Class partners with robo-advice provider
Class has teamed up with an SMSF advice provider, allowing accountants administering SMSFs to offer financial advice services to clients without the need for an AFSL. The partnership with Plenty Plus, which operates under its own AFSL, allows accountants to generate advice without the need for their own license. Advice fees will also be calculated per transaction with no additional sign-up or ongoing fees. Class chief executive Kevin Bungard said the importance of financial advice for SMSFs has been brought into sharp relief by the introduction of the super reforms. “The impact of the super reforms on SMSF members and other investors frequently sees them needing advice beyond tax and […]
Australians are turning to alternative types of investments
Australians unable to buy in an overheated property market are turning to other investments to boost their wealth. As property prices in capital cities particularly Sydney and Melbourne continue to soar and returns on cash in the bank remain around two per cent, many savers have had to look at alternative ways to grow their money. KILL your debts quicker than ever before Ray Corcoran, 29, who runs his own marketing consultancy has put off buying property and instead is investing his money through a Robo-adviser — an automated investment service. After having his savings in an online account collecting interest at a rate of 1.6 per cent he decided […]
Sydney robo-advisor founded by ex-UBS portfolio manager raises $3 million in series B
Sydney fintech Stockspot has secured $3 million in a series B capital raising round, the startup revealed on Thursday. Stockspot is a digital investment advisor, commonly known as a robo-advisor, and a fund manager founded by chief executive Chris Brycki, a former UBS and BlueLake Partners portfolio manager. ETF Securities founder Graham Tuckwell and Australian firm Alium Capital, which invested in HealthEngine and Nitro last month, led the $3 million round. Stockspot also revealed that H2’s Toby and Ben Heap, who were already investors, and “algorithmic trading” entrepreneur Danny Bhandari contributed to the series B. “Graham is a global exchange-traded fund (ETF) pioneer, having invented exchange traded commodities and built […]
Acorns’ machine-learning feature to help millennials save money
KPMG sees robots taking over tax compliance
When 800 executives were surveyed for a World Economic Forum report published in September 2015, three-quarters said company audits would be performed by artificial intelligence by 2021. A similar proportion reckoned the world would have witnessed the first tax collected via blockchain within that timeframe, while 45 per cent said robots would be occupying places at the board room table. Clearly, the tax profession is ripe for digital disruption. In a new briefing paper, KPMG envisages a world where much tax compliance work is done by machines, leaving humans to pick up the more complex tasks. While computers will do the heavy lifting on the number crunching front, tasks requiring […]
Advisers urged to dump simplistic advice to drive growth
Financial planners need to be prepared to shed some clients and rebuild their value proposition if they are to achieve sustainable growth, according to a new white paper released by Matrix Planning Solutions and ClearView Financial Advice. The whitepaper, which has drawn on the experiences of Matrix advisers, argues that for financial planners to deal with the competitive pressures being driven by robo-advice and industry superannuation funds, they need to deliver a better value proposition. “In order for advisers to remain compliant and secure in their position as trusted adviser, they must continuously add value,” it said. “The way to continuously add value is to delve deeper into their clients’ […]
Macquarie’s plan to beat the investment robots
Investing robots and index funds are poaching billions of dollars from human fund managers, but Macquarie Investment Management head of the Americas Shawn Lytle says the firm is repositioning to cope with the seismic shift into passive investing. Globally, droves of investors are yanking money from high-fee active managers and parking their funds in passive strategies such as exchange-traded funds that ride the ups and downs of select markets. Macquarie Investment Management, a global division which manages about $US257 billion of Macquarie Group’s $US362 billion in assets under management, is aiming to differentiate by offering more unique actively managed equities, bonds and alternative assets such as infrastructure. “We are at […]
Robo adviser Six Park says lower balance SMSFs are viable
A robo adviser backed by four founding members of the Future Fund says that pre-retirees with starting balances of under $150,000 can run their own super funds, despite the corporate watchdog cracking down on providers that offer low-balance SMSF set-ups. The chief executive of Six Park Patrick Garrett said that the robo adviser, which counts the former federal finance minister Lindsay Tanner as both a financial backer and an advisory board member, is launching a lower-cost establishment service to make self-managed superannuation funds more “accessible” and easier to run, particularly for those with small balances. “I wouldn’t recommend a $10,000 SMSF account. But we have one of our first clients, […]
