Australia is well placed for innovation in advice technology as the impacts of the Royal Commission has softened with time, according to Ignition Advice.
Speaking to Money Management, Craig Keary, chief executive for Asia Pacific, said innovation in technologies like regtech and fintech had not seen the take-up by the advice industry because of a range of factors.
“People have been weighed down by the Royal Commission, people have been weighed down by dealing with the live business issues that were presenting themselves through COVID-19,” he said.
“I think what is happening is that people are now coming up for air.”
According to Keary, Australia stacked up well compared to other markets with technology integration as a lot of innovation happened here.
He also said Ignition Advice had benefited from its network of businesses around the world, allowing the firm to leverage innovation in other markets.
“If you think about our business, we are an Australian company. We built digital advice solutions… took those solutions to the UK and Europe and now we’re bringing it back,” said Keary.
“They were ready and they were moving quicker so from a business perspective, that made absolute sense.”
Keary said the next big trend in advice technology was the hybrid advice model seen in the UK, where clients could self-service their financial advice and interact with advisers when and if required.
“I think financial advice and assistance is just a given and I think that will become very much mainstream in the next the next period of time.”
The other trend, according to Keary, was how advice practices would be able to use technology to engage with customers from a content and educational perspective.
“I think one of the things that we’re going to see is with digital advice, [is] building up data in a very safe and trusted way.
“I think the next big thing, which is already happening, is taking the advice process and linking the educational content that is going back to individuals.”
