Enter the super planner

Superannuation fund members may be starting to find they are being targeted by their own funds’ affiliated financial planners, if the results of the Top 100 survey are anything to go by.

Superannuation fund members may be starting to find they are being targeted by their own funds’ affiliated financial planners, if the results of the Top 100 survey are anything to go by.

Increasingly, organisations operating within the superannuation industry (linked to a member’s fund either directly or indirectly) are offering financial planning advice to members before they leave the fund. And while this trend is only beginning to emerge, the implications for financial planners who have traditionally depended on the rollover and retirement market may be dire.

If the Government ever manages to get its choice of fund legislation through Par-liament, superannuation funds will need to offer value add-ons to fund members to retain them. Already, some superannuation funds are doing this. State Super Finan-cial Services is owned as an investment of NSW-based SAS Trustee Corporation. The group offers financial planning and education services to employees of the NSW public sector. With 72 planners on board, it ranks thirty seventh in the Top 100 listing, which is not such a poor effort when you consider that a few years ago a superannuation fund setting up its own planning business would have been un-heard of.

Sally Manion, general manager of financial planning at State Super, says the group has “grown very quickly”. So much so, that she acknowledges the group can’t keep up with demand. “There is a huge number of people coming into the profession but sometimes we’ll have very long client waiting lists.”

The group has an introduction to clients through providing educational seminars to members, but it does not have direct access to member details. It doesn’t charge fees for advice, its only source of revenue being from its Fund of Funds.

Manion says State Super’s clients can rest assured that, as their planners are sala-ried, they will have the client’s best interests at heart. She sees this as a real ad-vantage for superannuation funds moving into offering members financial plan-ning. “I think there’s a lot of interest because they wish to ensure their members receive appropriate advice.”

However, it’s not just the super funds themselves who are taking the planning route (whether it be a direct route, or through setting up a separate organisation such as State Super). Actuaries and consultants to superannuation funds are also beginning to realise the significance of the market.

William M Mercer, well known as a consultant to superannuation funds, has its own planning arm. Mercer Financial Planning is forty-third in the Top 100 survey, with 62 planner. It has been in the business for more than six years and in the past year alone has doubled its planner numbers, says its manager of research and com-pliance, Robert Thomas.

Thomas says that, apart from Mercers’ “lovely brand name”, corporate clients may be attracted to the group’s planning arm because of its parent’s prowess in con-sulting. “Take someone who’s worked for XYZ Company for years. They’ve trusted Mercer with their money, so they can then trust Mercer Financial Plan-ning,” he says.

Like State Super Financial Services, Mercer Financial Planning advisers work on a salaried basis. Thomas concedes that “having that link to the super funds and dealing with senior management in companies” has meant that his group is able to place its foot firmly in the corporate superannuation door.

While only three superannuation-related organisations appear in the top 100 (the third being NSP Buck) this year, expect this to change next time around say these groups.

“It’s early days,” State Super’s Manion says.