The Financial Services Council (FSC) has called for a lifting of the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent within six years.
The call has been made in a statement of policy objectives released by the FSC today in which it also called for the implementation of tax settings that promote adequate retirement outcomes, particularly for women who currently experience unequal retirement incomes relative to men.
The statement also called for a staged increase in the preservation age, "linked to the Age Pension eligibility age, and increases in life expectancy, while preserving a reasonable gap, accompanied by an early release mechanism for those unable to work later in life".
Unsurprisingly, the FSC document also traversed many of the issues it has fought out with the industry super lobby throughout the past three years including the selection of any Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) approved MySuper product to be a default fund, removal of the Fair Work Commission from the fund selection process and the appointment of independent directors to superannuation fund boards along with an independent chairs.
In its pre-election policy document, the FSC highlighted 15 priority reforms, with superannuation featuring prominently, urging both major parties to avoid changing super taxes without a comprehensive tax review.
The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
Super funds delivered a strong 2024 result, with the median growth fund returning 11.4 per cent, driven by strong international sharemarket performance, new data has shown.
Australian Ethical has seen FUM growth of 27 per cent in the financial year to date.