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.
Life In Regret?
Many of us will collect at least a few regrets over the course of our lives. When it comes to superannuation, a common misstep is failing to develop good habits early and not taking the time to figure out what outcomes represent success.
The majority of people under the age of fifty are either misinformed or misled by published opinion about what is good and what is bad in super. Super is at the centre of a lot of activity and opinion, making it confusing to try to navigate. Most people simply switch off and miss out on the benefit of becoming informed about super.
The Professional Opinion
The financial services industry has established itself to “service” what was always going to be an enormous asset almost thirty years after compulsory super was introduced. The annual cost of such services has been widely publicised from time to time, always within a negative context. At no time has anyone tried to explain the relative value of the services delivered against the costs as charged.
For the first thirty years, the main services delivered to the general public have been product based, and then individual services have been developed to target the top end of the market where holistic financial planning can be delivered. It’s easy then to conclude that the most significant achievement by the financial services market is the creation of a product that records all the transactions required to calculate your balance, whilst the financial services industry largely concentrated on delivering highly priced services to financial planning clients.
The New World
In the midst of all the controversy around super, the governing forces, as well as the public, tend to miss what might be the obvious.
Where do those who do not want and cannot afford highly priced financial planning services go to find out how best to manage their super? Most importantly, how can they be assured the source is credible and provides value?
It seems I have just defined the basis of what is the new world for super: the delivery of personal scaled advice at a very affordable price!
The Development Of SuperWiser
As an application, SuperWiser has been in development for over 5 years and at times, progress was slow, partly because of the complication of super regulation. Services of an advisory nature have focused on financial planning and therefore so has regulation. Years of re-regulation of super have only further complicated the basis of advice.
While SuperWiser has not been approved by ASIC, the application has been demonstrated to ASIC in 2020 and all questions responded to fully.
SuperWiser has been examined and re-examined from many perspectives, be it from an actuarial perspective or by advisers or by compliance. It has also been demonstrated on many occasions and positive feedback received.
All of the above is before being further presented to market in delivering what is regarded as an ambitious but essential service.
The Functionality Of SuperWiser
Within the underlying database supporting client outcomes, there is a significant analysis of some forty major products across three service models with all subsequent comparisons based upon a standard algorithm as developed by Actuaries in Super (AIS). So SuperWiser does two very complicated procedures extremely well:
- As a product comparator.
- How to best use the recommended product.
The majority of people do need technical assistance in managing their super as it is a very changeable industry with many available products, all of whom market themselves very well but not in a way that helps the general public make a decision.
Once you have chosen your product, there are a number of additional decisions to be made around goals and objectives, your level of contribution and then how you might invest your asset dependent upon your personal circumstances.
SuperWiser makes all of the above as simple as can be.
The Value Of SuperWiser Service
From a client’s point of view, examination of the service as delivered is rather straightforward as you want a high financial benefit against what you consider to be a low cost.
The fact is that SuperWiser delivers to client expectations between what would be regarded as high value against a low cost. It is expected that news will travel fast as people become more and more aware of this accessible online service. The application does all of the work but there is an internal support staff here and ready to assist you wherever necessary.
Try It Today
Get started with a free Super Review.
If you have any queries in reading this article or in examining the SuperWiser website, feel free to email me at harry.burke@supersimpler.com.au.