YBR executive chairman Mark Bouris said that having “made a career out of building disruptive businesses”, he will now turn his attention to “flipping the financial planning industry inside out”, with a new robo-enabled advice proposition aimed at younger and lower-income Australians.
Under the new model, YBR clients will undergo a “discovery session” with ‘Guru’ – a piece of technology that “calculates the user’s likelihood of achieving their financial dreams based on their situation today” – which results in a ‘roadmap’ report, providing prospective clients with an overview of their financial situation free of charge.
To complement the free Guru offer, YBR has also launched a low-fee advice model that will see Guru users have access to a YBR ‘money coach’ at a cost of $900 in their initial year and $600 for each additional year, reflecting what Mr Bouris called a “killer price point”.
Speaking to ifa, YBR head of wealth management Grant Pearson said the new model is “product agnostic” and acknowledges that the key to bringing advice to more Australians is “partnering smart technology with smart people”.
Mr Pearson said that initially, YBR’s ‘money coaches’ will come from the firm’s ranks of registered financial advisers but that in the longer term there may be scope to involve scaled advice practitioners who may not be “traditional financial planners”.
“Will this disrupt financial planning? Absolutely,” Mr Pearson said.
“We are after the 80 per cent of Australians that at the moment the industry is not doing a great job at serving – the ones who are priced out and valued out.”
The ASX-listed wealth manager has been trialling the Guru technology over the past 18 months, with more than 500 clients currently taking part in the new model advice program.
Sometimes no advice is better than a false sense of security someone gets from feeling everything is under control since they’ve had ‘advice’, but really they’ve just had some limited advice which has glossed over many important needs…
Presumably the ‘money coach’ will comply with all the ‘safe harbour’ requirements to ensure the personal advice given to the client will be in the client’s best interest. This means conducting a full fact find, conducting strategy and product research (including the client’s existing product and alternative products), comply with the ‘Conflict Priority Rule’, writing a compliant SoA and take any other step to ensure the adviser has acted in the clients best interest given their personal circumstances.
Give me a break – this is just another way in which Bouris is trying to make money from the lower end of the market. He will collect money from insto’s and will promote those that give him the best deal. The clients will be directed to his Planners who will again be low paid product pushes – no different to how he runs his mortgage broking business
Computer says no.
Killer price point? Mmmm ok.
I think this is a good initiative. Anything that provides access to advice for the broader community I think is a good outcome. Well done to YBR. I would guess that 90% of advisers state that they are servicing HNW clients as though it is a niche market!
And this robo advice is exactly what the banks will use once they win their little commission argument
All products will be sold by the banks on GENERAL advice-no chance of paying out any more millions for dud PERSONAL ADVICE.
Caveat emptor, all endorsed by a Coalition Government who apparently have been unable to detect the real bank ( oops, sorry, FSC ) agenda in the commissions Trojan Horse
BTW, Mark, perhaps invite Mr Medcraft to endorse your new business model It seems he goes to all the ribbon cutting ceremonies
Presumably the “roadmap” is a limited statement of advice, Yes/No . Some industry superfunds already have this function for their members for free who not only receive the limited SOA but are referred to advisers or other experts where the tool can’t assist. Looks like everyone is in the same race for the Millennial dollar.
so much disruption around at the moment. Everything is being disrupted.
Low cost product selling advisers looking to catch loan, insurance and super commissions all at once? Sweet! What could go wrong?