Super fund advice take-up low
Only one in 10 industry super fund members use their fund’s financial planning services, mostly due to lack of interest and awareness, according to a survey conducted by CoreData.
The CoreData 2013 Superannuation Member Engagement Report, which surveyed close to 1200 super fund members across all sectors, found only 16.2 per cent of respondents overall used financial planning services offered by their fund.
Industry super funds seem to have the lowest take-up of this service, while corporate fund members are most likely to have used it.
“While the main reason given for not using their fund’s advice services is because they are not currently interested in financial advice (42.8 per cent), what is of concern is that one third are not aware that their fund provides these services,” said Salvador Saiz, head of advice, wealth and super at CoreData.
“However, close to one third would use their fund’s advice services in future.”
Furthermore, the report also found there was a jump in member satisfaction levels, with close to two thirds of respondents indicating they were satisfied with their fund’s overall performance - an increase from 50 per cent in 2012.
At the fund level, CoreData found HESTA achieved the highest level of member satisfaction, followed by BT and Q Super.
The survey found one in five respondents said they would change funds if they could get around to it, while 15 per cent are actively looking to change.
“Retail funds are in the largest danger of member churn, with 31.1 per cent of retail fund respondents saying they would change if they could get around to doing it, and 23.6 per cent actively looking to do so,” Saiz said.
“This of course ties in to the fact that retail sector funds as a group have the lowest level of member satisfaction.”
AUTHOR
Milana Pokrajac
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