Technology still unable to influence price models

By elaina ·
December 03 2015

Technology still unable to influence price models

There is a misconception, particularly within the self-managed super space, that technology will put pressure on current pricing models, according to administration platform provider SuperGuardian and Xpress Super.

Olivia Long, SuperGuardian and Xpress Super chief executive, said technology is not yet able to compete with the skills and expertise of SMSF trustees.

"Technology still has a long way to go before it can put pressure on the pricing for the services provided by accountants and administrators on the basis of 'automation'. It's just not that simple," she said.

Ms Long pointed out that the cost of using software to achieve automation has increased from $8 to $250 per fund.

Therefore, moving to more expensive software will need to achieve notable efficiencies for that to result in any fee reductions.

"So although other industry practitioners may be keen to apply the pricing pressure, they might be unpleasantly surprised about how far we have to go before this can be truly achieved," she said.

Moreover, Ms Long said a large amount of data feeds are still unsupported by most software.

"To achieve 100 per cent automation at this stage of the game would involve limiting the platforms and products trustees use in order to achieve 100 per cent data feeds."

Ms Long added: "Given one of the appealing factors of SMSFs is the flexibility of products/platform/investment, I don't think we're going to achieve the perfect automated model any time soon."

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