Stop the confusion, cut the jargon and keep it simple

The following article appeared in Adviser Voice on Tuesday, 4 September 2018.

Digital wealth provider InvestSMART, has called on the finance industry to stop confusing Australians with unnecessary jargon and to keep things simple.
InvestSMART has this week launched an enhanced offer and new-look brand as part of its mission to provide all Australians with access to the advice, tools and investment products they need and want.

The move follows quantitative and qualitative research* of over 1,600 InvestSMART members, which showed a strong preference for independent financial decision-making. The findings showed 96% like to be in control of their financial decisions and 74% prefer to do their own research. The qualitative survey also uncovered a wariness and, in some cases, an outright rejection of seeking financial advice, with fees and opaque commission structures among the biggest concerns.

InvestSMART CEO, Ron Hodge, said the current regulatory environment was only likely to further contribute to questions around trust.

“The Royal Commission has highlighted some questionable and unethical behavior from some well-known organisations.

“Australians have had enough of the finance industry using jargon and unccessarily complex ways of showing critical information. Our re-brand, new website and enhanced research services are all about keeping things simple, and being a trusted voice in a sea of uncertainty,” he said.

Useful services to help Australians get ahead

InvestSMART’s recently launched Compare Your Fund tool which allows investors to easily compare the fees and performance of nearly all managed funds, superannuation and pension products in Australia. The free to access tool analyses the long term performance of 9,580 funds against peers and industry standard benchmarks, and also allows investors to see the full cost of fees of each fund.

“Just as Australians are wary of the concept of fees for no advice, the Compare Your Fund tool exposes how some fund managers may be charging fees for underwhelming performance,” said Mr Hodge.

Additionally, the intuitive HealthCheck™ function of InvestSMART’s free to use Portfolio Manager, provides investors with a simple way to track their investments and rebalance their portfolios to meet their risk tolerance and financial objectives.

“These simple and easy to use tools are just some examples of how we are putting the power back into the hands of the investor to help Australians grow and protect their wealth,” said Mr Hodge.

As part of the re-brand, InvestSMART has embarked on an extensive multi-channel advertising campaign, which is set to be rolled out nationwide over the coming months.