Modern cloud-based technology can act as the instrument to triage and recognise levels of scaled and intra-fund advice, as well as ensure a seamless handover from one type of adviser to another.
Technology itself must be able to help advisers recognise what level of advice is appropriate and, if it falls outside a particular level of scaled advice, should be able to recommend a suitable solution, Decimal managing director Jan Kolbusz said.
“If the technology is powerful enough under the covers from a database perspective, you could get a seamless handover to somebody and they can pick up where you left off,” he said.
“Higher levels of scaled advice that is passed on, potentially handled by another organisation, can use cloud-based technology [as] you control from a central location all the compliance, the configuration rules and making sure that what you’re providing online to your clients works off the same database.”
Dispensing limited advice through a superannuation call centre without complete details, such as a member’s risk tolerance or their spouse’s circumstances, can be reduced drastically, Kolbusz said.
“It absolutely should address and minimise that risk,” he said.
“If the organisation has a technology solution that can deal with a variety of different scenarios, then, invariably, it can qualify that client better as to what level of advice they should have.
“It can also provide scripting, as an adviser with a certain level of experience can hit a wall, but they can pass it onto an adviser with higher levels of scalable advice [knowledge].”
Kolbusz said there is minimal difficulty in implementing a solution based on modern technology, however, in the rush to solve scaled advice there is a misnomer within the industry that intra-fund advice is simple.
“It’s not necessarily simple at all, it’s potentially very sophisticated,” he said.
The wider implications of scaled advice include compliance risks in providing potentially five or 10 times the amount of personal advice recommendations, how clients are handed over for higher levels of advice and what happens to the data collected and the on-going engagement process, he said.
