Australian superannuation funds are delivering the third best retirement savings system in the world, with the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) warning that it is only “misleading analysis [leading] to sensationalist newspaper headlines” that suggest otherwise.
ASFA said that such headlines “only served to alarm Australians and detrimentally impact retirement outcomes”, saying that according to the 2017 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index only the Netherlands and Denmark have better systems.
“It is important to compare like with like when making fee comparisons,” ASFA said.
“For example, investing in government bonds may come with a lower fee, but Australian super funds achieve high returns from unlisted infrastructure, property and other investments and these cannot be obtained by investing in indexed funds.”
The group also said that fees for managing Australian super funds were comparable to those in other countries with high levels of investments in equities, pointing out since the introduction of MySuper and other reforms fees had fallen.
ASFA also emphasised that:
“Superannuation is working … it is important to get the facts straight, because not doing so simply reduces confidence in the system, disengages the community and leads to worse outcomes in retirement,” ASFA said.
Michael Lovett, who left the investment firm just three months after launching its Vanguard Super offering, has taken up a chief executive role at an Australian asset manager.
The Central Bank of Ireland has granted the approval of Equity Trustees’ exit from its Irish operations, with the transaction expected to be complete on 30 April.
Super returns continued to climb in March, raising hopes of delivering double-digit returns by June depending on the performance of this next quarter.
The dedicated super fund for emergency services and Victorian government employees is under fire for unpaid entitlements to transport employees, which could exceed $40 million.
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