ISA renews $2.6 billion planner commission claims

Industry Super Australia (ISA) has cited $2.6 billion a year being paid in commissions to financial advisers as one of five reasons to steer clear of bank-owned superannuation funds. 

The industry funds group has cited the five reasons as part of its ongoing campaign against "the banks" as it seeks to counter moves by the Financial Services Council (FSC) to open up the default superannuation regime to all eligible MySuper funds. 

The $2.6 billion adviser commission figure is drawn from research commissioned by the ISA and carried out by Rainmaker. 

Under the heading, "5 things you may not know about retail super funds" the ISA lists the following: 

1. The big banks are behind lots of the big retail super funds. For example: BT Super is owned by Westpac, MLC is owned by Nab, Colonial First State is owned by Commonwealth Bank, OnePath is owned by ANZ Bank. 
2. Banks run their super funds to generate profits which are used to pay dividends to shareholders. In 2012/13 this amounted to $2.3 Billion for the wealth management sections of the major banks, which includes their superannuation funds. 
3. Over 80 per cent of financial planners are associated with a product manufacturer, including the big banks, and can earn sales incentives for recommending the banks' products to you. 
4. Total commissions paid to financial advisers from retail super funds in 2012/13 was an estimated $2.6 Billion. 
5. Over the last 10 years the average retail fund has delivered around $16,000 less to members than the average Industry Super Fund. 

The ISA five-point claim being pushed on social media is allied to its current national television advertising campaign based on a theme of banks seeking to gain control of the default fund environment.