Actuaries urge dashboard upgrade

16 August 2016
| By Mike |
image
image
expand image

The current dashboards being utilised by financial institutions and superannuation funds to compare superannuation fund performances are technically unsound and need to be upgraded, according to the Actuaries Institute.

The institute has this week urged a major overhaul of the dashboards to provide consumers with more meaningful and transparent information about the risks, returns, and costs of their funds so they can make better informed decisions.

Commenting on the dashboards, Actuaries Institute superannuation practice committee convenor, Andrew Boal said that in a climate where consumers needed more transparency from financial services providers, there was reason for concern that consumers were making decisions affecting their financial future based on information that might not be meaningful to their needs.

"The current dashboards provide limited help to consumers and, in some instances, may even mislead them into making decisions that will ultimately reduce their retirement benefits," he said.

"Our position is based on a careful review of the current MySuper dashboard structure and we hope that regulators will take notice of our concerns. In particular, the separation of investment fees and costs from administration/advice fees and costs is critical to member understanding of the value they receive from their superannuation fund. Including examples based on several different sized account balances is also important to help members understand the different impact on their retirement savings of dollar based versus asset based fees and costs."

Boal said he believed it was extremely important that policymakers shifted the current focus on the dashboards away from solely short-term investment risks to include a longer term investment risk measure which was far more important to most members.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

1 year 3 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

1 year 3 months ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

1 year 3 months ago

In what is being called a coordinated cyber attack, a number of Australia’s largest superannuation funds have suffered a breach with thousands of user accounts compromise...

2 days 4 hours ago

Donald Trump’s tariff blitz has shaken global markets, fuelling uncertainty over trade retaliation, recession, and economic fallout, while Australia, though bruised, esca...

2 days 5 hours ago

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has vowed to slash red tape and introduce a suite of financial services reforms aimed at transforming Australia into a leading financial hub...

3 days 5 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND