Snowball signs super deal

Queensland’s largest private sector superannuation fund, the $5 billion Sunsuper, has appointed listed financial services firm Snowball Group to provide education and financial planning services to its New South Wales and Victorian corporate clients and members.

The more than 700,000 member fund will be serviced in these two states by Snowball’s specialist financial planning arm, CIS.

Sunsuper will pay CIS, which was established in 1978 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Snowball, an annual fee for delivering an agreed program of education and advice. Any member requesting additional personal advice will be charged a fee-for-service, a policy which is in line with how the fund’s Queensland members also pay for advice.

Snowball managing director Tony McDonald said CIS would work alongside Sunsuper to help it develop strategies to raise both the level of education and financial planning available to the fund’s members in NSW and Victoria.

“[We will be looking at] boosting their level of understanding of financial issues and delivering appropriate advice - whether it be specific advice on their super and insurance, or more comprehensive advice in the run up to retirement,” McDonald said.

The deal is the third in as many months for Snowball, after forging an alliance with Sydney-based planning practice Dunhill Financial Services in November and reaching an agreement in October with former-Securitor aligned dealer group, Aspire Financial Services.

In an address at the group’s annual general meeting recently, Snowball chairman Andrew Brown said the group was looking to position itself in the market by offering what he termed “enterprise advice”.

Part of this initiative would see the group focussing on member-based organisations, such as Sunsuper, with the aim of delivering tiered service to meet the broad gamut of member advice needs.