Online SoAs won't replace financial planners: AustralianSuper
AustralianSuper has announced the launch of an online financial advice offering for its members, which the big industry funds says will help people 'self-start' their superannuation.
The super fund's general manager of marketing and communications James Coyle said online advice was much cheaper to produce than face-to-face planning, although he added that online Statements of Advice wouldn't replace advisers.
"At any point in the process the member can stop and then re-engage later or put in a call to our phone-based superannuation advisers, who can access the history of advice provided and pick up where the online advice tool left off," Coyle said.
AustralianSuper's new advice offering was developed with Provisio Technologies, and will provide members with access to advice on contributions, transition to retirement and setting up a pension account.
"The goal was to help members make more informed decisions about their financial future by taking away as many barriers to engagement as possible," said Coyle. He added that AustralianSuper's new advice tools would utilise members' account information to make advice available "24 hours a day, seven days a week".
The online offering includes access to the fund's existing retirement calculator, which is also available on mobile devices.
Provisio Technologies director Jye Tucker said the AustralianSuper website also included "teaser-style widgets" that acted as a call to action for members, showing them how long their super would last in retirement.
"To really engage members AustralianSuper needed a departure from previous retirement modeling, calculators and so on ... By shifting the focus to projected retirement income AustralianSuper is painting a picture of what super will actually mean to members," Tucker said.
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