ASIC outlines changes from under-reporting of super and fund fees

Changes to the way superannuation and managed investment funds disclose full fees payable by customers will bring an industry-wide consistency to compliance requirements that were seemingly ambiguous, according to the regulator.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced its intention to make amendments to fee disclosure last week, with changes to come into effect from 30 September.

The issue, first investigated in 2014 following ASIC concerns with nonconsistency round under-reporting of fees required a change in compliance in order to satisfy customer expectations as well to to plug “considerable inconsistency” in the way fees and charges have been listed by funds.

Changes would include:

• Allowing for easier consumer identification of situations where fees charged may be higher than expected due to type of investments.
• Amendments to provide more certainty around relevant requirements by the undertaking of compliance checks across the industry.
• Bringing better consistency around the requirements to be included in the product disclosure statement (PDS).

The deadline for the disclosure of property operating costs in the investment fee or indirect costs has also been set at 30 September, while the deadline for disclosures in periodic statements had been extended to 30 June 2018.