Iress introduces education and advice tool for super funds

The financial services software company announced that Hostplus and IFS will deploy its new “SuperSmart” tool, which it said would enhance outcomes for superannuation members through a combination of digital advice and personalised financial education based on member demographics and preference data.

Iress chief executive of superannuation Paul Giles said: “Over 12 million Australians have unmet advice needs today, and this gap represents a significant opportunity for super funds to leverage technology and data to deliver their members engaging, highly accessible personalised digital advice journeys, while providing options to speak to a human adviser.

“Iress is delighted to support Hostplus and IFS with mass-personalised, education-led digital advice solutions that enable their members to achieve better financial outcomes both today and in retirement.

“‘SuperSmart’ is the natural extension of our extensive experience in advice delivery, providing super funds with an integrated digital advice and member education experience.”

Iress said that the new “SuperSmart” tool can be personalised through registry data and offers super funds a suite of financial planning tools for members with simple advice needs.

The firm added that the tool also provides efficient and effective member engagement and education through multi-format content.

Hostplus group executive - member experience, Paul Watson, said: “Hostplus sees advice as a critical service offering for our members to enable them to retire with confidence.

“We’re passionate about ensuring that when our members are ready for advice, they’re aware that we can provide it to them on their terms — whether that be digital, in person or over the phone.

“We also recognise that our advice solution needs to be scalable to reach the level of membership that we have, and partners like Iress and IFS not only give us the ability to boost our current advice offering but, vitally, continually collaborate in optimising the experience over the long term.”

IFS executive manager of advice solutions Adrian Gervasoni said: “IFS is very focused on driving innovation and efficiency in how industry super funds are able to deliver great advice at scale.

“By partnering with industry leaders such as Iress and Hostplus, we feel we have the capabilities, risk appetite, conviction, and clarity of objectives to seed a market-leading solution. Importantly, this solution must meet the member’s needs, and not be just a widget building project.”

Last week, Iress said it plans to develop the next generation of advice software.

Group chief executive and managing director Marcus Price said the business is “committed to leading the development of the next generation of advice software, as well as investing in future growth in industry connectivity and data and analytics”.

At the end of March, the Australian Retirement Trust announced that it would release an “end-to-end digital advice platform” — encompassing calculators, DIY advice through and human-led intra-fund advice — and is aiming to launch it in the market by the end of next year.