Will 2023 will be the ‘year of technology’

Speaking on an episode of the ifa Show, head of wealth channel at myprosperity, Karolina Kuszyk, said the coming year will see advisers looking closer at technology providers and how what they have on offer can ease the advice burden.

“2023 is going to be the year of technology where a lot of firms are going to sit down and actually look at this. There are so many options and I always ask advisers, ‘How many technologies are you looking at?’ Because I think it's important to actually understand what is out there and then make your own judgement on what you think will suit your business best,” she said.

“I think next year will be the year,” Ms Kuszyk said, noting that client portals will be the centre of attention over the next six to 12 months. Beyond that, she believes advisers will be turning their focus on mobile apps.

“Out of the last hundred thousand client logins [on myprosperity], almost 70 per cent of them were through the mobile app, not through the desktop browser. Whereas four years ago, that was 40 per cent. So you can imagine in another two years what that percentage is going to be,” she said.

Looking further into the future, Ms Kuszyk said “technology is only as good as the adviser actually uses it”.

Technology, she said, is not trying to replace the adviser, “we are just enhancing their client relationships”.

In five years, she hopes technology will be even more streamlined.

“I hope that they [advisers] are not having to double enter data into their back end system. I’m hoping that all the integrations are running smoothly… At the end of the day, we just want efficiency and we're continually evolving,” she said.

Ms Kuszyk also had a message for advisers looking to exit the industry.

“Think about this: If you’re thinking of selling your practice in the next five years, if you don't have the technology in place, you’re actually not going to get what you want for it. The value of your practice is actually going to fall. So, that’s something that a lot of advisers need to think about as well. Embedding technology into their practices will actually increase the value if they do want to sell down the track.”

To hear more from Ms Kuszyk, tune into the podcast here.