I had the pleasure of interviewing our very own rising star, and finalist for the Fintech Leader of the Year, Women in Finance awards 2020 this week, and I’m stoked to share her story with you.

Karolina Kuszyk arrived on the technology scene thirteen years ago when she scored her first gig as a fresh graduate in an IT company. It was a hardware and IT solutions company, where she spent four-and-a-half years as an Account Manager under the direction of a formidable leader with a distinct vision of where technology was headed – into the cloud. They became one of the first Australian companies that moved to a virtual hosting environment, and Karolina was fortunate to be a part of it.

Her entry into the fast paced Fintech world came when she landed a job at MYOB seven years later. As a Field Partner Manager during a very competitive period when new entrant Xero was swiftly stealing market share, she found steering accounting firms from desktop software to the cloud challenging but rewarding.

Karolina joined myprosperity in 2016, at a time when there were only eight employees. She drove the gender equality hiring policy, resulting in several women being hired across Sales, Marketing, Technology, and Finance, including three senior managerial positions. Myprosperity has since quintupled in size, and Karolina has become a mentor to many of the women in the company.

What she enjoys the most about working for a Fintech is the pace, and realising the vision of its founder, Peter McCarthy. As someone who regularly demonstrates myprosperity to advisers, she has regularly witnessed that “Light bulb moment that flickers in their head, that this is an extremely wonderful piece of technology. That’s what really drives me in my role. I really do believe in our vision, and I think that’s really important in any Fintech company.”

She spoke of the formative changes the industry has undergone, “The biggest standout, at least more recently, is mobile apps. It’s really interesting to note the preference for doc signing on mobile apps. A lot of people prefer the app engagement.”

When I asked her about what she had wished she’d been told before starting in this crazy industry, her response was “It’s like trying to fly a plane, be the hostess, and the ground crew all at once. You’ve really got to multi-task, there’s a lot of work that goes on in the background.”

Her career highlight is, myprosperity winning Fintech Innovator of the Year three times in a row. “All the hard work that goes into helping firms transform digitally, and seeing so many of their clients get on top of their personal finances has been amazing.”

We spoke about role models in her career, and whilst a little awkward as interviewer, I was pleased she included me on that list given that at one time in our careers we were arch rivals, me at Xero and her at MYOB. I’m certainly glad that we are now on the same team. She also spoke highly of her good friend and mentor, Jo Alias, Head of Business Agility and Enablement at Medibank as someone she holds in very high esteem for her natural leadership abilities, and impeccable knowledge of the technology industry.

As for her career aspirations, she’s set her sights on becoming one of the Board of Directors. “I’m willing to take the risk because I really do believe in our vision, and I’m there for the long term.” So there’s a glimpse into the inspiring Fintech leader that Karolina is. On behalf of myprosperity and all your family and friends, we’re all gunning for your win but whatever happens, at least you will be able to take your dog to the (online) gala dinner.

Watch the interview here. 

Here’s what you need to know this week: 

1. More super data – Since the pandemic took hold in March 2020, the number of new superannuation accounts added into myprosperity is up a massive 36% compared to the five months leading up to March. That is a substantial increase and is indicative of clients and their advisers paying closer attention to retirement portfolios.

2. Less super funds – Under the new early access rules, $29.4 billion has been withdrawn from Super. We don’t know what it will equate to in terms of the number of individual workers who will now have to rely on the age pension in retirement, but the good news is that the advice industry is in the best position to assist clients during this difficult time and ensure clients make good financial decisions. More here.

3. ASIC says get good advice, more often – ASIC says get good advice, more often – The corporate regulator will look to release further guidance facilitating easier provision of scaled advice, helping advisors provide recommendations around a single issue. More here.. 

4. Property – buy, sell or hold? First home buyers are making the most of falling prices, incentives and low interest rates. Many investors are being forced to sell and the number of investors in the market to buy has dropped 40%. More on how market conditions are rapidly changing. More here.

5. Dividends disappear– APRA has ruled that banks must limit dividend payout ratios to no more than 50%. In the past five years many have paid out at ratios of more than 80%. Morningstar has released a report on where dividend opportunities might be. The report sees the greatest opportunity for rising payout ratios and near-term dividend growth in the utilities, industrials (including defensive infrastructure names), and consumer defensive sectors. More here. 

In this final episode of myprosperity@home, Chris talks to world renowned motivational speaker and best-selling author, Chris Helder.

In Chris’ latest book, “Useful belief”, he shares strategies on how to effectively deal with our current reality. While “think positive” is a term that gets thrown around a lot when it comes to dealing with changed situations, pain or stress, it relies heavily on the emotional side of your brain. You might start your day off positively, but that can change in an instant if something comes undone. His advice is to consider “useful thinking”, which is a more pragmatic, practical and result driven approach. “It’s drawing a line in the sand once you’ve processed your grief, and thinking about what you can do to maximise productivity each day.” It may mean going a little deeper into your psyche to surface what you can actually control in the context of your current reality, but based on personal experience and the many positive responses received from his readers, he knows it works.

Watch the full episode below.

Last week we wrote about the impact Covid-19 is having with regards to household debt levels, evidenced by the huge spike in the value of liabilities tracked in myprosperity. In this past week, there has been a great deal of debate in the media around early access to superannuation, so we decided to mine our data for useful insights.

In myprosperity, a client can have their SMSF, Retail or Industry Super Fund wired up securely to receive real-time data feeds including updated transactions and balances on a weekly basis. Since the pandemic commenced in March 2020, the number of new superannuation accounts added into myprosperity is up a massive 36% compared to the five months leading up to March. That is a substantial increase and is indicative of clients and their advisers paying closer attention to retirement portfolios. There are however no specific trends we can see in terms of total dollar value movement in superannuation as an asset class. To us that’s no surprise given that clients using myprosperity have access to a financial adviser and are typically more financially secure, and less likely to have to dip into superannuation to get through the pandemic. But it may not be as clear cut as that given the deep economic impact that Covid-19 is having across all socio-economic groups.

In speaking with a number of advisers over the past week who are using myprosperity, opinions seem divided on the government’s decision to enable early access to superannuation. While approval is granted on a case-by-case basis, we hear stories of young people accessing it to purchase a property or worse still, splurge on luxury goods. This poses a real problem because to top up superannuation to pre-Covid levels could take several more years of work; effectively, to pay off that impulse buy. Many however, are experiencing real hardships and are justified in their reasons for accessing superannuation early, such as paying off debt or meeting mortgage repayments.

Some have criticised Scott Morrison’s emphatic cries that the superannuation being accessed is “their money”. That may be true, but the Superannuation Guarantee scheme was introduced in the early 1990’s to ease the burden on Age Pension and share the load of retirement savings. Now with $29.4 billion withdrawn, we don’t know what it will equate to in terms of the number of individual workers who will now have to rely on the age pension in retirement.

The good news is that the advice industry is in the best position to assist clients during this difficult time and ensure clients make good financial decisions. And, if early access to superannuation is going to help a distressed client, a well considered approach must be taken. As the economy bounces back, which it invariably will, catch up payments on superannuation contributions via salary sacrifice can be made 2-3 years down the track to ensure retirement plans are not impacted. Just like we have seen with debt levels, JobKeeper and now superannuation, we think that there has never been a more important time for clients to have a financial adviser to help guide them through these very difficult times.