The country’s largest superannuation administration provider, Link Group, announced on Wednesday that it would provide holistic advice to help funds differentiate their offering.
The advice offering would be reflected through its rebrand of MoneySolutions to Link Advice and will be part of Link Group’s fund administration division.
Link said the provision of financial advice was an integral part of the member journey, and had been integrated into the different touch points of member engagement.
Money Solutions chief executive, Ross Bowden, said the advice trend was on a growth trajectory and funds should explore their advice offering to avoid being left behind.
“Scaled financial advice is no longer just a bolt on for superannuation funds, it is an integral part of member engagement and member services,” Bowden said.
“By offering advice, super funds are engaging and educating members to improve their retirement outcomes. More than this, they are engendering loyalty, and improving member retention.”
Link also announced today that its digital and mobile solutions provider, Link Digital Solutions, had partnered with robo-advice provider, Ignition Wealth.
The partnership aims to provide super fund members access to advice tools such as super and insurance cover calculators, directly through Link’s online member portals.
Link Digital Solutions, part of Link’s information, digital and data solutions (IDDS) division, also recently partnered with DocuSign to grow Link’s client base and support member acquisition, engagement, and retention.
IDDS CEO, Paul Gardiner, said the partnership with Ignition Wealth would “allow us to pre-populate superannuation advice tools such as personal projections and simulations, and make them readily available within our clients’ online member portals”.
“Ultimately this will assist funds as they support their members in the journey from accumulation to retirement,” he said.
Ignition Wealth’s CEO, Mark Fordee, said the partnership would provide a consumer first solution as the ability to automatically pre-fill tools and calculators with real member data will increase accuracy and decrease time, driving greater member engagement.
In December 2014, Link Group, which was already operating Australian Administration Services (AAS), took over the management of Superpartners to provide member administration to super funds AustralianSuper, HOSTPLUS, HESTA, Cbus, and MTAA Super.
