Planners and super funds need new models to target younger clients
Financial planners and superannuation funds targeting clients need to develop a new holistic model of advice to attract the younger generation of super asset holders, instead of trying to adapt existing advice delivery, according to industry leaders.
In a discussion panel at the Actuaries Institute Financial Services Forum in Melbourne, ANZ general manager of advice and distribution Paul Barrett suggested that financial advisers have to develop an entirely new delivery model for online advice.
"Rather than hold our current model and coerce generation Xers into that, we need to adapt," Barrett said.
Generation X is now the largest holder of superannuation assets, he said.
Clients will want to interact with planners in a different way, so the old holistic one-size-fits-all model will no longer be the model of the future, Barrett said.
Online advice currently could not empower people, or give them knowledge and engagement in the same way as could be done in face-to-face meetings, he said.
"I have yet to find a website that can create the chemistry, the want, and the desire to log on and have a financial conversation," Barrett added.
The future of advice was somewhere in that scenario, he said.
Online advice needs to integrate with superannuation administration, according to Hesta super fund deputy chief executive Debby Blakey.
Members are looking for a holistic experience, and when the superannuation fund offers outcomes it needs to integrate fully with the administrative experience, Blakey said.
However, some members didn't want an online solution and the superannuation fund had to offer different solutions for segmented members, she said.
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