Industry funds need planning capacity

Industry superannuation funds have good reason to pursue the establishment of solid relationships with reputable financial planners, according to Lonsec Fiscal Holdings joint chief executive, Nathan MacPhee.

MacPhee provided the SuperRatings Day of Confrontation with data suggesting the number of advisers currently working in the not for profit sector would simply not be adequate to meet the level of demand.

Discussing the issue on a panel which included Industry Super Australia chief executive, David Whiteley and Financial Planning Association chief executive, Mark Rantall, MacPhee said he believed there were would commercial reasons for many of the old animosities between financial planners and industry funds to be put to one side.

In doing so, he pointed out the degree to which many industry funds appeared to be ill-equipped to deal with financial planners, including how few actually had a dedicated web site available for third party financial planners and how few had a capacity to provide advisers with access to client reports.

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The data showed that only around 20 per cent of not for profit funds allowed third party financial advisers to transact on behalf of members, and that fewer still had a dedicated servicing team for financial advisers.

Perhaps most remarkable of all, the analysis provided by MacPhee showed that almost no not for profit funds provided data fees to financial planning software compared to around 80 per cent of retail superannuation entities.

Rantall pointed out the capacity which existed for financial planners to meet the needs of industry funds and exampled the FPA's arrangements with Cbus as a model which could be utilised going forward.