Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the best product of all? APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are the new “magic mirror”, opening up a wealth of information curated by someone else who maintains and updates the data. We use them regularly, “Hey Google, give me directions to Martin Place”. Financial services have been invited to…
I work 24/7, 365 days a year without a salary. I communicate with natural voice and can do any financial planning calculation on request, as well as gathering client information and doing product research. I can even implement insurance applications. I remember everything and am not intrusive, only responding to verbal requests directed at me….
Conventional wisdom suggests we delegate to a financial adviser because they have the time and expertise to help us achieve our financial goals. The truth may be a little “darker”. It seems “Delegators” just need someone to blame if things go wrong. Michael Kitces, Head of Planning Strategy at Buckingham Wealth Partners had a good look…
Financial planning advice is a slow, expensive and, it seems, unprofitable business. Firstly, it can take weeks or even months before a comprehensive statement of advice is ready. Secondly, research conducted by KPMG and commissioned by the Financial Services Council found the average cost of providing comprehensive financial planning advice is $5,335 a client, while…
Would you use a digital assistant in a client meeting? I asked the question in a LinkedIn poll and got over 150 views but just 4 votes. Me and two close friends voted “yes” and one person voted “no”. So, I still don’t know. Finchat is currently going through the Amazon certification process for its…
Ever wondered why digital assistants are so good? It’s all about Natural language processing (NLP) – the science of programming computers to process natural language. It makes robots “more human”. Some serious resources are going into this science. GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is a language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. Applying over 175 billion…
Humans are slow and expensive while robots are fast and cheap to operate. Unfortunately, robots can’t read behavioural cues like a human can and pivot immediately with high accuracy. Their algorithms just aren’t there yet. What we need is a cyborg adviser, “enhanced” to do what a robot can do while managing the emotional flow…
Assuming you are one of the 80% of Australians without a financial adviser, where would you go for investment advice? In the old days, the minute the money hit your bank account the branch would swing into gear and the deposit would probably end up in a suite of bank products they hope will help…
Every bank left financial planning in the wake of the Hayne Commission leaving a lot of money on the table to remediate clients for poor financial advice. Have the risk/reward dynamics improved in such a short time to tempt them to return? Deloitte’s Mark Ryan remarked at the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association (SAFAA) Conference…
According to Adviser Ratings, only 12.2 per cent of the population used an adviser in 2019, down from the year before. ASIC wants to know how Australians can find affordable, quality advice and issued Consultation Paper 332 to find out. Firstly, what is affordable advice? ASIC report 224 found on average, consumers believe initial advice…