Industry funds look to robo advice
Technology and robo advice should not be regarded as an end in itself but as a means to an end, according to Industry Fund Services (IFS) chief executive, Bill Danaher.
Speaking on a panel during the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds (CMSF) on the Gold Coast, Danaher said he nonetheless believed that technology and robo advice were necessary ingredients to making advice more affordable for the many fund members who did not require holistic advice.
He said that the approximately $3000 average cost of holistic advice was too much for most fund members and funds needed to find a way of making advice more affordable and it was clear that technology was a part of the equation, but not necessarily in competition with traditional advice.
Indeed, Danaher suggested that the ability for people to at some point speak to a human being probably needed to be part of the system of delivering robo advice.
The CMSF panel concluded that while it might be possible to deliver robo advice at little or no cost, this was probably ill-advised because members would not sufficiently value something they were not required to pay for.
However it was suggested that a robo advice service might be provided free for those with low account balances.
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