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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said it would investigate superannuation funds who refuse to allow members to use their funds to pay for third-party financial advisers, but no one has actually bothered to complain.
Facing questions within the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the ACCC said it stood ready to investigate the issue if the matter of how superannuation funds treated external advisers was ever raised.
The competition regulator was responding to a question on notice from NSW Liberal backbencher, Jason Falinski, who noted that the committee had previously provided evidence to the ACCC of superannuation funds limiting a customer’s ability to use their superannuation funds to pay for financial advice from a third-party adviser and asking what, so far, had been done about it.
Print
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said it would investigate superannuation funds who refuse to allow members to use their funds to pay for third-party financial advisers, but no one has actually bothered to complain.
Facing questions within the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, the ACCC said it stood ready to investigate the issue if the matter of how superannuation funds treated external advisers was ever raised.
The competition regulator was responding to a question on notice from NSW Liberal backbencher, Jason Falinski, who noted that the committee had previously provided evidence to the ACCC of superannuation funds limiting a customer’s ability to use their superannuation funds to pay for financial advice from a third-party adviser and asking what, so far, had been done about it.
“We have conducted internal actuarial analysis of the retirement outcomes for home-owning versus non-homeowning retirees and referenced the different outcomes in our submission to the Retirement Income Review,” it said. “For this we used data about our members’ balances compared with the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Comfortable Standard for homeowners and non-homeowners.
“These models are regularly updated.”
“We conducted focus group surveys of members in 2016 to test, amongst other things, their interest in either equity release or reverse mortgage products, but have not commissioned external research on outcomes,” the super fund said.
“The focus group results showed members had little interest in, or demand for usage of home equity or reverse mortgages. Most respondents were ambivalent, and reluctant to incur additional debt even where members over age 55 could see there might be benefit.”
Appearance before House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics.
Thank you for inviting ANZ to appear today.
Joining me is Mark Whelan, Group Executive, Institutional.
He is responsible for our large Australian and global business customers.
As we sit before you today, we are facing the most positive economic conditions that we have seen in the six years this Committee has been inquiring into the major banks.
While many are doing it tough, including CBD businesses, Australia is emerging from one of its hardest periods quicker and stronger than many expected.
This year, GDP should grow by 4.8% while the number of employed reached a record high in March.