Older super fund members value advice

The Government and superannuation fund executives may view superannuation funds as the most expedient way of delivering affordable advice, but a recent survey conducted by National Seniors Australia (NSA) points to only limited use of super fund advice.

The survey, published by NSA and the Super Members Council (NMC) found that over 50% of seniors respondents with superannuation had never been in contact with either a free adviser or a fee-based adviser.

The same survey found that 41% of respondents had never changed their investment options.

However, when asked which sources of information from their main super fund were the most useful to respondents, websites and fee-based or free consultations with advisers received the highest proportions of ‘very useful’ votes.

This compared with websites, factsheets, and subscriber newsletters which received the lowest proportions of ‘not useful’ votes.

While the survey indicated comparatively low use of financial advisers, it nonetheless ranked access to tailored advice as one of the top five deliverables members wanted from their superannuation funds.

The top four deliverables in rank order are strong net returns on investments, low fees and costs, certainty and stability of investment returns and access to tailored financial advice.