Planning now entrenched in super funds
Almost one in two super funds are already offering their members financial planning services and about half of those who are not, are preparing to launch planning services.
That is one of the key findings of a survey of 48 super funds by Chifley Financial Services which revealed that 42 per cent of the funds surveyed provide planning services. But of all funds surveyed, whether they provided financial planning services or not, 65 per cent flagged legal liability as their greatest concern when considering the provision of financial advice.
A great number of super funds also continue to use external financial planners for planning as 40 per cent said they lacked in-house resources.
Of the super funds who do provide this service, exactly half employ the financial planners through a single provider, while the other half allow access to the planners through a panel of planning groups.
But despite warming to the provision of financial advice, the most frequent considerations by the super funds in making investments were maximising returns (65 per cent of funds surveyed). The provision of financial advice, in contrast, was thought to be the most important consideration by only 3 per cent of the super funds surveyed.
AUTHOR
Lachlan Gilbert
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