$12 billion super fund flexes planning muscles

The giant $12 billion UniSuper fund has flexed its industry muscle, appointing six dealer groups to exclusively service its more than 380,000 members, but insisting advisers pass an exam first and work on a purely fee-for-service basis.

The six groups are Hillross, Monitor Money, Industry Fund Financial Planning, Investec, Shadforths and QInvest.

These dealer groups will act in conjunction with the industry fund’s in-house financial planning arm, which now has six advisers, headed up by education and advisory manager Damien Hurley.

The six dealer groups will work on a fee-for-service basis and these fees will have to be disclosed to enable UniSuper members to compare costs, Hurley said.

“The advisers working with our members will need to pass an exam first to ensure they understand our products and operation,” he said.

“Our products will go on the advisers’ approved lists and we will not be paying any commissions as the value for the dealer groups is in the referral of our members.”

According to Hurley, the deals are part of an ongoing push to enhance Unisuper’s internal financial planning operations. As part of the move, the group has adopted a customised version of the Guided Planning System (GPS) — the financial planning modelling software produced by industry consultant Paul Resnik’s CARM group.

“We want to provide better information to the members and leverage that information so that it can be used to provide generic advice, such as salary sacrificing, through our call centre,” Hurley said.

UniSuper’s membership includes academics as well as support staff at universities around the country.

“We are finding there are lots of members coming up to retirement with high balances which means... we will need to give them personal advice,” Hurley said.

With $12.6 billion of assets under management and 381,700 member, UniSuper is one of the largest superannuation funds in the country.