First Publication Of 2022
With the New Year just beginning, it’s the perfect opportunity to take stock of your super and make some plans for the future.
Australia’s super asset continues to grow but the pace varies depending on which product you are in and just how much attention you pay your super. Your super can be like a well-kept garden, or a poorly tended one if you think someone is looking out for it for you.
So maybe it is time to consider what you know about super and how well it is being managed?
Super Issues?
Super can be a controversial topic. No one has really taken responsibility for any of the mismanagement of Australia’s biggest asset that has occurred since its introduction in 1992.
From a product point of view, no one wants the public to have too much of a technical understanding of what it is and the value that is being delivered. There is a lack of transparency in the industry and a lot of false marketing coupled with poor regulation by government.
The public is being educated in a single dimensional measure of excellence with the annual publication of best performing products with no explanation of the technicalities around asset management.
The public themselves really don’t want to have to consider such complexities as they have the preference for too many years to assume everything will be ok in the long term.
Every individual irrespective of age can improve the performance of their super by giving it attention and asking some straightforward questions. Very often it is not a question of a change in product but an understanding in how you best use the product you are in. At other times you might find you are in a good product but something else might just be noticeably better and you might be tempted to change.
The Optimisation Of Super
All product providers have a help line and some product providers have additional services should you want to access more complicated financial advice. Financial planning is not for everyone and may only be for those who can afford the additional costs and also perceive a value in the service offering.
Generally speaking, the vast majority of people can significantly improve their future retirement outcome by paying attention to their super at the latest by age 30.
Essentially if you take the opportunity to better manage your super at age 30, the improvement in your projected income in retirement can be between 25% and 35%. The converse is also true. A lack of attention to your super from age 30 can equally damage you super future by an underperformance of some 25%, all as measured in today’s dollars.
Whatever your age, it is best to start now and arguably find out what you don’t know about your super as too many people just won’t tell you.
SuperWiser
SuperWiser is an application controlled by an algorithm that examines and analyses a very large database of product options. You are able to have the initial chat with this technology before you have to engage with the advice to be provided. Every effort has been made to provide as much information as possible at all stages and every effort has been made to ensure that SuperWiser meets the demands of all regulations.
In particular, the fact that SuperWiser is technology and represents our service interface does not mean you won’t find yourself interacting with someone in our Contact Centre here in Perth WA.
All options around super decisions are examined based on their impact on your projected income in retirement. If the improvement is not substantial enough to justify any change, there will be an adviser intervention to explain to you what SuperWiser is saying and why.
The object of the exercise is for you to have the information you require to make a decision and not to blind you with marketing jargon.
A Unique Service Without Competition
SuperWiser provides what is known as limited advice, sometimes referred to as personal scaled advice. Limited advice, as the name suggests, is a service which only examines your super and what you are doing to optimise its retirement value. As it is limited advice, it is very much priced as affordable, essentially delivering a high value in super optimisation for a very affordable cost. In addition, future advice around maintaining your established strategy is roughly half the cost of your entry into the application, all fees being charged on a full fee for service basis and not as a deduction from your account.
No other service provider within the financial services sector has the capability of SuperWiser, many product providers being limited to call centre support in providing administrative support only. Most products who provide financial advice only provide full financial planning and not the service most desired by an uninformed market.
Research indicates that full financial advice is only of interest to a proportion of the highest account balances with other assets as distinct from the situation most of us face.
Make A Resolution And Not A Mistake
Start your free Super Review. Should you have any questions, feel free to call 1800 467 467 and talk to our contact centre. You will find us to be very helpful.
Get to know SuperWiser and meet your super future!
Totally Affordable
Super is a valuable asset and for anyone who is going to work for 50 years – foresight is always better than hindsight. Many people think there is only one service option available for their super which is the high priced financial planning model. Research firm Investment Trends has indicated that the numbers accessing financial advice have fallen over the years but that might change as people appear to be considering financial advice as a consequence of life experience through COVID.
