In last week’s email, we hinted that robo-advisers could be coming to an office near you and asked if this posed another threat to the retail advice sector? We have long said that so-called “robo-advisers” (automated tools guiding investors to decisions) are a boon for financial advisers. They should help with efficiency, productivity and servicing lower value accounts. But it’s early days.
In the corporate advice space we are seeing signs of a robo-advice revolution. In a recent poll of 40 senior corporate advisers and EBCs from among the biggest firms in the sector – 37% said they were planning to offer regulated advice digitally in the next 12 months! Some will launch their own propositions but roughly a third will be looking for a white-labelled solution from a provider. Only 34% had no plans to offer advice digitally.
We don’t know how the Financial Advice Market Review will affect robo-advice in the retail investing space yet but we do know that the advice gap troubles Harriet Baldwin and her Treasury mandarins. The workplace has been a key battleground in the fight to get the mass market engaged in pension saving – so why not advice?
The pension freedoms have added fuel to this fire. Where once it was a straight swap from DC pension scheme into an annuity, we now have freedom and choice. There has never been a greater imperative to provide advice but for those employees not in the top income bracket, this can be expensive.
As part of our research for our Workplace Savings Guide we have been speaking to plan providers about ways to drive engagement in workplace savings. These range from purely digital to very old-fashioned seminars. For those going the digital route there are calculators to translate today’s contributions into tomorrow’s income (notably Aegon’s Retiready). Those going the more traditional route are offering in-person seminars for those nearing retirement.
LV= sees the opportunity to provide workplace scheme members with low cost advice through its robo-advice proposition. The mutual calls it ‘algorithmic advice’ and has leveraged technology built by Wealth Wizards by acquiring the online IFA. LV=’s online advice service ends with the employee speaking to a telephone based adviser and it can offer this for a flat fee of £199. At just a tenth of the cost of an Arsenal season ticket, as an employee, this seems compelling. But it would be even more compelling if my employer was willing to stump up the cash.
And this could be a sticking point. Most people are pretty engaged with the concept of choosing the best income option in retirement (even if they don’t know how to achieve it). But how engaged are employers in helping their scheme members to make the right choices? Yesterday, the Platforum team sat in a company meeting where it was seen as a victory by one particular group that we had secured 36 more forks and a bigger milk order from our employer (Centaur). Pretty critical stuff. But I bet that every person in that meeting cares about a comfortable retirement too.
Auto-enrolment has brought the majority of the workplace into pension saving. Could robo-advice accessed through an employee benefits platform give many of those employees access to advice for the first time? Many don’t think that employee engagement will be enough – employer engagement is going to be critical. I think they might be right.
More on this and the rapidly evolving workplace savings market in our Workplace Savings Guide coming out in November. If you have stories to share for our workplace savings guide, get in touch. We are collecting views from fund managers, pension providers, EBCs, corporate advisers and employers.