Future Penny has eye on Kiwi market

An Australian roboadvice firm is looking to expand into New Zealand.

Monday, July 25th 2016, 5:59AM

by Susan Edmunds

Future Penny, launched by financial adviser David Pettit, is to launch officially in August, in Australia. But Super Advice chief executive Allan Rickerby, who recently entered a partnership with Pettit with a seed investment in Future Penny, said it intended to test the waters in New Zealand soon after.

The new version of the Financial Advisers Act allows for roboadvice, for the first time.

Future Penny is aimed at companies who want to offer their staff a platform to help them better manage their money. It costs $80 per employee.

Rickerby said, unlike other roboadvice offers that pushed a product and focused solely on asset allocation, Future Penny was offering real advice and education. “Too much roboadvice is about asset allocation not about quality service for the person who is using it. If you look at it, it’s not even roboadvice. It’s just laziness, the big banks wanting to direct money somewhere.”

Future Penny would collect information from bank accounts and provide people with a snapshot of their finances, in a dashboard format. “It’s educating individuals to get them to go through to process to understand how things work and how money works and any gaps there might be in their lives. It’s up to them if they want to go forward.”

Rickerby said while there was no product linked to Future Penny, operators such as his firm were in the background willing to help people who wanted it. “For us as a financial services group there is the ability to help them out but that’s not the game here. We want to change the emphasis to helping educate people. It’s very different to the approach of trying to flog a product.”

He said Future Penny could see an opportunity in New Zealand. After the end of the trial launch in August in Australia it would have a better idea of how to proceed with crossing the Tasman.

He said it would be a good investment for companies that wanted to attract or hold on to their staff. “New Zealand is in a pretty good situation at the moment and finding employers have to fight to attract employees. There’s a realisation it’s not all about the money. Eighty dollars per employee is not a lot of money to invest to demonstrate to your employees that you care."

Super-Advice has more than A$1.5 billion in funds under management, with offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Tags: roboadvice