End commissions before increasing super guarantee


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Industry superannuation funds claim they want the Government to fix planner remuneration via commission and tax issues before it moves to lift the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent.
The message is contained in an Industry Super Network (ISN) briefing note, which argues that increasing the superannuation guarantee "without addressing the inequitable tax concessions and efficiency drags of the commission system would be a sub-optimal policy outcome".
ISN executive manager David Whiteley claimed next year would be a crunch time for Australia's superannuation system and that it was imperative to "fix unsustainable leakages in the system caused by trail commissions and other inducements to financial planners".
"Increasing contributions with the system as it currently is will only increase leakage," he claimed. "It is estimated nearly $5 million a day is being gouged from hard working Australians' retirements through commissions paid to financial planners."
Whiteley said in circumstances where the Government would be next year weighing up the recommendations of three substantial reports into the superannuation and financial services industry, it needed to address conflicted remuneration structures.
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