Super choice a fizzer for advisers
Hopes that the introduction of choice of fund would boost business for financial advisers appear to have been dashed, with a new survey showing the majority of planners who service corporate super funds have received only a trickle of enquiries from members.
The survey of 117 advisers conducted by Dexx&r found 83 per cent of advisers with corporate super clients had received queries about choice by fewer than 10 per cent of the members of employer super plans they serviced.
The low enquiry rates were matched by low levels of churn between funds, with half of the respondents having seen fewer than five members move out of employer super funds, and 14 per cent saying no one had moved.
Of members who had moved out of employer funds, 47 per cent shifted into an industry fund, 38 per cent moved to a personal super fund, and 15 per cent opted to manage their own super.
Similar patterns emerged from those moving out of retail super funds, with 41.4 per cent indicating clients had moved into industry funds, while 40.6 per cent had shifted to other retail super funds, and 18 per cent entered self-managed super funds.
Dexx&r managing director Mark Kachor said the comparatively high percentage moving into industry funds showed the industry funds’ advertising campaigns had been effective.
Members of retail superannuation funds made slightly more enquiries about superannuation than those in employer funds, with 43 per cent of advisers surveyed indicating that they had experienced an increase in queries from members of the personal super funds they serviced.
Across both groups, members showed little interest in risk benefits associated with super funds.
More than 70 per cent of survey respondents said fewer than 5 per cent of people who enquired about choice of fund considered risk benefits.
“Given our underinsurance issues, it’s not surprising that there are only a small number of members who are taking risk benefits into account,” Kachor said.
Advisers were also unmoved by changes in the legislation, with less than one-third indicating choice would have any impact on their plans for the employer super market, and more than half saying they would not change their level of activity in pursuing employer superannuation business.
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