Industry Fund Services executive chairman Garry Weaven admits the Coalition’s choice of fund legislation has made industry superannuation providers more aware of competition, but insists the pressures on industry funds pre-dated the choice regime.
Addressing delegates at a luncheon hosted by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Weaven says with or without choice of fund, industry superannuation providers must rise to the challenge of an expanding market.
“Choice of fund legislation is really part of the continuing of increasing pressures in the superannuation industry in the last decade,” Weaven says.
“As the honey pot has grown the number of bees around it has certainly multiplied,” he says.
In the current climate Weaven points to the inclination of funds to chase “headline investments” but says ratings should not be the name of the game.
Weaven says the industry must focus on bolstering the net benefit to members and this can only be achieved through leadership and efforts to bring unit costs down.
“I don’t believe in holding back on strategy or covering it up, because at the end of the day the only way the superannuation industry is going to prosper is through the emergence of truth in financial services,” Weaven says.
“Industry funds aren’t beautiful, but they are cheap.”
