Fund execs not immune to remuneration scrutiny

Industry superannuation funds have acknowledged that the remuneration scrutiny directed at financial planners will ultimately reflect back on salaries paid to super fund executives.

Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) officer Andrew Barr has told the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds that the scrutiny on remuneration risked "the blow torch being turned back on us".

Explaining the AIST's approach to the Cooper Review, he said the likelihood of scrutiny being turned on levels of fund executive remuneration had resulted in a recommendation that funds make such information public. Barr said the AIST was recommending that member funds publish the remuneration of their top five executives in aggregate.

However, he suggested it would be open to funds to provide more detail if they saw fit.

Barr said the AIST had also recommended that superannuation ratings houses make their commercial arrangements with funds more transparent.

He said that if funds had paid to be rated then members should be made aware of the nature of that transaction.