{"id":782,"date":"2012-01-18T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/knowledgetoday\/?p=782"},"modified":"2012-01-18T14:09:42","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T04:09:42","slug":"mounting-criticism-of-super-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/blog\/2012\/01\/mounting-criticism-of-super-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Mounting criticism of super choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.asb.unsw.edu.au\/schools\/Staffprofiles\/JohnEvans_AssociateLecturer_HeadofSchool_SchoolofActuarialStudies.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"103\" height=\"119\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Associate Professor John Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There is a vast array of superannuation products on the market nowadays. However I\u2019m\u00a0not convinced that the large numbers of new products really helps to add value for the majority of investors.<\/p>\n<p>The bulk of members really couldn\u2019t care less about the plethora of peripheral products.<\/p>\n<p>Disengaged members typically make up the vast bulk of industry fund members, and it is estimated nearly 70 percent of not-for-profit fund members have their super invested in the default option.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, fewer than one in three people are making the effort to choose how they want their super invested.<\/p>\n<p>New investor options are targeted at a small but asset rich minority of members, and not the larger investor base.\u00a0Directors and fund executives are entangled in the bigger is better race to amass more funds under management.<\/p>\n<p>But does this help the average common-or-garden investor?<\/p>\n<p>No. Not a jot.<\/p>\n<p>Industry funds should go back to the root of their business, and provide low-cost, simple products for members, because as investment choice rises, so do costs. Investors who want the full range of investment products could transfer to DIY funds, where there more flexibility, although I do have to warn that a lot more hands-on involvement could be time consuming.<\/p>\n<p>Industry super funds argue that without an entrepreneurial approach, super funds mandate to grow and protect Australian\u2019s retirement funds would be at risk. OK, fair enough, however\u00a0although some people like the new options, many members don\u2019t want extra facilities such as cash deposits or direct property investment. They just want to save for old age.\u00a0Investors just want simple, low cost easily understood investments that do not fluctuate in value too much.<\/p>\n<p><em>John Evans is an Associate Professor and Head of Risk &amp; Actuarial Studies at the Australian School of Business.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Associate Professor John Evans There is a vast array of superannuation products on the market nowadays. However I\u2019m\u00a0not convinced that the large numbers of new products really helps to add value for the majority of investors. The bulk of members really couldn\u2019t care less about the plethora of peripheral products. Disengaged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}