Lindsay Tanner, ex-Sydney Swan Ted Richards at Six Park

It would not ordinarily be assumed that former Rudd and Gillard finance minister Lindsay Tanner, and former Sydney Swans AFL star Ted Richards, have much in common, but both have graduated from being heavyweights in their respective fields to unlikely employees at a young fintech start-up, Six Park.

The Melbourne-based robo-advice company is plotting to undercut the banks and other ­rivals through lower fees and smarter financial advice, and is building out a powerhouse team — and app — to do it.

It aims to add a human touch to automated elements through an advisory board that supervises the investments.

“I’ve never been in a start-up before, but it’s a start-up in an area at least I knew something about, and it was attractive and interesting,” Mr Tanner told The Australian. “I’ve done a few things since I got out of parliament but mostly with large businesses, so the opportunity to be involved with something that is innovative and that’s part of a really big transformation in financial services was exciting.

“There’s a lot of evolution to occur in the whole superannuation space; one of the things ­people forget it’s only been 30 years since we’ve had that system really strongly in place, and probably been 10 to 15 years that the SMSF sector has come of age. To me that’s the natural focus for this, people who want to have SMSF. One of the challenges is giving people that knowledge without burying them in endless fluffing around.”

Mr Tanner said one fundamental difference between tech start-ups and politics was that politics was largely about competing with members of your own team. “Occasionally you then come together to compete against the opposing team,” he said.

“That’s the difference in the business world, we’re not competing with say Qantas, it’s not quite as intense. But it means you do need to have a contribution that is quite different to politics, which is quite a generalist game and you’ve got to be across everything and be able to talk about an incredibly wide range of stuff. A start-up of course has a very specific focus.”

As for former Swan Richards, his interest in business goes back to when he was drafted at 18.

“I arrogantly and somewhat naively started to invest in the market, and the interest and passion really grew from there,” he said. “I was aware that as much as I loved football, I knew it would come to an end. I worked the last six years of my football career including two at Citi Group in research and sales, and four years working under a fund manager studying stocks.

“The reality for footballers is that the average career goes for five years and about 55 games. A lot of people assume they’re just going to have a 15-year career, and unfortunately I’m in the minority.”

According to CEO and co-founder Pat Garrett, since launch in May 2016, Six Park doubled the number of accounts and funds under management in its first six months, and then doubled account numbers and funds under management again in the following six months.

To read more, please click on the link below…

Source: Lindsay Tanner, ex-Sydney Swan Ted Richards at Six Park – The Australian