Intrafund advice and sole purpose test advice needs to be expanded to give more Australians access to financial advice and ultimately improve retirement, according to Industry Fund Services.
Speaking at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) Super Financial Advice Symposium, Industry Fund Services executive manager, legal, risk and compliance, Csaba Baranyai said changes to alternative funding sources could be a way to give more access to advice.
Baranyai said intrafund advice needed to be expanded to address members’ full retirement needs, including:
With sole purpose advice, Baranyai said super funds needed to allow comprehensive retirement planning advice that encompassed all aspects of a member’s life including their spouse and household from the deduct from fund model.
“Ultimately, allowing a bit of that super money to be spent on improving the financial wellbeing and retirement plan of members be getting advice consistent with the objective of super,” he said.
“This may ultimately increase super balances through better financial management, probably an increase in contribution, and better asset allocation.”
Currently sole purpose advice, Baranyai said, had a very narrow scope, forced advisers to artificially limit the advice they gave or passed the member onto another channel, and was very opaque legislatively as rules were left completely up to the corporate and prudential regulators.
In a Senate submission, the Financial Services Council said super funds should be able to nudge members on engaging with their super and has cautioned against default placements.
The Joint Associations Working Group, which counts FSC in its ranks, has issued an urgent warning to the government.
Senator Jane Hume will join the speaker lineup at the inaugural Australian Wealth Management Summit.
New research from ART has found less than a third of women feel their superannuation is in a good position, reiterating the importance of opening up the advice arena to super funds.
Add new comment