Crackdown on super fee disclosure welcomed

image
image image
expand image

The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) welcomed the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s (ASIC) move to crack down on misleading fee disclosure practices in the super industry. 

AIST policy and research manager David Haynes is pleased ASIC is seeing the need to shield consumers from super funds that under-disclose their fees and costs for financial advantage. 

Haynes said AIST was particularly worried about products that were marketed as 'low-fee’ or 'no-fee’, where in fact fees were just hidden. 

“Funds not disclosing in the spirit of laws requiring full disclosure can be misleading consumers,” he said. 

“In a compulsory super system, consumers must be able to easily compare funds based on meaningful and consistent information about fees and costs.” 

In a report released this week, ASIC said many funds ignored costs associated with investing through external investment structures and only looked at the first layer of fees in underlying investment vehicles. 

The financial services sector needs to be consistent in its disclosure of fees and costs, ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said. 

ASIC is especially concerned about the disclosure of management costs.

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 8 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

1 year 9 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 9 months ago

APRA has warned retail super trustees that financial adviser involvement in recommending platform products does not diminish their obligations, as regulators turned the s...

1 day 4 hours ago

The super fund announced that Gregory has been appointed to its executive leadership team, taking on the fresh role of chief advice officer. ...

1 day 4 hours ago

The deputy governor has warned that, as super funds’ overseas assets grow and liquidity risks rise, they will need to expand their FX hedge books to manage currency expos...

1 day 5 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND