Today’s launch of two distinctive robo-advice packages built on the Decimal platform marks a major turning point for the industry in Australia and globally, according to Decimal CEO Nic Pollock.
Eqilize is a solution geared towards superannuation and financial institutions that want the benefits of robo-advice for their customers but do not have the time or resources to build their own.
The solution leverages Decimal’s delivery experience to provide an operational, preconfigured solution that can be integrated and configured rapidly, and within a fixed budget and timeframe.
“We can do this now because we have the real market experience,” Mr Pollock said. “This in no way prevents those customers iterating and evolving their digital offering over time but gets them into the market sooner.
“We see two types of customer in the market today who appreciate the value of automated advice and want to deliver that direct to their customers – those that want to deploy and deliver value rapidly via a solution like Eqilize, and those typically larger organisations pursuing a bespoke solution.
“For them, we are launching Tentalon, which is a fully customisable technology stack that allows them to create purpose-built solutions based around the underlying benefits of the Decimal system.”
Founder and Executive Director Jan Kolbusz said the major difference between Decimal and other robo players was that Decimal serviced the customer via the trusted brand enterprise.
Mr Kolbusz, who is the founder of Decimal and is widely regarded as one of the true visionaries of robo- advice since launching the company more than eight years ago, says a number of factors set Decimal’s offerings apart.
“In recent times we’ve seen the launch of lots of consumer-focused robo-advisors,” he said.
“We think this choice is a good thing for customers overall, however our attention is centred on empowering banks, super funds and any financial institutions with their own products including retirement, investment and insurance products. We understand the varying needs of their customers and this drove the launch of Eqilize and Tentalon.
“Whether it is the Eqilize solution or the Tentalon technology stack, our new offerings have five key aspects that haven’t been seen to date and that we believe will make a significant impact on the world of robo-advice.
“Those differentiators are a ground-up, customer-first approach; end-to-end digital customer journey from engagement to execution of advice; in-built compliance; total agility; and far lower costs to serve.”
Decimal solutions are already in use by a number of foundation clients and recently hit a major milestone of $3 billion in Funds Under Advice (FUA). Mr Pollock says this is a clear demonstration of the demand in the community for these options.
“It’s clear this is what the consumers want, so our objective is to help our customers deliver this to their markets now,” he said.
“This is the reason behind our launch. We’ve subsequently found the demographics of those using the system to be wide ranging, meaning it is having broad appeal across our clients’ various target markets.
“The recent release of a discussion paper by ASIC on proposed guidelines for robo-advice is great news for the financial industry. It signals an acceptance in the market and sets appropriate measures and expectations to allow more rapid and informed uptake to compliment traditional advice offerings.”
An industry event will take place on April 20 to present Eqilize to the market, while a similar Tentalon presentation for major banks is planned for early May.
“Beyond that, Decimal will be launching other initiatives to further the network effect of the growth of online advice,” Mr Pollock said.
“Watch this space – it’s getting very interesting.”
Source: Decimal