You should know, affordable personal scaled advice does exist.
How Much is Affordable?
The cost for holistic advice can be extensive to say the least. On the other hand, new services for limited advice are becoming more and more available, particularly through technology. Based on an examination of anyone’s super, there is value in obtaining appropriate advice from a suitably licensed and qualified organisation.
Most people regard the family home as a major asset and its acquisition is a serious emotional journey from beginning to end. Then again, because your super asset starts off small and seems to take forever to become important, too many people do not actively manage super the way they should. Super is not unlike the acquisition of your family home, with your equity in the asset being small in the first place, the risks are great and it seems to take such a long time to realise value.
If you had access to a super service which only delivered comprehensive advice around your super and only charged an affordable cost against the value delivered, would you use it?
Such is SuperWiser where full advice is $220 and update advice is $110 but you only pay once when you receive said advice. There are no ongoing service fees! The value is based on super as a long term wealth creation strategy which needs occasional management to maintain strategies around choice of product, cost of product, contribution, and investment.
Lethargy to Overcome
As a serious asset, super is best managed by the expert. The level of expertise required to develop a perception of which option provides best value for money is technically high. The proposition posed by technology is its ability to analyse the complex world of super product, wealth creation strategies, and regulation in a timely manner to look after your super better than you can yourself.
Why not access such a service?
Time Efficient
SuperWiser does not sleep. SuperWiser will always take your appointment when convenient for you. SuperWiser will not bore you with technicalities. SuperWiser will bring you into a service model which maintains all the strategies to optimise your super, even providing a methodology for you to monitor your progress towards your long term goal and objectives.
Super is a complicated process and, based on market feedback, individuals don’t understand why the process is just so complicated. SuperWiser deals with all the complications and provides advice on how best to manage your growing asset.
Yes there are pause moments in waiting for this or that but SuperWiser will alert you to the next step as soon as things are made to happen. There is a backroom team monitoring your progress through the application and adviser intervention does take place when required to ease any concerns you might have.
Start your free Super Review to examine if you can substantially benefit from taking control of your super growth.
Industry Resistance
The financial services industry is dominated by certain forces acting in their own best interests and not yours. A very bold statement but one with an element of truth. SuperWiser is a personal service of value not delivered by product and a terrifying proposition if they are forced to adopt it. Personal service around your super should have been more available than it was.
If you have a suspicion that you are not making the best of your situation and your super, why not examine the play tool on our website and contact one of our authorised representatives to find out more. You can decide not to proceed but best make such a decision based on knowledge as opposed to minimum input.
Send your questions to yoursuper@superwiser.com.au or call free call 1800 467 467 for more information.
History
Compulsory super was introduced nearly thirty years ago but, based upon recent reports, it has been and is being very badly managed. Surely with the direct attention of government, banks, and unions, super should be a well-established positive within Australia?
Wayne Swan, the former treasurer, recently wrote that super fulfils two goals:
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All Australians can retire on an income.
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Australia has a national asset that can be used to support the economy through difficult times.
Is super part of your financial package or not, and is it a personal asset or not? It is truly noticeable that, for all the publicity, everyone else is interested in your asset except the person who owns it. Maybe this is partly true simply because no one has created a digital service interface to actually provide beneficial personal advice around choice of product, how to use that product, and then how to make sure that through time you are still in the best choice of product.
The market is dominated by government regulation and by large entities all of whom want the availability of personal scaled advice kept secret, simply because it would damage their own market model.
Welcome
Personal scaled advice is now available to the masses from a source not owned by product, all of whom falsely promote their market brand as simply the best!
Largely due to the complexity of government regulation, it has taken 7 years to develop SuperWiser, an application now being presented to the market. Psychologically, the public finds super somewhere between confusing, changeable, and irritating. It is too easy to understand why this is so but that is most people’s basic opinion. The public is just beginning to rethink what they should do to better manage their super, an asset that will grow to be of particular importance late in their career.
