Super Is Interesting!
It seems like a laughable statement. Based on the number of individuals who don’t realise how important it is to understand how to manage their super, one would have to conclude super is the most boring topic in the world.
Is anyone really interested in changing their attitude to their own super? What if your lack of interest in your super as a wealth creation strategy could lose you more than 20% of your potential income in retirement in today’s dollars? Would that make you think you need to know more?
While lots of people have negative views about super and what it means to them, when all is said and done, your super will be a larger asset over time, so it’s worth taking an interest in it.
The Typical Scenario
Speaking as an old guy, when I was at least 25 years away from retirement, I really didn’t pay much attention to how quickly I might find myself in my 60’s. Believe me, time travels faster than your view of the horizon. By all means, live for today but wisdom says always have one eye on tomorrow.
In accumulating super, it represents a serious part of your current remuneration, the only problem being you cannot spend it now. That is in fact one of the advantages as everyone will want a certain lifestyle in retirement once they get there.
If you have 15 years or more until retirement, you could at least double your super and if you have more than 25 years, you should be aiming for an even higher multiple in terms of today’s dollars.
Where To From Here?
There are a number of options presented as a valued service from the financial services industry. The preferred service from the financial services industry is referred to as holistic advice. This is an expensive option and is usually accessed by people who might have “more money than sense”?
Then there is another more affordable option that is not favoured by the financial services industry as it involves delivering a quality service to the masses, all of whom see holistic advice as way too expensive and even far too complicated for their needs. As a generalised statement, the financial services industry sees service to a high volume of people as too high an overhead and far too low on margin to make it a profitable exercise from their point of view.
So welcome to SuperWiser!
SuperWiser’s Basic Premise
Financial planners target high balances and high income individuals as this means high fees and also high profit margins. SuperWiser charges low fees and will provide dependable and limited advice to everyone else.
Effectively SuperWiser delivers high client value at a very low cost!
SuperWiser has a database of 40 popular products representing everything from employer super through to retail personal and also industry funds. The back end of SuperWiser has an analysis of each product and its capability as dictated by fee structure, insurance cost, MySuper Default performance and then the capability of portfolio construction based on each product’s investment choice menu.
In general, products deliver a registration system of individual account transactions and balances with most people sitting quietly invested in the MySuper Investment Default option. No wealth creation strategy can be best managed by sitting in the same product with the same vague investment strategy for up to 45 years.
Analysis proves that most individuals are invested in the MySuper Investment Default for the majority of their working life and most individuals don’t know where to access the information required to examine the quality of their super product provider.
It’s Truly Simple!
When originally conceived, there was much debate in naming the application, the debate raging between SuperWiser and Simpler Super. SuperWiser won.
SuperWiser fills a void left by all product providers in terms of an employee’s capability to access personal advice limited to their super account. No one is trying to sell anything more than the one service and at no time will SuperWiser be an expensive service. Indeed SuperWiser’s process is enticing at first before it requires any commitment from you to directly engage with the application.
The overall SuperWiser approach is straightforward:
-
The first step in taking responsibility for your super asset is to review your current approach.
-
Commence by the process by registering your email to create your secure SuperWiser account and complete a free Super Review.
-
You will be asked a few questions about your super before we provide an indicative income in retirement projection based on your current approach against an improved approach.
-
Upon your authorisation, we then liaise directly with your super provider to confirm the exact details of your super and its current management before providing you with a more accurate projection and explaining how actively managing super can improve results.
-
If you decide to proceed, this is when you will pay a fee to access full details of the strategy being recommended by SuperWiser.
-
You will then be provided with three product choices to examine and choose from, including all required documentation for your reference, to help you further understand the advice being given.
-
You will also be provided with key performance parameters that enable you to monitor your progress towards the stated goals & objectives as defined with the targeted projected income in retirement.
-
SuperWiser then provides you with all the assistance required to implement the advice.
This is a lot of work for a base fee of $220. You are then serviced by SuperWiser on an ongoing basis with updates being provided on a full fee for service basis, such as an update in terms of your investment strategy which is always dependent on a 12 to 24 month view of the market cycle.
In terms of Products
The main service provided by super products is in fact the registration of your account balance and not the personal advice required to optimise your asset. Other than the provision of a product, service activity is limited to answers to general questions and queries and no attempt is made by product to help you manage your super as a wealth creation strategy.
Find Out More
Go to superwiser.com.au and start your free Super Review. FreeCall 1800 467 467 if you have some questions.
Who Will Win?
Superman versus SuperWiser – it’s a contest I’d like to see as I am confident SuperWiser will win.
Tools like SuperWiser are superheroes when it comes to managing your super. Decisions about your super are some of the most significant choices you can make – they impact on your future retirement savings and quality of life and so it helps to have a powerful ally like SuperWiser on your side.
So, why is SuperWiser the solution to your super struggle?
Personal Scaled Advice
Government regulation has focused on product, as well as holistic financial advice which can be costly. Many individuals however don’t have many other assets that need managing, they just want advice on their super. The service required is known as personal scaled advice, or limited advice.
SuperWiser meets all regulatory requirements and focuses on the delivery of high value advice at an affordable cost. The app gathers details of your circumstances and then processes a combination of product comparisons to identify the right product for your contribution strategy and investment strategy, before providing you with a framework to monitor your progress towards your goals and objectives.
With SuperWiser, it’s possible for most individuals to improve the performance of their super asset by over 20% as reflected by their projected income in retirement.
How Does SuperWiser Win?
Credibility is a key consideration when making a decision that might improve your future financial situation.
SuperWiser is owned by Super Simpler Pty Ltd, a company majorly owned by the directors of AXIS Financial Group Pty Ltd. AXIS Financial Group has been a market leader in servicing employer super since the early days of its development and AXIS Financial Group provided market leading service statistics in employer super for many years. No other advisory company penetrated as many workforces in delivering personal scaled advice to as many employees as AXIS did.
SuperWiser has taken the AXIS service model and automated it with the intention of further increasing the levels of market penetration previously provided to employer super. SuperWiser intends to do the servicing that should have been done by the product providers who have dominated the super market for so long.
The delivery of personal scaled advice is a space with few competitors as well organised as SuperWiser. SuperWiser is designed to provide advice to members of any corporate plan, to any individual within a retail personal product, and everyone in an industry fund. SuperWiser’s muscle is based on an algorithm that contains a database of product details which is used to calculate a better option for the individual depending upon personal circumstances.
Free Super Review
Complete a free Super Review to find out whether you can potentially do better. SuperWiser will review your current appraoch and identify how you can improve. You should you chooose to proceed to obtain and implement strategic advice, a very affordable price of $220 (inc GST) is involved.
The Traditional Service Model
One major failing of the financial services industry around super is the delivery of an individual service model targeting the optimisation of your balance at your point of retirement. The financial services industry is broadly operating with a tarnished brand while the government tries to prove yet again that the latest regulatory examination of super is the solution to the problem.
The one obvious problem not being discussed involves a commercial examination of the difference between a sales model and then a service model. The obvious problem with super is around what services are actually being delivered. The value being delivered is very much dependent upon the quality of the servicing.
Optional Commercial Models
As a consequence of the heavier penalties being inflicted across the financial services industry for any departure from regulation, the whole industry has become compliance focused, a distraction from explaining the value they bring to market through the delivery of service.
The current approach from product providers delivers a highly important service but very little by way of personal advice required to manage your super as a personal asset. Their definition of servicing has never included the delivery of personal advice at an individual level to optimise your balance and therefore your projected income in retirement.
Super as a Personal Asset
A sales model defines how your supplier makes a profit from providing personal service. A service model examines the same flow between supplier and client from the viewpoint of value delivered against the cost incurred. From the day anyone commences work and requires a super account, best practice involves the management of the asset being created. Super is a payment made by your employer intended to build an asset that replaces your income once you move on to life after work. Like any other asset, super needs to be managed if it is to be optimised.
The intention of government is always hard to ascertain as political opinion changes from government to government depending on their underlying agenda. In the past, government has said that super is a “community and not a personal asset”. Government has also said that the purpose of super has never been defined and such an initiative is overdue for legislation. A strange statement given the fact that compulsory super was introduced in 1992!
From an ownership point of view, there is no doubt that super is a personal wealth asset, in truth similar to anyone’s salary or wage. If you take an active interest in managing your super, there is also no doubt that you will accumulate a lot more than you can imagine. On the other hand, if you ignore your super for too long, the cost can be equally more than you would imagine.
What Do I Do?
