Technology to combat industry fund advice

Financial planners can implement rapid advice technology themselves if they want to combat the super funds industry’s growing ability to provide advice, according to Provisio Technologies director Cameron O’Sullivan (pictured).

Advisers have access to the same technology that super funds to provide intra-fund advice, and can use it to dramatically lower the cost of advice, control the level of service they provide and reach more clients, O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan was responding to concerns advisers raised at a recent Financial Planning Association lunch with Minister for Financial Services Bill Shorten that super funds could cross-subsidise advice to lower their own costs.

“Industry super funds have taken advantage of recent technology developments to reach larger numbers of members, and independent financial advisers can do the same to reach more clients,” he said.

The FOFA reforms relating to scalable advice would make rapid advice technology increasingly relevant to advisers, O’Sullivan said.

Advisers could also benefit by shifting to single-issue and defined-scope advice alongside traditional holistic advice, he said.

“Those prepared to leverage the technology to provide simple transaction-based services may be able to generate an additional revenue stream,” he said.

Provisio recently released online advice calculators, allowing dealer groups and financial planners to embed them directly on their website to help engage with consumers. Provisio is continuing discussions with dealer groups and platforms about offering rapid advice technology, O’Sullivan said.