Welcome to a new super world!
The Overview
First of all, SuperWiser does lots. As an application, the advisory process within SuperWiser is automated and therefore the service is offered at an affordable price. SuperWiser does not offer a full financial planning service as this is seen as a high margin service of low financial value. SuperWiser has a database of some 40 popular super products, the ability to collect and collate your personal circumstances and the ability to provide you with comparisons around product choice and choices within your recommended product.
One little known fact around super involves an examination of all the costs involved. While one market segment might promote best returns, they do not reveal that they can be high on insurance premiums. SuperWiser takes such facts into account when examining what is best for you in your current circumstances.
Super is Complicated
The fact is that super is complicated. There are many factors to be considered and the only sensible approach is in a full data analysis of every provider’s proposition to market. The algorithm behind SuperWiser is well designed and constantly being tested. SuperWiser analyses the offering by each product methodically. The functionality of every product has been considered by the Asset Management Committee around the capability of their investment choice menu to outperform the default offering by product.
In short, SuperWiser actually does what would be impossible to do no matter how experienced you are within the financial services industry, mainly because you have to consider everything as opposed to just some things.
SuperWiser will continue to re-examine everything and will be updated as appropriate to re-consider the choice to be made now as distinct from the choice you made in the past.
Why Not Try SuperWiser?
What every individual really needs is a source of information around super which is service as opposed to product based. SuperWiser is that service. You do not have to pay to have an initial look. Start your free Super Review to examine the SuperWiser concept.
Everyone should have a management plan for their super as otherwise it will underperform. To progress your thoughts around what you are currently doing for yourself, the application will tailor your free Super Review calculation based upon some personal details.
Upon your authorisation, we will liaise directly with your super provider to obatin the exact details of your super and its current management. Should you want to proceed to pay to obtain strategic advice, SuperWiser then provides recommendation to improve on what you are currently doing for yourself. The quicker you start to better manage your super, the more choices you will have at retirement.
Not Only Advice But Also Service
SuperWiser will assist you to implement your proposed strategy but even better still, SuperWiser will monitor your progress towards your goals and objectives based on your stated parameters of performance and your milestones.
As each year progresses, the product database within SuperWiser is updated and reanalysed as products either improve or go backwards depending on the quality of their management. Clearly, the available solutions need to be monitored to ensure you are in the right solution available today as opposed to what might have been good a few years ago.
SuperWiser is vigilant in monitoring developments within the market that you might never know about but for the services provided automatically by SuperWiser.
User Experience
The prediction is that, like all things super, SuperWiser might initially bring such irritations to the fore but normally the cure is at hand when you feel the worst. The actual technology is not actually new, different or complicated. It is super which irritates and SuperWiser is the cure.
Phone support is available and is provided on a proactive basis as opposed to a reactive basis. The intention is that we call you to help as opposed to you calling us to be rescued. Your progress through the application is being monitored and at times checked to ensure there are no input errors on your part. We will always help you to be right!
Welcome And Have A Go!
Do something now as you will appreciate the wisdom of your choice when you find yourself at age 60. Be aware that time passes faster than you think. As the Romans once said “tempus fugit”. As my Dad used to say, “Time passes too quickly but you wear the consequences of what you do and what is not done”.
Start your free Super Review today.
Government Overreach?
The government has just announced the passes and fails amongst the multitude of MySuper investment options. It is a fact that the government is still trying to fix super after almost thirty years of regulation and then more regulation. So, what’s so different about this time?
Well one would have to say that the current approach by the government in promoting the MySuper model in controlling the performance of your super is a step beyond their role as the legislator and regulator of what is legal and what is a crime? It appears to be a statement that Australians are unable to optimise their super asset in developing it as a future income in retirement. Is MySuper the long term solution to managing an asset that is currently at $3 trillion and growing fast?
Is the MySuper investment default model the best option for your asset and is the dependency on measuring performance based on current costs and historical returns the best way to determine the future value of your asset?
