How technology can help super funds boost engagement and improve member outcomes.
Every Australian dreams of a comfortable retirement – but unfortunately, not everyone is on track to get there. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) recommends that a single person have $545,000 in super savings when they retire, and $640,000 for a couple.[1]
Yet, many of us are falling well short of this mark. The median super balance at retirement is only $154,453 for men and $122,848 for women.[2] So how can you help your members achieve the retirement they dream of?
The benefits of advice
Professional financial advice can make all the difference in the quality of life your members enjoy in retirement. When they receive personalised advice, members not only become more actively engaged with their super, they’re also empowered with the skills and knowledge they need to maximise their savings.
With advice tailored to their needs, members learn to set retirement goals, and put super strategies in place to help achieve them. Depending on their circumstances, this could be as simple as making additional contributions, changing their investment portfolios, insuring their life or income, or taking advantage of government incentives.
What’s more, the earlier that members start boosting their super, the more they’ll accrue in savings over the course of their working lives. This leads to better outcomes for their retirement.
Super funds have a role to play
In addition to growing their members’ super savings, super funds can play a key role in helping members maximise their balance and get on track for a comfortable retirement.
But creating an enhanced advice experience comes at a cost – for both funds and members. Super funds can struggle under the load of administrative tasks and data entry, taking staff away from higher value activities. Plus, in a constantly changing advice landscape, funds may find it challenging to keep up with changing regulatory requirements to fulfil their compliance obligations.
This can hold funds back from reaching key performance benchmarks required to continue running their business. It can also put them at risk of making human errors or delivering unsuitable advice. The end result is an advice service that’s more expensive and less optimal for members, which further drives down levels of engagement.
Overcoming the challenges
Bravura Solutions and Midwinter are on a mission to help super funds deliver advice that’s cost-effective, convenient and compliant. That’s why they’ve designed a suite of intuitive and interactive digital advice solutions to address the advice challenges in the super industry, offering benefits to both members and funds.
With three integrated platforms – Sonata, Digital Advice and AdviceOS – member details are shared instantly across the system, reducing data entry and the risk of errors. Each product works seamlessly with the other to facilitate straight-through, frictionless processing which automatically creates, manages, executes and reports advice capabilities.
Therefore, members have quick and low-cost access to self-directed and personalised advice. Their questions or concerns can also be escalated to a human adviser when needed, with phone-based and face-to-face advice options.
[1] ASFA Retirement Standard, 2018.
[2] ASFA, Better retirement outcomes: a snapshot of account balances in Australia, July 2019.
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