Virgin Super gaining traction
Flamboyant billionaire Richard Branson’s attempt to conquer the Australian superannuation market appears to be gaining traction, with new research revealing that the Virgin Superannuation website has the most traffic of any superannuation business and finance site in the country.
According to the research conducted by online measurement consultancy Hitwise Australia, the popularity of Virgin Superannuation’s website jumped in the period between mid-July and mid-August to make it the number one visited business and finance website for superannuation, up from a category ranking of 290 in the previous month.
This translated into a 19.57 per cent online market share in the category for Virgin, far exceeding the market share of its nearest rival, AMP, which took out 10.43 per cent.
Virgin Money head of marketing Nicole Hayde confirmed the company had opened almost 10,000 super accounts, and received up to 3,000 enquiries a day, primarily through the website.
Demographics research found 63.29 per cent of visitors to the website were female. Hayde said while she was not surprised to learn women were investigating superannuation, the company had expected a “more even spread” between the genders.
She said there had also been an expectation that most users would be slightly younger than the study indicated, with 39 per cent of visitors found to be aged between 45 and 54 years.
Recommended for you
The top five licensees are demonstrating a “strong recovery” from losses in the first half of the year, and the gap is narrowing between their respective adviser numbers.
With many advisers preparing to retire or sell up, business advisory firm Business Health believes advisers need to take a proactive approach to informing their clients of succession plans.
Retirement commentators have flagged that almost a third of Australians over 50 are unprepared for the longevity of retirement and are falling behind APAC peers in their preparations and advice engagement.
As private markets continue to garner investor interest, Netwealth’s series of private market reports have revealed how much advisers and wealth managers are allocating, as well as a growing attraction to evergreen funds.
