Super funds could be more ambitious: Levy

While stopping short of revealing any specific recommendations from the Quality of Advice Review, Michelle Levy believes superannuation funds could step up sooner rather than later.

In a speech in Sydney, she acknowledged they could be doing a lot more with their resources, and that in the process of putting together the review, her mind had “completely changed” on the role of superannuation in Australia’s financial system.

“Early on, somebody asked me whether the superannuation system we had meant that advice was more or less important. At the time, I thought maybe less important because there’s a really good default. I’ve completely changed my mind,” Levy stated.

“There are so many decisions we need to make. There’s so much uncertainty and nervousness and anxiety that people really want advice about their superannuation. Even if the default is in fact good, they don’t know that, so they need that confidence.”

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Earlier this year, global consultancy KPMG had noted that immediate changes following the Review’s publication were unlikely, and that super funds could take up to three years to start giving advice. 

To this news, Levy said she believed super funds could be more ambitious.

“There’s a whole lot of stuff in what I’ve proposed and some of it can be done really, really quickly,” she said.

“I’d like to think superannuation funds could be more ambitious than three years. A lot of them have a lot of resources and they could do a lot more. They could implement changes gradually so that they give more advice.”

She also noted that following the review, her worst nightmare would be that nothing changed moving forward.