Pension providers have a role to play in getting members engaged with their retirement savings and potentially offering them simple digital advice, according to guests on the latest FT Adviser podcast.
Anne Fuchs, executive general manager at the Australian Retirement Trust, and Jonathan Hawkins, propositions lead at Bravura Solutions, discussed what the UK and Australia can learn from each other when it comes to retirement income advice and what providers can do to get more people seeking advice.
Fuchs said: “For a fund like ours, we have 2.3mn Australians, and we believe that ultimately they should be able to get individual advice from the channel they prefer. Be that from digital or from speaking to one of our phone based advisers that are able to provide simple advice about our pension fund.
“But we also partner with 5,000 independent advisers who provide that more complex advice, so we believe it needs to be on the members' terms and meet their needs. And it's our job to facilitate that.”
Fuchs discussed how there were only around 10,000 advisers left in Australia and so providers offering simple advice may push people to sit down with an adviser later down the line.
“There's more work to do than we could possibly handle, which is why again, I think digital advice could be good.
"Some advisers might be scared of digital advice. Our view is that if the member consumes just a little bit of digital advice, it might build their levels of financial literacy, and then they'll go up the value chain and one day sit down with a professional adviser,” she added.
Hawkins discussed how in the UK providers and trusts are worried about crossing a regulatory line when it comes to offering guidance to customers and there needed to be a “real change” in the way this was viewed.
He said: “My generation and those that come after me don't understand as a whole what it means to have a pot of money and how that then turns into an income. And we just don't have that advice and guidance in the system.
"Bravura recently conducted a survey, which we're publishing later this summer but it found most people expect to get that advice and guidance from their provider or a financial services organisation they have a relationship with.
“So if we can build that trust, that understanding, when people come to a big event, they may think well hang on a minute, I do need to speak to somebody, I do need to do something.
"So it's a case of it's not a one and done. This is a lifelong education, guidance, learning, advice, piece that we need to put into place and I think Australia are ahead of us in this space at the moment.”
