The federal government and Industry Super Network's (ISN) call for a collective fee to be paid by super fund members to give them access to personal financial advice is a blatant demonstration of double standards, according to the Corporate Super Specialist Alliance (CSSA).
CSSA president Douglas Latto said that while the government and ISN had expressed strong principles around opt-in on the basis that people should not have to pay for advice they might never receive, they were campaigning for personal, individual financial advice, which some super fund members might never access, to be paid for via a collective fee.
"This is possibly the most patent demonstration of double standards we have seen to date in the FOFA (Future of Financial Advice) debate," Latto said.
"Personal financial advice is exactly that, highly personal. Why should all members of a super fund subsidise the personal financial plans of a few?"
He said the government intended to make it possible for super fund members to access personal financial advice, which would be paid for via a collective fee, by introducing an intra-fund advice fee into MySuper and other corporate super funds.
"Making the situation worse, the collective fee will not, as it is now in the corporate super environment, be tailored to suit the needs of individual employers and their employees, but by the trustees of the fund at a standard level for all members," he said.
"The government, in its paternalistic fashion, has again decided what is good for you: in their view, one size fits all."
He said if a member of a corporate super fund wanted tailored personal financial advice, they should pay for it.
"It is hard to see a better world for super fund members in any proposal that has them subsidising the personal financial plans of others and which legitimises the government's double standards and conflicted principles," he said.
