Advisers urged to become 'data smart'

In a speech to be delivered today at the AFA national adviser conference in Cairns – seen by ifa – Einsights chief executive Sandeep Rao argues that financial advisers need to become "data smart" in a digital age.

"Like many Australian executives, financial advisers are largely ignoring the potential of data analytics," Mr Rao wrote.

"They continue to rely on gut instinct instead and miss opportunities to scrutinise their business to increase their market penetration while lifting profits."

At the same time, Mr Rao acknowledged that it is "very difficult" for most businesses to retrieve data when and in the format they need without an advanced understanding of the issues.

For them to maximise the data already being collected in advice businesses every day, Mr Rao advocates they use a three-step process known as "act-reap-think" in which advisers are urged to "stop procrastinating" and bring on an intern to mine the internal data to build a "business dashboard", while also automating as far as possible.

Mr Rao also rejects the "media-led" term 'big data', arguing that the "size of datasets (big or small) is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things".