Industry super funds are under-performing

Industry Super Funds would have you believe that one of their logos on your superannuation statement could mean thousands of dollars more in your superannuation. What they fail to mention is that it also could mean thousands of dollars less.

In a submission to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission on award modernisation and default superannuation funds, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry said:

“Aggregated, unpublished Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data shows that there are 24 industry funds (out of a total of about 84 such funds), potential default funds in awards, that have under-performed over the long-term.”

Sherry said this underperformance was as high as 1.6 per cent a year and the funds had a membership of around 3 million accounts in a system wide total of around 21 million accounts. (Read the article here.)

Oh my goodness! That is 28.5 percent of funds are under-performing and 14 percent of fund account members that could be affected.

The Industry Super Funds network are extremely vocal about the fees charged by retail super funds and apparent under performance of retail funds. This brings to mind the phrase “Me thinks you protest too much!” Their incessant headline grabbing behaviour appears to be a smoke screen for the real story.

And anyway, who is paying for the millions of dollars of advertising spent by the Industry Super Funds network? The members! “Run only to profit members” – yeah right! If you are going to make a claim, make sure it is true!

The lesson here is to not be complacent and accept the BS fed to you by your providers. Take a few moments a year to compare their performance to relevant benchmarks and Crack The Whip Over Your Wealth!

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