Industry fund reports surge in demand for digital advice

While Rest said there was an increase in demand right across Rest’s membership base, there was a particularly significant take-up from younger members and female members.

“Interactions with 22- to 29-year-old members nearly tripled, while interactions with 30- to 39-year-old members more than doubled. The increase in interactions with female members in these age bands was even more profound — 226 per cent for 22- to 29-year-olds and 153 per cent for 30- to 39-year-olds,” it stated.

Rest chief executive Vicki Doyle said this is clear evidence that people who traditionally don’t engage with advice will do so if it’s made convenient and accessible for them.

“We believe all Australians should have access to advice, no matter what their financial circumstances are. This is especially the case with so many more people facing financial insecurity [due] to current economic conditions,” Ms Doyle said.

“Given the structural changes to the advice market, there is a very real concern that advice will become inaccessible to lower and middle-income Australians.”

Ms Doyle said that with ASIC and the industry looking to digital tools to ensure more Australians can benefit from financial advice, these results should provide encouragement that there is a strong appetite for these services.

“Many of our members wouldn’t be able to access simple advice about their investment options or the ideal level of contributions if it wasn’t provided as part of their super at no additional cost,” she stated.

“Offering this advice digitally allows us to provide this to members at scale, and it allows members to take control of their super whenever and wherever it suits. It’s such an effective way to help more of our members make informed decisions about their super and achieve their best possible retirement outcomes.”

She noted that intra-fund advice has a limited scope and that these tools are not intended to substitute for full advice.

“They’re designed to provide simple advice on particular topics — such as choosing the ideal investment option — in a convenient and understandable way,” she explained.

Rest currently has three digital intra-fund advice services which are focused on investment choice, insurance needs and contribution optimisation.

In the nine months from September 2019 to June 2020, Ms Doyle said the fund’s digital tools were used more times than they had been in the previous two years combined.

“In fact, 40 per cent of all Rest Advice interactions since our service began — over the phone or digitally — came in that nine-month period,” she said.

“There are a number of environmental factors that will have helped drive this demand, such as the extreme market volatility earlier this year and legislative changes to insurance cover, but the growth in online advice has been uniform since September last year.”