Online functionality more important than ever

Financial advisers consider online functionality more important than ever when rating employer superannuation offerings, new research commissioned by ING Australiahas revealed.

The survey of 156 advisers nationwide found advisers considered online functionality the sixth most important factor when judging employment superannuation options, up from the 21^st most important factor just one year ago.

Administration, efficiency, processing functions and BDM knowledge remained the top four considerations.

Further evidence of advisers’ increased support for online functionality came in them ranking employer super’s website and online support functions as the 13^th most important factor, up from 25^th a year ago.

ING Australia head of product and marketing, employer super, Mark Pankhurst described the results as “strong confirmation of the power of an online presence in the employer super world”.

“Increasingly, employers, advisers and members see the benefits of online functionality,” he said.

“For the employer, it’s about simplification of transactions and administration processes. For the advisers, it provides a compelling package when promoting employer super and, for the members, it’s about ease of access to their account information, simple transactional functionality and readily available general super information.”

Other key findings of the research were that almost all respondents sourced new business from existing clients and other advisers and more than half said they were planning to expand their involvement in employer super in the future.

ING Australia’s Employer Super has about $11 billion in funds under management. The company’s Corporate Super and Integra Super options were both relaunched last year with several online enhancements.