$450 SUPER THRESHOLD BILL ABANDONED

www.fssuper.com.au

Volume 13 Issue 04 | 2021 News

11

AMG Super launches platform

AMG Super has launched a platform that coincides with unveiling a new superannuation product.

AMG Super will migrate existing members and products to the new platform in 2022 as part of a major project that will be rolled out over the next 12 months.

The new product, Acclaim Super & Pension, launched on October 27.

Head of distribution and partnerships Terry Constable said the Acclaim Super & Pension is a viable alternative to a selfmanaged super fund that delivers the same investment flexibility without the administrative burden.

AMG chief executive Alan Hegerty said the new platform has “a unique non-custodial investment model with a choice of broker within a platform environment”.

“Our product enables advisers to deliver a truly individualised portfolio without the hassle of administrating and consolidating off-platform assets,” he said.

AMG’s MySuper product was one of 13 funds that failed APRA’s inaugural performance test.

It joined the likes of ASGARD Employee MySuper, Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund's LifeTime One, AvSuper Growth, BOC MySuper, Christian Super's My Ethical Super and Colonial First State's FirstChoice. fs The quote

Retail and industry super funds have a duty to be open and clear about the financial services they provide...

Super fund documents unreadable: Study

Jamie Williamson

The documents produced by Australia’s largest superannuation funds have performed dismally in an analysis of readability, with an average score of 45.6 out of a possible 100.

Ethos CRS analysed 80 different documents published online by the 10 largest industry funds and 10 largest retail funds. The documents looked at were the funds’ product disclosure statements, financial services guide, annual reports, and company policies.

The metrics used to derive readability scores were grade level, average sentence length and use of active voice and Ethos CRS set benchmarks for each.

Overall, CareSuper had the highest readability score at 49.4 out of 100. AustralianSuper and HESTA placed equal-second on 49.2. The top five were rounded out by Cbus (48.4) and Hostplus (47.7).

The fund with the lowest readability score was Netwealth on 40.2. AMP, IOOF, Perpetual Select and Sunsuper were also in the bottom five.

The average score across all 20 funds was just 45.6.

For grade level, the benchmark was seven – clear to anyone with a lowersecondary education. The average score across the funds was 13.5, suggesting members would need a near-tertiary level of education to understand what they’re reading. For context, just 1.2% of adult Australians read at a tertiary education level, the researcher said.

Turning to sentence length, Ethos CRS considers a sentence with between 15 and 25 words per sentence as ideal. The average sentence length across all documents reviewed was 21.9 words.

Finally, on average, just 68% of the sentences in the documents reviewed were written in the active voice. The benchmark is 95%.

In all, industry super funds outperformed retail funds on every metric.

“Retail and industry super funds have a duty to be open and clear about the financial services they provide, the performance of funds they manage, and the rights and responsibilities of fund members,” Ethos CRS said. fs

$450 super threshold bill abandoned

Elizabeth McArthur

On October 27 the bill to remove the $450 per month income threshold for superannuation guarantee contributions was tabled, but is now not expected to be looked at again until after the next federal election.

The bill removes the $450 per month income threshold under which employees do not have to be paid the super guarantee by their employer.

“This will remove a structural discrimination that has been part of the superannuation system since 1992, improve equity in the superannuation system and increase the economic security of women in retirement,” minister for superannuation Jane Hume said at the time of the bill's introduction.

The legislation was part of an omnibus bill that was listed for debate in the first week of December but wasn't reached on the last day of sitting.

Women in Super expressed dismay that the bill, which would have addressed historic, legislated economic inequality, was abandoned by the government.

Two out of three of the 300,000 workers in the country earning less than $450 a month are women, the group noted.

Women in Super chair Kara Keys said it was extremely disappointing that a bill with bi-partisan support that has been so long in the making would be jettisoned.

“The Morrison government needs to explain why it has walked away from this uncontroversial legislation that would improve women’s lives,” Keys said.

“The removal of the threshold to ensure people earning below $450 per month receive super payments was part of the first Women’s Economic security statement issued by then Minister Kelly O’Dwyer in 2018."

She added that it is disappointing that a measure that has a negligible cost to the government, a potentially big impact on women and was announced over three years ago has been dropped. fs