Are our politicians tremendous commercial managers in shaping a much improved financial services industry? Are cost and historical investment returns a reliable basis to indicate what needs to be a future and sustainable performance? Is the government in a position to provide an explanation on why a historical investment performance is a statement of current capability in terms of asset management? Is any MySuper investment default at all transparent in how the asset is invested and what are the long term risks involved in various asset classes and geographies? Does any individual even examine the asset allocation of MySuper and consider the variation in geographical allocation across different platforms?
The lack of explanation, justification and therefore transparency around MySuper as a superior investment strategy is surely apparent to everyone. Or is it?
My SuperWiser
Having been instrumental in developing SuperWiser to its current state of readiness (so after nearly 7 years in development), I do not expect SuperWiser will ever recommend you to optimise your super by investing in a MySuper investment option. SuperWiser has a number of underlying advantages which make the application superior to other personal service models:
- It is an online application and thereby available 24/7.
- SuperWiser works by way of an algorithm developed by an external actuary.
- SuperWiser has a backend, known as Module Manager containing details of some 40 products and all the details to enable a mathematical comparison depending upon your circumstances.
- Independently of SuperWiser, the license holder, AXIS Financial Group Pty Ltd, AFSL 233680, carries out an in depth assessment of every product within SuperWiser’s module manager around product capability, based upon optimising super as a projected income in retirement.
- SuperWiser does not need anyone else’s permission to service you as it is your decision to participate or not.
- Should you need some help in progressing within SuperWiser, there are a number of access points available if you need an adviser intervention.
- SuperWiser provides ongoing advice within a service model designed to encourage or remind you to pay attention to your super at critical points in time.
- As SuperWiser is an online application with all the benefits of technology, the application offers a solution to everyone at a very affordable cost: full personal advice around your super for $220 inclusive of GST
SuperWiser Works For You
There is no product involvement or influence with SuperWiser and the sole intention is in offering a digital service interface to all individuals in need of super advice. However there are features that are very supportive and applicable to all and then there are individuals who have much more specific requirements.
SuperWiser as it is designed does not do pre-retirement planning and does not compare pension products as yet. SuperWiser’s current focus is on the biggest proportion of employees who are accumulating their super assets as opposed to employees planning their imminent retirement.
As you progress through the application, SuperWiser will illustrate and further tailor a comparison between your current strategy and what you could do for yourself, described as your proposed strategy. Your proposed strategy might require a change in product and, as a minimum, will require a change in how you use the features available within your product.
SuperWiser finalises a personalised comparison between your current and proposed strategy before you have to actually pay anything. If you want to see the detail of your new proposed strategy, you need to pay a one-off fee. Implementing the proposed strategy is included in this fee.
After payment, you do have the opportunity to modify your strategy before proceeding to implementation. SuperWiser does not just give you a singular product recommendation, should you be advised to move to another product. It informs you around the top three products and the comparable projected income in retirement for each product. As this is a projection, common sense prevails where the variation in projected income in retirement between products is, say, minimum.
In effect, you will find yourself making a very informed decision.
When Would SuperWiser be Appropriate For Me?
SuperWiser is most certainly worth a look for anyone who has been employed for say around 5 years and the application will guide you around what is in it for you and you are able to easily consider if the value of the advice is far in excess of the cost.
Traditionally, it may have taken some 15 to 20 years for the older generation to accumulate $100,000 in super but nowadays, with the current level of super contribution and increases in wages from the early 1990’s through till now, that period of time should be at most about 10 years. Should you now be in full time employment for 10 years but still well short of $100,000, there may well be a reason. Maybe you participated in withdrawing super during the pandemic?
SuperWiser is positioned to make you think about your super and how important it will be to you. Life passes very quickly as some people already know and it is good advice to plan your super as early as possible as distinct from ignoring super as a serious wealth creation exercise for the first 20 years of your career.
Good Advice
Complete a free Super Review to gain perspective around the possibilities.