Iress launches digital advice and education solution to close advice gap

Iress today announced that the launch of its end-to-end digital advice and education solution will support the industry to service the 11.8 million Australians who have unmet advice needs.

Following a successful initial launch with Hostplus and Industry Fund Services (IFS), Iress’ digital advice solution complements comprehensive advice by providing superannuation funds and other industry players with the ability to deliver personalised digital advice and financial education based on member demographics and preference data.

Iress’ digital advice solution offers a suite of self-guided, intuitive and affordable financial planning tools for members with simple advice needs, while providing member engagement and education through multi-format content to boost financial literacy. In partnership with Iress, super funds and other industry players can choose to tailor their digital advice offering based on their current advice models and member needs, with options ranging from ‘out of the box’ solutions to fully bespoke design and build API services that enable full control of the member experience.

Iress’ Executive General Manager - Wealth, Kelli Willmer, said: “Research shows advice demand is outstripping supply. There are millions of Australians with unmet advice needs, exacerbated by the decline in adviser numbers over recent years. Clearly, there’s both a need and an opportunity for superannuation funds and other industry players to step into this challenge by leveraging technology and data to cater to the millions of Australians with simpler advice needs or a desire for a more self-service approach.

“We know from experience that one of the advice barriers to the average person is the knowledge and skills they need to navigate an advice journey, so we’ve built our digital advice solution to help bridge those fundamental gaps with relevant financial education.

“Iress has been at the forefront of digital advice solutions, underpinned by the power of Xplan. Through our end-to-end digital advice offering with super fund partners such as Hostplus and IFS, we enable over 23,000 interactive general advice journeys per month and more than 7,000 personal advice journeys per month, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from members.

“We are continuing to build on our leading suite of advice tools to support the industry to bring more advice to more Australians. We’re also looking at how we can use emerging technologies to continually increase the efficiency, scalability and personalisation of advice.”

For more information on Iress’ digital advice and education offering, visit https://www.iress.com/software/financial-advice/digital-advice-for-super-funds/.