Bionic advice and accumulators are the future: CFS

Speaking at a media roundtable event yesterday, Colonial First State (CFS) general manager, product and investments, Peter Chun and general manager, distribution, Matthew Harrison said platforms servicing the advice sector are set to evolve in the areas of analytics, flexibility and connectivity.

“When we talk about the evolution of analytics in advice, we’re talking about leveraging the power of technology and data to drive enhanced client engagement and more efficient advice businesses,” Mr Chun said.

“We call this bionic advice.

“There is a lot of industry discourse around robo-advice but bionic advice is about: how can face-to-face advice be augmented by the relationship between technology and data?”

“For example, we capture a lot of data - data about customers, how customers are using our platform, how advisers are using our platform. We have a contact centre which collects data prints. Advisers can see the number of times clients have contacted our call centre while speech analytics monitor the topics of those calls,” Mr Chun said.

“This kind of data creates a customer view that advice businesses can leverage to enhance engagement with clients and drive more efficient processes.

“Our vision around analytics and technology is really this idea of bionic advice - how can we use these additional data points to help advisers drive more effective advice, enhance engagement and scale their business?”

Mr Harrison said that another challenge for advisers will be the management of intergenerational wealth shifting in the coming years. However, there is also a growing opportunity for advisers to tap into the accumulator market.

“There is going to be an enormous intergenerational shift of wealth in the future years and our job as a platform provider is to provide solutions that allow advisers to manage that,” Mr Harrison said.

“There are now a lot of business models that are focusing on engaging with the accumulator market. As advisers move into the accumulator space - a space where the amount of money you are dealing with is, on average, a lot less - it is our job as platform providers to offer up tools that are even more efficient and effective to help them leverage that market successfully and deliver value.”