Taxpayers Australia’s superannuation products and services manager, Reece Agland, said industry and retail super fund lobby groups should be focused on putting their members first instead of their own self-interests.
His comments come after the lobby groups representing the retail and industry fund sectors – the Financial Services Council and Industry Super Australia, respectively – took part in a debate at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
“Focus is being taken away from building the best outcomes for members. It is no wonder people are leaving to set up their own self-managed superannuation funds,” Mr Agland said.
“On the one hand, industry super funds are petrified of losing their protected status in awards and are throwing mud at the retail sector in the hope they don’t have to compete on value and performance.
“On the other hand, retail funds with their outdated fee models and conflicted advice are doing whatever they can to increase their funds under management and thus increase their fees,” he said.
Mr Agland also said competition between funds and fund sectors is good for members; however, instead of focusing on achieving better results for members they are spending more time on “protecting their current positions”.
“The time has come for the government to ignore the blatant self-interest of all involved parties and foster more competition around the low-fee MySuper, by allowing greater choice of funds in the default sector,” Mr Agland said.
“Competition, not structure, will be the only thing to drive prices down and improve outcomes for members.”
