elements might work together to assist people in transitioning to retirement.
Allianz Retire Plus head of product and customer experience, Jacqui Lennon, said: “This research has the potential to rescript how we approach retirement advice, so as an industry, we are creating confidence for Australians in retirement.
“This research should define exactly what trusted advice looks like and will provide insight into what role advisers can play in setting up people for a happy retirement,” she said.
“Post Royal Commission, many advisers are struggling to define their value proposition, and with 1,000 Australians retiring a day, there has never been a more pressing need to undertake this research.”
Earl said she expected that the retirees would be able to make more informed choices and would have revised their plans as a result leading them to increasing their adjustment in retirement and overall “seeing them having happier retirements”.
