The increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology will lower the barriers to entry to running an SMSF to the point they will be as easy to access as a retail or industry fund, the head of an administration firm has claimed.
SuperConcepts chief executive Matthew Rowe said the rollout of AI could touch every part of the SMSF ecosystem and be used in the establishment of funds, portfolio administration, auditing and actuarial services, and filing tax returns, reducing barriers to entry for new trustees.
“We have a view that technology is there to deal with the repeatable and people are there to deal with the remarkable,” Rowe told selfmanagedsuper.
“So the use of technology will fundamentally change SMSFs, lower costs and make the sector more accessible.
“It will also make the user experience more friendly because you can have agents and when trustees or members have a question, the agent can answer, rather than having to have somebody on the call centre.
“I actually think it will democratise SMSFs so at a particular point someone with $100,000 in super will look at an SMSF as a legitimate option compared to an industry fund or retail.”
He said beyond dealing with the friction points of setting up a fund, completing rollovers, setting up a bank account, investments and administration, technology will also allow SMSFs to connect with other financial services providers, such are share traders and banks.
“The potential opportunity for technology-enabled providers is to integrate with different platforms and bring together an ecosystem like the one you can find on your smartphone and its app store,” he said.
“The SMSF space could evolve to something that looks like that, whereas at the moment everybody does fund-by-fund accounting waiting for structured or unstructured data to arrive. Record-keeping is generally okay, but in some cases it can be poor and brings inefficiency, friction, cost and complexity.
“Technology will enable the mass market and financial advisers should not see that as a threat because it’s opening up a market for them as people at some point will want either sporadic or regular portfolio-based advice.
“We want to talk about simplified SMSFs so more Australians can control their super and the only way you can simplify things has to be technology led. Doing it the old way of paper and spreadsheets – that’s not what the future looks like.”