In managing any asset, the object of the game is the increase in its value over time. In examining what to do, there are controlled decisions you can make and then there are market forces you can try to manage. In other words there are elements you can control and then there are events you cannot predict.
| Decisions You Can Make | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Choice | Contribution Strategy | Investment Strategy | Level Of Insurance |
| Goals & Objectives Which Can Be Set | |||
| Age of retirement | Projected income in retirement | Milestone 1 | Milestone 2 |
| Monitor the Performance of Your Asset | |||
| Against your milestones | Compare your investment return | Check your contributions | Consider new product options |
Using SuperWiser
SuperWiser provides assistance with product choice, the importance of optimising your contribution, recommendations on investment strategy including timely updates when required, and will also help with your understanding of personal insurance.
The SuperWiser application is targeted to servicing individuals accumulating super, even if you have not paid attention to it for some time. SuperWiser has 40 well-known products already analysed within a database so you can examine decisions around your asset while SuperWiser considers the potential choices you could make.
Start by completing a free Super Review. You can then make a fully informed decision on whether to proceed to obtain strategic super advice to improve your situation.
An Exciting Time Ahead For Super
The recent budget presented by the treasurer really should have minimal impact on what you do with your super. The problem as always is there are too many misconceptions and misleading opinions being promoted about super.
The simple fact is that super is just the same as your garden:
The more attention you pay it, the better it grows and the more it grows, the more you love to pay it attention. This is known as asset satisfaction.
Concepts Of Design
SuperWiser has been in development for a long time. It is licensed to operate under AXIS Financial Group Pty Ltd (AFSL 233680). The challenge in development has been creating an application that can cope with the regulatory complexities of super. It must be capable of:
- Understanding the user’s circumstances.
- Considering the appropriate advice through the principles of active servicing.
- Having a definition of what represents the perfectly serviced super account.
- Ensuring the user is given a method to understand their super goals & objectives and then the ability to monitor the asset’s approach towards those goals and objectives.
- The user must feel more educated by proceeding through the SuperWiser advisory process and therefore more in control.
Future developments of SuperWiser are in the pipeline:
- The application has to be able to recalculate super products for existing users each year to ensure their current product is still the right one for them.
- The application has to notify users when they should next adjust their strategy, possibly based upon a change in circumstance, legislation or in fact the next market cycle.
- While the existence of appropriate insurance is a secondary consideration, an insurance calculator and quotations software would be beneficial.
Benefits Of The Service
SuperWiser has a significant product base and an ability to know more about super than you do. If your main source of information is the media or if your understanding of super is limited to a single item such as investment returns, your choice and management of the product is more likely to be reducing your end result than optimising it.
If your sources are online or possibly product aligned, again you are not approaching the exercise of optimising your super properly. Sophisticated marketing and sales techniques are very persuasive nowadays. The byword in the financial services industry at present is digital marketing which is perceived by providers as a service.
SuperWiser is plain and simple and affordable. The cost of full personal scaled advice is $220 (inc GST) and the application takes you all the way through from thinking about it to the implementation of whatever is recommended to you.
Lots Of Questions
SuperWiser has to get to know you to provide the right advice. Which means you’ll need to provide us with some accurate data around your current arrangement.
For the public user, there are three calculations performed by SuperWiser to prove you can make significantly more super. All of these calculations are conducted to progressively tailor the personal advice to your situation. The initial comparison between your current and proposed strategies are presented by asking as few questions as possible. The next calculation confirms consistency with the result depicted by the first calculation. The final calculation confirms everything before you can choose to pay and go ahead with implementation.
The information required only makes SuperWiser all the more credible. Your information is also secure as every measure has been taken not only to secure the data but even to test the measures as applied.
Watch Your Super Grow
One of the features of the application is in establishing goals and objectives for your super, then understanding parameters of performance and then some medium term milestones. The provision of advice is not a one off exercise to be done and then set and forget. SuperWiser will explain what you need to do to progress towards your long term goals and SuperWiser will then tell you your next two milestones. Markets do fluctuate and one is always looking to the future with the past in mind.
When you should have achieved a future milestone, SuperWiser will contact you and examine what has happened in the time between advice and milestone. SuperWiser will further educate you as to what has happened and what it means to you.
As previously stated, everything develops positively if you pay it enough attention. Perhaps you have been somewhat negligent around your super up until now. It’s ok. Better to start paying attention now rather than years from now.
Start your free Super Review today. You may find your current super strategy is already optimal, but, then again, you may not.