Everyone Has An Opinion
Super in Australia is a huge asset for the nation, our system is the envy of the world. Unfortunately that also means super gets lots of attention from the government, regulators, banks, unions and the financial services industry as a whole.
Those who shout the loudest about an issue or topic will have their own specific agenda, and often their interests won’t necessarily line up with yours. If anything, the last individuals to be considered by all the parties involved in legislating, regulating and servicing super are you, the individuals who own the asset!
In many cases this has led to the market messaging around super being biased, it often misinforms rather than educates the public about the asset that they own and leads to the wrong guidance on making super decisions.
The Super Situation
The Australian super market has been dominated for far too long by organisations that focus on products, rather than personal service. Making good super decisions is rather complicated and requires a lot of product knowledge. Getting the most out of super requires a level of expertise that most people don’t have, but product providers are reluctant to help!
The most common-place marketing campaign for the super industry involves super providers telling customers how much they care, or promoting low costs and/or higher returns without any transparency about what that really means, this makes the decision making process complicated.
Whilst there are huge variations in product functionality, there is very little variation in most product provider’s intent to deliver a quality service on a personal level.
What’s Wrong With Super?
Put simply the biggest problem with super is:
The government and regulator have repeatedly tried to resolve an apparent problem with super, but the issues have never accurately identified and still exist.
There are far too many third-parties with a vested interest in promoting only themselves.
The idea that the only investment strategy that is available is the “trustee approved MySuper investment default”.
The level of undisclosed costs and related party transactions within a product.
Misinformation by the media where they reinforce the idea that the only way to make a decision is to evaluate the differences in product by looking at the annual disclosure of best investment returns and then the “dud funds”.
The lack of attention paid to investment risk and valuation methodologies when promoting annual investment performance.
Some product providers actually lack scale from an investment management point of view.
It appears that regulatory pressures are depressing all product providers into the same standard model which is based upon a minimum of personal service at an individual account level.
What To Do About YOUR Super?
Well first things first, it is always important to investigate and try to improve your super.
Super decisions are often left for over a decade as you start with very little and then over a decade later you realise you actually have accumulated more than you imagined. So start now and look for a source of information that provides perspective around how you are currently organised.
You may be someone with multiple accounts but then you are uncertain in making a decision about which account to consolidate everything into. Most advisers are product biased and you have to make sure your source of information is technically competent and will not hesitate to recommend whatever choice might be right for you.
You might feel somewhat uneducated about your super. Information provides the education you might feel you lack now. Such information must be mathematically based and must consider a wide array of product choices you could make.
You must be able to browse before you have to buy. Whatever the source, you would never buy blind but maybe that’s why super is such a confusing area to navigate. You need some information early and maybe a bit more and more to be convinced that you are being guided in your best interests.
So Where To Begin?
Let SuperWiser do the hard work for you. It can evaluate your current super fund and compare it against other well-known funds to find the optimal product, contribution and investment strategy for you. It can also help you to establish clear goals so you can easily monitor the performance of your fund.
Start your free Super Review now.