Increasing Australian investor engagement is one of the most significant – and least anticipated – outcomes of mandated saving, and the lesson it is teaching financial firms goes well beyondcontribution rates.
When a population is forced to save for 35 years, something unexpected happens: they start paying attention. The firm that holds their money is no longer just a custodian – it is expected to do far more. And expectations, once formed, are hard to walk back.
Australia’s superannuation pool has reached AUD $4.5 trillion, and it is projected to hit $7.5 trillion by 2035, making it the third-largest pension market in the world. One third of that total – approximately $2.5 trillion – will transfer between generations over the next decade. The firms that retain those assets will be the ones built to serve people in retirement, not just saving for it.
The challenge for platforms today is that most are built to show past performance. But the members using them are increasingly in or approaching retirement – and they are not asking how their money is performing. They are asking how to live on what they have built. And yet engagement has not translated into access. Only 1 in 10 Australians gets professional financial advice, and the cost of getting it has risen 30% in two years. A population that is more connected to their money than ever before is largely navigating retirement without professional guidance.
Geoff Lloyd, Advisory Board Member at Communify, Chairman of Stake and former CEO of MLC, believes technology is the only way to get professional financial guidance to the majority of Australians who cannot access it today. Sitting down with Finextra TV at the Communify Intelligence Experience, Geoff shared his perspective on how mandated saving shaped Australian investor behavior and how firms should respond.
How Compulsory Saving Shaped Australian Investor Engagement: 4 Things Every Firm Must Know
Lloyd has spent three decades watching the superannuation system mature from a policy experiment into a population more informed about their money than previous generations in Australia. His view is that decades of mandatory participation created this shift – and for firms paying attention, it represents an opportunity that is still largely unmet.
- Decades of mandated saving turned superannuation into a household conversation – and created a more financially aware population in the process.
Lloyd noted that Australians – particularly those in their 40s and 50s – have been having these conversations about superannuation with their retired parents for years. What started as a reluctant acceptance of a compulsory system has become something else entirely: a population that arrives at retirement age already asking questions, already curious and already dissatisfied when their platform cannot answer them. The firms that recognize this pattern will be the ones that deliver education and insight when it is most relevant – not just when a statement arrives.
- Compulsory saving moved Australians off the government pension – and into a phase most platforms were never built for.
For the first time last year, more Australians left the government pension than entered it, as Lloyd pointed out. The reason is that decades of compulsory saving at rising contribution rates, combined with growing markets, meant people built enough to support themselves in retirement without government assistance.
But leaving the pension means the financial responsibility that was once shared with the government now sits entirely with the individual saver. Without a guaranteed government income, members must think carefully about how their savings work for them: how much to draw, how long it will last and how to make confident decisions without professional guidance. That is a fundamentally different relationship with money – and most platforms are not built for it. The firms that get this right will be the ones that can identify who is at that moment and deliver the right guidance before the member starts looking elsewhere. Communify gives firms exactly that – using ClientScore™ to identify who is at the transition and MIND™ AI to deliver the right information when it matters most.
- Financial awareness has never been higher – but professional guidance remains out of reach for most.
As Lloyd noted, only 1 in 10 Australians get professional financial advice, and the cost has risen 30% in the past two years. As he said, advice has become almost a luxury good – and that shouldn't be the case. The same dynamic plays out across the UK and beyond, where high regulatory standards have raised the quality of advice but reduced how many people can access it.
The answer is not to lower those standards. It is for firms to step into that gap – delivering fast, contextual, personalized guidance to the investors who cannot access a full advice service. That is where Communify'sKnowledge Base and Intelligent Dialogues™ come in, giving firms the tools to serve those investors at scale, without compromising what investors actually receive.
- Australian investors are better informed than ever, expectations are higher; technology is how firms meet them.
Decades of mandated saving didn't just build a large pension pool; it built a population that pays attention, asks questions and expects answers. As Lloyd said, technology is the only way to get professional financial guidance to the majority of Australians who cannot access it today. That means moving beyond the statements and performance reporting that defined the traditional platform experience, and instead building the capability to deliver fast, personalized education and guidance when members need it.
For firms ready for the transition, the opportunity is significant: a population more informed and more engaged with their money than any previous generation. Communify's MIND™ AI and Intelligent Dialogues™ give firms the tools to meet that demand – making intelligent, consistent engagement repeatable at scale, without requiring a one-to-one advice relationship.
What the Informed Australian Investor Needs & How Communify Helps Firms Deliver It
The trend that mandated saving set in motion is real, and it is accelerating. Firms that recognize it have an opportunity to serve a more informed, more demanding investor base than any previous generation. Communify is designed to help firms do exactly that, giving them the tools to deliver personalized guidance, education and insight to every investor, at every stage of their financial life.
- All Communify tools are embedded with MIND™ AI by default, allowing firms to take fast action on implementing AI-powered intelligence. The bar for accuracy and relevance has never been higher. MIND™ AI meets that bar, processing thousands of data feeds and surfacing relevant signals across market, behavioral and portfolio data to surface the right insight at the right moment.
- AI Signals and Stories turn market and investor data into the right conversation at the right moment. For an investor base that is more informed and more attentive than any previous generation, generic market updates are no longer enough. Signals and Stories transform raw data into relevant, timely narratives that firms can put in front of the right investor at the right moment – turning information into understanding, and understanding into better decisions.
- ClientScore™ gives firms a deeper understanding of where each investor actually is – not just how much they have invested, but what they need next. For firms across the spectrum, AUM is just the starting point. ClientScore™ goes further, identifying behavioral and situational signals that tell firms which investors are approaching a major financial decision, so the right guidance reaches them before they start looking elsewhere.
- Intelligent Dialogues™ create a consistent, structured way to engage every investor with the right conversation at the right moment, without relying on a human to trigger every interaction. Today, consistency matters as much as relevancy when it comes to education and guidance. Intelligent Dialogues™ makes both possible, delivering structured, contextual conversations that feel timely and considered, whether a firm is managing a boutique client base or a large-scale book.
That is only the beginning. Communify has a library of over 200 modular digital apps that can be leveraged to bring digital experiences to life at rapid speed for any organization.
Compulsory Saving Changed Australia’s Investors – Communify is Built to Help
Australia's investors are more informed, more connected to their money and more demanding of the firms responsible for their financial future – and mandated saving is why.
And technology is the only way to meet that expectation at scale, across a population that outgrew what the current advice model can deliver. Australian investors are more engaged than ever – yet most still navigate major financial decisions without professional guidance.
The firms that act on investor engagement will be the ones that deliver the right education, guidance and insight to every investor, at every stage of their financial life.
Communify is designed to help firms rise to that occasion, giving them the tools to meet every investor wherever they are in their financial journey and understanding.
To see how Communify can help your firm serve every investor better and at scale, book a demo.
