Commissions campaign isn’t over yet

Industry superannuation funds have signalled they will be continuing their long running campaign against financial planning commissions with Industry Funds Management chairman Garry Weaven claiming only the intellectual debate had been won.

Defying suggestions by other members of the financial services industry that the debate over commissions had been run and won by the industry funds, Weaven claimed there were those who had an agenda to “win the peace” by retaining commissions in another guise.

Participating in a panel discussion during an Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) conference on the Gold Coast, Weaven said, “Commissions are not dead. We’ve only won the intellectual debate.”

His comments came as other speakers on the panel suggested that if the Coalition were able to form a minority Government then commissions would continue to exist irrespective of the moves undertaken by the planning industry.

Weaven and the other panelists were critical of the Cooper Review’s MySuper proposal, warning that it represented a “dumbing down” of the superannuation system.

The chief executive of major industry fund, Hostplus, David Elia said the basic flaw in the MySuper proposal was that it was founded on a fundamental belief in lowest cost, which did not necessarily equate to the best outcome for superannuation fund members.