Super industry catching up on external advice offerings

Comprehensive advice offerings in superannuation funds have seen a steady decline over the last few years in favor of referral process while scaled advice has stayed fairly static, according to SuperRatings.

Speaking at the Lonsec Symposium in Sydney, SuperRatings head of superannuation consulting, Scott Abercrombie, received data from the research house’s annual reviews of providers showed internal advice offering generally offered competitive value but that there were challenges.

“It’s no surprise that the retail funds sector has a pretty strong history in providing financial advice to their members, but more importantly, support to advisers,” Abercrombie said.

They said the rest of the industry was slowly starting to realize more needed to be done in the advice space to keep up with offers from competitors or they risked losing members.

For funds that reviewed their advice strategy, 15.4% were considering an referral panel, while 20.5% were considering additional levels of external adviser servicing, according to SuperRatings

Advice offerings in superannuation

Source: SuperRatings

“The overall message here is that we know that the retail sector has come from a place of strength in this space. And now it’s time for the rest of the industry to catch up, which pleasingly they are starting to do, ”Abercrombie said.

External adviser servicing between Retail Master Trusts (RMT) and Non-Profit funds (NFP)

Source: SuperRatings