POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
(December-2003) Retails out of the net
Despite having a significantly higher fee structure, most retail public offer super funds, with a few exceptions, are lagging behind their corporate and industry fund counterparts in their Internet service offerings to members, a KPMG survey has found.
The fourth annual KPMG Public Offer Superannuation Fund Internet Survey examined the web-based services offered to members and their employers by 31 public offer funds, and evaluated Internet functionality across eight key areas.
KPMG superannuation partner, Emery Feyzeny, notes that despite their higher charges, public retail funds are clearly directing an insufficient amount of income towards developing and providing Internet services.
“Overall, in Internet services, the superannuation sector continues to lag behind other financial service providers, particularly banks.”
MLC MasterKey Business Super topped the overall rankings, followed by the Australian Retirement Fund, BT Lifetime Super — Employer Plan and the Challenger Corporate Super Plan.
Other industry funds that found a place in the Top 10 rankings were Sunsuper and Superannuation Trust of Australia (STA). Indeed, STA achieved the highest ranking excluding all real-time capabilities. It scored 55 out of a possible 57.
The survey found that 42 per cent of web sites did not provide any assistance in evaluating the investment risk tolerance of members. And 52 per cent did not provide members with any help in identifying their insurance needs.
Overall, member real-time functionality continues to be generally poor. Examples include that 39 per cent of participants do not allow users to alter their investment strategy and 87 per cent do not allow users to request alterations to insurance coverage (such as applying for additional units of insurance).
However, KPMG notes that the amount of member and employer online support remains encouraging. It found that 90 per cent of web sites provide online help references for members and employers, 97 per cent provide users with some form of help line/email and 94 per cent provide employers with online guidelines regarding administration processes (such as making contributions online).
AUTHOR
Zilla Efrat
Recommended for you
The super fund is open to the idea of using crypto ETFs to invest in the asset class, but says there are important compliance checks to tick off first.
ASIC has launched civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against one of the super trustees wrapped up in the Shield Master Fund failure.
Industry associations have welcomed the Treasurer’s review into the superannuation performance test and called for targeted changes that would enable investment in certain assets with strong long-term performance.
Super funds are strengthening systems and modelling member benefits ahead of payday super.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
74.26 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
72.60 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
44.46 3 y p.a(%)
4
Pengana High Conviction Equities B
39.12 3 y p.a(%)
5
Pengana High Conviction Equities A
39.05 3 y p.a(%)
