The SMSF industry must keep an eye on the technological advancements that are likely to shape the new world in which SMSFs, the government and agencies work together.
“From my perspective, we’re still dealing with a lot of old issues and a lot of unresolved debates of years ago,” former federal Labor parliamentary secretary Bernie Ripoll said during his keynote presentation at the Class Connect 2017 conference in Sydney.
“So welcome to the new digital world of robo-advice, robo-super and robo-everything, right now, where the rules haven’t quite been settled on yet.
“Whether it’s the rapid shift in the way we do our banking using cards, cash or cryptocurrencies, save for our retirement through different technologies, the way super funds will evolve and adapt, the way our self-managed super system will interact with governments, agencies and trustees, to self-managing everything through artificial intelligence, tech platforms and digital assistance.”
Ripoll also questioned the breakup of the superannuation pie and challenged the audience to consider whether they would be prepared for the outcome.
“Will the share of the pie still be the same in 2035 or 2055 – a third in retail funds, a third in industry funds and a third in SMSFs?” he said.
“Will SMSFs grow in number?
“They’ve been growing at a phenomenal rate at about 20 per cent growth per year for the past few years, but they’ve been slowing down, so is that it for the SMSF sector? Is that the growth or is there more to come?
“I don’t have the answer, but these are the things we should be closely looking at and making sure that we’ve got systems in place so that we can be the adapters and deal with these issues.”
