Suncorp said it had raised the ASIC data with Asteron Life and had been “given comfort the statistics presented were not indicative of the experience of members of the Suncorp Master Trust (SMT)”.
What is more it said it did not believe the current TPD definition for SMT members has been a major concern to membership” with insurance-driven complaint volumes driven by the impacts of Protecting Your Super and Putting Members Interest First changes.
“Members are routinely referred to the disclosure material in fund welcome packs, insurance commencement letters, annual statements, and insurance-change communications. The SMT insurance policies and product disclosure materials include eligibility terms which outline members must be gainfully employed for a minimum of 15 hours or more each week in order to claim against the “occupational” TPD definition,” it said.
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The Government’s Protecting Your Super legislation appears to have come at a significant cost to some superannuation funds, with AustralianSuper estimating it at over $3.6 million.
AustralianSuper controversially introduced a levy to cover those costs and, answering questions on notice from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the fund said those extra costs had totalled $3,674,932 on a cost-recovery basis alone.
What is more, the largest portion of those additional costs came in the form of administration.
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Asked whether it allowed members to use their funds to pay for financial advice, internal financial advisers or external advisers, the superannuation fund said it did not have any current arrangement for either internal or external financial advisers to deduct an advice fee.
“Last financial year, QSuper allowed QInvest financial advisers to deduct the sole purpose test portion of the comprehensive advice fee from a members account, if expressly authorised to do so by the member,” it said. “However, this service closed to new bookings on 6 July, 2020.”
“As a consequence of closing this service, QSuper is in the early stages of considering whether it is in the best interests of all QSuper members to facilitate individual members authorising external financial advisers to deduct an advice fee (where permitted under relevant laws and codes of practice).”