Govt retirees flock to planners

More than 7,000 public service retirees have raised their hand for access to fee-for service advice under the Victorian Government’s superannuation initiative.

Industry figures were left stunned when the number of public sector retirees who scheduled an appointment with financial planners reached 7,200 in only the first month of offerings. The one-off offer was made to some 54,000 pensioners and 50,000 deferred beneficiaries.

"There has been 7,200 interviews, or appointments made in only the first couple of weeks," says Arthur Andersen financial planning partner Graham Reeve.

"There has been a wide spread of interest from the retirees, with the larger states such as New South Wales, and Queensland gaining the best response," he says.

Reeve has been at the coalface of the Victorian Government's superannuation initiative, the Beneficiary Choice Program (BCP), since the tender process began in December last year.

"We haven't started the review process as the retirees are still in the process of making appointments with the financial groups," Reeve says.

He says in the past month the chosen 40 financial planning groups have been conducting nationwide seminars to promote their services to the retirees.

Reeve says the next few months will be extremely hectic, with information packs targeted at the 50,000 deferred beneficiaries in early April.

He says from April onwards, Arthur Andersen will be very busy conducting reviews of the talks between client and planners.