A new industry group has been established to represent the corporate superannuation advice market.
Corporate Super Specialist Alliance (CSSA) is led by Nick Economidis who is also the FPA chair of the corporate superannuation working committee.
The group, however, does not represent private client advisory services.
"We decided to set up a body to give advisers who work in our industry a voice. The current industry debate is all about fees. We believe it should be about policy, particularly around the issue of adequacy," Economidis said.
The group is especially concerned about the Cooper review's proposed choice architecture model and its effect on corporate superannuation.
"Critically, CSSA members believe that the proposed model will act as a disincentive for Australians to engage with their superannuation and lock corporate superannuation fund members out of receiving the benefits that flow from the services provided by a specialist corporate super fund adviser," Economidis said.
He said the model is not consistent with the government's objective of lowering fees in superannuation as it weakens the corporate superannuation sector, which has a strong record in maintaining low fees.
According to Economidis, the latest Rice Warner research on fees in the superannuation sector, including fund manager and advice fees, showed that large corporate master trust fees were 0.79 per cent compared with industry fund fees of 1.07 per cent.
The research also revealed the average member balance in corporate master trusts was $60,000, compared with an industry fund average balance of $18,000.
"This shows that providing advice does make a substantial difference to a person's overall retirement savings," Economidis said.
"Under the proposed model, advice has a limited role in universal funds and members seeking advice would need to pay for it separately outside their fund at a significantly higher cost than they currently pay to access it through a corporate super fund adviser."
