Speaking to ifa’s sister publication Adviser Innovation, Cameron O’Sullivan, head of product at Rubik’s wealth division, said that the inclusion of new channels will result in more people accessing advice.
“We’re going to bring this huge groundswell of people into the advice models that are currently not getting any advice at all,” he said.
“There will be just as many planners and eventually we will end up with more clients because growing everyone’s net wealth will mean there will be more people who can deal with an adviser.”
Mr O’Sullivan predicts most of the advice given through these layers will be generated through a “rapid advice system that’s interactive and [fast]”.
He added that advisers need to capitalise on this trend now, and that it is imperative for them to start building the infrastructure needed to offer web and phone-based advice and the capabilities that allow them to transfer clients between the two formats.
“To me, if you build all those layers seamlessly … all we’re really doing is giving clients more flexibility.”
Commenting on the rise of automated advice tools, Mr O’Sullivan said the solutions will need to offer more than portfolio construction if they are to truly disrupt the industry.
“In Australia, the bulk of advice doesn’t start out with a portfolio; it starts out with a strategy,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“It will be interesting to see the arc [that robo-advice] takes in Australia because in [the US] most of planning advice is about planning someone’s portfolio – they don’t do nearly the level of strategy that we do.
“I don’t think those tools will reap through Australia as they have in [the US]. Robo-advice can work but it will need to be in a different format,” he said.
