Sizeable fee drops for MLC and Plum super products
Insignia Financial’s MLC Super Fund has announced some of the most significant administration fee reductions across its superannuation and pension products – MLC MasterKey and Plum.
The company announced that from 1 October, the headline administration fees for members in accumulation products will be halved from 0.30% to 0.15% per annum, while the administration fees for Plum Retirement Income and MLC MasterKey Pension Fundamentals members will be reduced from a maximum of 0.30% to 0.10% per annum.
The announcement said that fee caps for Plum Retirement Income members will decrease from $2,500 to $800 a year and that from 1 April, next year, fee caps for MLC MasterKey Pension Fundamentals members will drop to $800, and fee caps for MLC MasterKey Super Fundamentals will reduce from $2,500 to $1,000 per annum.
It said that, in addition, a flat fee of $78 per annum will be consistently applied across all products in addition to the percentage fee.
The company said that investment fees and costs for the majority of the ready-made investment options are also reducing on 1 October and that for MLC MySuper option, the total investment fees and costs will reduce by 0.10% per annum to 0.81% per annum.
Commenting on the changes, MLC Super general manger, Workplace Solutions, Jason Marler said the changes made fees simpler and more consistent for members.
“We’re pleased to leverage our combined scale to significantly reduce administration fees associated with managing members’ superannuation. Effective 1 October, these changes allow members to benefit from simpler, more competitive fees that deliver better value at a time where cost of living pressures are affecting many,”
Great, BUT…these newly reduced fees are still well above nearly all the best performed industry funds, and some retail players, such as CFS.
Most of these have total admin fees sub $150 p.a., hundreds less than Insignia for an account with a decent balance.
Add in the investment fees and there’s still a big difference for Insignia to close.