BT offers fee-for-advice option to superannuation members

BT Financial Group has announced a new fee-for-advice option which will be made available to a number of BT Retail Personal Super and Pension funds.

According to a letter sent to BT Lifetime - Flexible Pension members on 14 November, members will be given the option to set up an advice fee for personal financial advice, effective from 14 December 2011. 

The fee-for-advice option, or 'Option B', will replace the pension fund's existing fee arrangement, which currently charges members an upfront commission of 0 to 4 per cent and an ongoing commission of 0.6 per cent per year based on the value of a member's investment. 

As part of the new option, members can either sign up to a one-off advice fee or an ongoing financial advice fee, which members can opt-out of on a date specified or after a period of two years, whichever is earlier.

Members can either fill out an Advice Fee Cancellation form to cancel ongoing payment to financial advisers, or extend that arrangement by filling out a completed Advice Fee form, the letter stated.

According to BT, if a member commences either one of the financial advice fee arrangements, they will receive a fee rebate to their account of up to 0.6 per cent per year.

"Increasingly financial advisers have been requesting this flexibility to charge a specific fee-for-advice rather than a bundled commission. Given levels of demand, BT will be progressively introducing this across its entire retail product range," said BT Financial head of superannuation Melanie Evans.

Apart from Flexible Pension, the new option will also be available to a number of other BT superannuation funds including BT Lifetime - Personal Super, BT Retirement Selection - Personal Super Plan, and BT Superannuation Investment Fund.