Pursuing SMSFs for all the wrong reasons

self-managed super funds SMSFs retirement savings

12 December 2012
| By Staff |
image
image
expand image

While self-managed super funds (SMSFs) are representative of a massive opportunity for many within the super industry, there are also a host of providers looking to the sector for exactly the wrong reasons, according to Paul Schroder, general manager – growth and new opportunities for AustralianSuper.

“They’re thinking of SMSFs as some sort of honey pot or some sort of opportunity for them, as an institution, to harvest, to make money from,” he said.

“But I think what’s very entertaining to watch is those big operations who think they’ll have some knock out, scalable solution for what is completely a fragmented, individually driven, very localised superannuation response.”

Schroder said that SMSFs were undoubtedly a significant innovation with respect to retirement savings, but they also tended to be very adviser- and individual-driven.

“Yet you then get these large organisations saying ‘gee, I can see there’s a third of the money in there, I’d better get in there, this is a really great opportunity’ and it simply doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

For Schroder, it is vital that all within the industry understand exactly why people went down the SMSF path in the first place.

“Some of them might have had something sold to them and some might even have been told something that isn’t quite right, but most of them probably went down that path because they actually wanted to do it themselves,” he said.

“They wanted to do it without the big providers.

“So it’s sort of strange to say ‘you left our party so we’re going to chase you until you come back to it’ – that just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

11 hours ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

4 days 16 hours ago

It’s astonishing to see the FAAA now pushing for more advisers by courting "career changers" and international recruits,...

3 weeks 2 days ago

Insignia Financial has made four appointments, including three who have joined from TAL, to lead strategy and innovation in its retirement solutions for the MLC brand....

2 weeks 4 days ago

A former Brisbane financial adviser has been charged with 26 counts of dishonest conduct regarding a failure to disclose he would receive substantial commission payments ...

3 days 14 hours ago

Pinnacle Investment Management has announced it will acquire strategic interests in two international fund managers for $142 million....

2 days 17 hours ago