An overwhelming majority of people working in the superannuation industry believe the Government should move to simplify the nation’s superannuation laws and regulations.
That is the bottom line of a poll conducted by Super Review in mid-February, with 93.3 per cent of more than 230 respondents saying the Federal Government should use its majority in both houses of Parliament to simplify the superannuation legislation.
The survey also showed that an overwhelming number of respondents (94.6 per cent) believed that the existing laws and regulations were simply too complex, with 86.1 per cent believing that complexity was acting to discourage superannuation savings.
What should be most disturbing to the Government, however, is the fact that the survey was directly targeted at superannuation practitioners but 76.4 per cent of those people said they did not fully understand Australia’s superannuation laws.
In fact, asked to grade the level of their understanding, only 14.4 per cent of respondents claimed to have an excellent understanding while 44.4 per cent said they had a good understanding.
On the negative side of the equation, 4.2 per cent of respondents said they did not understand the superannuation laws, while 37 per cent acknowledged they had only a fair understanding.
The results of the survey serve to underline the recent calls by senior industry executives for the Government to use its majority in both houses of Parliament to simplify the superannuation regime.
That call was made by the former head of Towers Perrin in Australia, David Solomon, last year and has been followed up this year by a range of industry figures.
Just as importantly, the findings come at the same time as the industry seeks to come to terms with the evolving regulatory environment surrounding the new choice of fund regime, due for implementation in July, this year.
The Government is expected to release the final shape of the choice regulations this month.
