THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Only 12 super funds meet the new Chant West 'adviser-ready standard'. Three industry funds (ART, Aware, Brighter) plus the biggest nine platform products. If you're a financial planner who doesn't work for an industry fund, this is potentially a useful stamp.
However, and if this is a big however, funds that don't meet this standard aren't somehow defective or sub-standard for consumers. And in speaking to industry funds heads of product, I know that some have actively decided not to pursue the 'external adviser' market.
This is because they have looked at the numbers and the cost to stand up a decent adviser portal etc, just isn't a good use of members money, when only a tiny percentage of members will see an external adviser. Even if those members have high balances and often end up leaving.
Lastly, I'm not sure if the standard looked at insurance documentation/PDSs, but in speaking with financial advisers, that's actually one of their key bugbears. If the insurance guide doesn't spell things out clearly, then the adviser is going to spending way too much time on hold waiting to speak to a real person to get an answer.
In summary, real life in super is a lot more complicated than a collection of tick boxes. But we knew that eh?
