Advisers embrace technology
It’s official —Australian financial planners are heavy users of technology.
It’s official —Australian financial planners are heavy users of technology.
A survey conducted by Salomon Smith Barney Asset Management (SSB) reveals that 97 per cent of the financial planning community use computers at work and 95 per cent use email. Internet usage is also high with 90 per cent of respondents saying they are moderate to heavy surfers.
The mobile phone is becoming an increasingly important tool of trade with 81 per cent of advisers getting connected.
SSB vice president Andrew Fairweather says: “The impact of technology has been huge. Planners can now interact and transact with clients without having to leave the office. Financial plans can be constructed much more efficiently.”
While he says those observations are obvious, SSB has also found that most planners have an e-commerce strategy in place.
“Planners are not thinking about the Internet as a source of advertising but as a tool to increase efficiencies,” he says.
The survey also asked planners whether they thought technology stocks were overvalued. Although 75 per cent thought technology stocks were expensive and irrational, Fairweather is concerned that many saw the current boom as different from other historical episodes.
“Around 60 per cent of planners think this boom is different from other booms — and I think that’s a result of talk about the new economy. The emphasis on the new economy in the press means that the excesses of the past — things like Tulipmania, the South Sea Bubble and the Crash of ’29 - have been forgotten.”
SSB began the survey in Adelaide when the Nasdaq was 1500 points higher than it is now. The survey asked financial planners and institutional prospects how technology was affecting them. SSB is continuing to conduct the survey and has collected a total of 250 responses from the financial planning community in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
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