IRESS has launched an attempt to fill the gap between robo-advice and traditional personalised advice, offering a product intended to offer online advice on retirement planning easily and cheaply to superannuation fund members.
The SuperClick Advice tool, which would pull personal and account data already held by superannuation funds to generate advice, was implemented by WA Super last week as part of what its general manager of distribution and advice, Quyen Truong, called “our goal to empower and educate members” to achieve financial dreams.
Truong said that a key benefit of the software was that it would allow members to pursue this advice where and when it most suited them.
When asked by Super Review, IRESS managing director, superannuation, Jeff Hall, said that the essential difference between the software provider’s offering and robo-advice was that the former was based on offering personal, goals-based advice through an online channel. He said that in contract, robo-advice was relatively anonymous, based solely on algorithms using data to produce advice.
Interest in the tool from WA Super members had been strong since its launch a week ago, with approximately 30 members per day trying the service. Of these, the fund said that a number had got through to the point where advice was given.
Truong noted that dropping out during the process didn’t mean members would not receive advice, as the tool was “built to compliment” the fund’s overall advice services so those individuals could then be contacted by human advisers.
She also said that while the tool would target younger generations naturally, the members who had logged on thus far had been come from various demographics.
