The Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) performance test is likely to be the biggest driver for member engagement and is a great opportunity for advisers to show value, according to Sunsuper.
Speaking at the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) conference Brian Parker, Sunsuper chief economist, said there was a very real potential for clients to be active in this space and to talk to their advisers about the matter.
“There is the potential for clients to ring you up if they happen to be in a MySuper product that failed the test or if they’re not being moved out if a product failed or they’re in a product that might actually next year fail the test,” Parker said.
“To put a positive slant on it though, there is a great opportunity potentially to the advice industry for those members out there who are totally disengaged with their super.
“There are plenty of them and as an industry we spend a lot of time and effort trying to get members engaged with their super.
“It may just be that this is finally one way we make a meaningful impact on that and we make a meaningful dent in the number of people who are disengaged with their super and get them to become engaged.
“If they’re in a product that’s failing or on the verge of failing, they may actually need to seek out some advice and that provides an opportunity for advisers out there.”
Parker said that despite firms like SuperRatings and Chant West publishing “leader tables” for performance, it did not “move the dial” in the same way as information on the Australian Tax Office (ATO) website would.
“One of the things we see happening over the next while is the ATO website may well become the ultimate source of truth when it comes to performance comparisons between different funds and these are going to become much more commonplace than they had been to date,” Parker said.
Parker said advisers who constructed their own client portfolios would still need to care as the ATO website would still be used to challenge their performance.
“The ATO website is still going to become a benchmark for your clients to potentially compare your performance against,” Parker said.
“What are you delivering for your clients when compared to the major super funds of Australia, after fees, taxes and administration – all of this does matter for financial advisers.”
