POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
‘Retrograde step’ to charge for building reserves: Hume
The move by superannuation funds to charge for building a trustee financial contingency reserve is a “retrograde step”, according to Senator Jane Hume.
Addressing the Australian Financial Review Super and Wealth summit in Sydney, Hume, minister for superannuation, financial services and the digital economy, said several super funds had applied to the courts for this permission.
Charging members’ extra fees at a time when Your Future, Your Super reforms were about lowering fees meant the decision was a retrograde step.
“Let’s not kid ourselves as to what this really is; taking member’s money out of their retirement savings to set up a pool of funds – owned by the trustee – to ensure they can pay for penalties due to their own misconduct.
“If it appears that trustees are confusing their own interests – saving their own skins – with the best financial interests of members whose money is unlikely to be imperiled by a change of trustee, I would expect regulators to take action and Parliament might too.
“I’m not sure how many members would vote to give away some of their hard-earned retirement savings to bail out a trustee for wrongdoing.
“Particularly when trustees and those organisations that stand behind them have their own resources which they could alternatively draw on rather than milking their members.”
She urged superannuation trustees to raise the question with their super funds at the next annual members’ meeting.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
Recommended for you
The Future Fund’s CIO Ben Samild has announced his resignation, with his deputy to assume the role of interim CIO.
The fund has unveiled reforms to streamline death benefit payments, cut processing times, and reduce complexity.
A ratings firm has placed more prominence on governance in its fund ratings, highlighting that it’s not just about how much money a fund makes today, but whether the people running it are trustworthy, disciplined, and able to deliver for members in the future.
AMP has reached an agreement in principle to settle a landmark class action over fees charged to members of its superannuation funds, with $120 million earmarked for affected members.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
76.97 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
76.46 3 y p.a(%)
3
UBS Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners UCITS ETF Dis USD
51.13 3 y p.a(%)
4
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
45.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
Select Baker steel Gold Institutional
43.78 3 y p.a(%)
