While Legalsuper continues to drive voluntary contributions from active member engagement campaigns, many parts of the industry simply don’t make it easy enough for people to engage with their super, according to Legalsuper chief executive Andrew Proebstl.
“We spend a lot of time working on lifting the level of voluntary contributions,” Proebstl said.
“We write to people who we have on record as having made a contribution in the prior year and say, ‘you’ve made a payment in the previous year, you may be considering your options at this time, here’s how the deductions work, here’s what you need to know’, helping them understand what deductions might be available,” he said.
“I think the industry can make it too hard for people. If we can’t convey what can be difficult concepts in a simple way that’s a bit of a problem — it’s a key thing to get right.”
The policy has successfully driven improved voluntary contributions in the past and has resulted in Legalsuper being less affected by a recent industry wide dip in voluntary contributions, Proebstl said.
Legalsuper is another fund examining its advice offering in the wake of Cooper Review recommendations that simple advice be made more accessible to members.
While comprehensive advice is offered as an outsourced arrangement through Industry Fund Financial Planning (IFFP), the fund is also offering factual information in the form of workplace seminars, website factsheets and targeted mail outs.
The fund is also attempting to pin down, through member consultation, exactly what financial advice needs they believe they have and what modes of delivery would work best, Proebstl said.
