K63 Insurance and Superannuation Funds

IAG faces action over sales tactics

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Original article by James Fernyhough
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 30 : 12-Apr-19

Law firms Johnson Winter & Slattery and Bannister Law have filed a class action against Insurance Australia Group. The lawsuit will allege that IAG subsidiary Swann Insurance engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct with regard to the sale of add-on car insurance, which IAG has ceased offering. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission questioned the value of add-on insurance in 2017, while such policies also attracted scrutiny by the Hayne royal commission.

CORPORATES
INSURANCE AUSTRALIA GROUP LIMITED – ASX IAG, SWANN INSURANCE (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD, JOHNSON WINTER AND SLATTERY, BANNISTER LAW, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

Satisfaction with industry funds increasing while total market satisfaction declines

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Apr-19

The latest findings from ‘The Roy Morgan Superannuation Satisfaction Report’ shows that industry funds improved their satisfaction rating by 0.9% points (to 62.1%) in the year to February 2019. Satisfaction with retail funds fell to 55.7% (down 3.5% points), and satisfaction with self-managed super funds was 73.4% (down 0.1%). The report shows that industry funds have higher satisfaction than retail funds across all balances. Over the last year, retail funds have shown declines in satisfaction at all levels, with the biggest decline being a drop of 14.3% for members with balances of less than $5,000. There was also an 8.0% point decline for those with balances of $700,000 or more. Meanwhile, of the 15 best performing industry and retail funds, Unisuper with a satisfaction rating of 71.2% was well ahead of second placed HESTA (68.3%) and Cbus (66.6%). The report is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including over 30,000 superannuation fund members.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, UNISUPER LIMITED, HEALTH EMPLOYEES’ SUPERANNUATION TRUST AUSTRALIA LIMITED, CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING UNIONS’ SUPERANNUATION FUND

AustralianSuper declares war on DIY funds

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 13-Mar-19

AustralianSuper CEO Ian Silk will use a speech in Brisbane on 13 March to argue for greater regulation of self-managed superannuation funds. He will tell the Conference of Major Super Funds of the need for an inquiry into the performance of SMSFs. Research by the Productivity Commission has concluded that SMSFs that hold less than $500,000 tend to perform much worse than regular super funds. Silk will also argue that super funds which consistently underperform should not be allowed to remain in business.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, CONFERENCE OF MAJOR SUPERANNUATION FUNDS (CMSF) PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

Industry super wins $11b from retail

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 27-Feb-19

Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority show that retail superannuation funds’ outflows totalled $10.9bn in 2018, compared with just $3.5bn in 2017. Industry funds benefited from the bearish sentiment toward retail funds. AustralianSuper’s funds under management rose by 17 per cent to $140bn, lifting its market share to 5.7 per cent. AMP, which was highly criticised by the Hayne royal commission, remains the nation’s largest retail super fund. It boasts some $123bn worth of funds under management, although its market share has fallen below five per cent.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, INDUSTRY SUPER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Industry Superannuation Funds increase lead in satisfaction with performance

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 26-Feb-19

New research by Roy Morgan shows that members’ satisfaction with the financial performance of industry superannuation funds was 62.1% in the six months to January 2019, compared with 57.3% for retail super funds. Satisfaction with retail funds was 1.6% below that of industry funds in 2018, and this gap has now increased to 4.8%. Eight of the top 10 performing super funds, based on satisfaction with their financial performance, were industry funds in January 2019. The highest rating was for Catholic Super (72.1%), followed by Unisuper (70.8%). The only two retail funds to make it to the top 10 were Macquarie (65.9%) and Colonial First State (60.4%). These results are from the newly released Roy Morgan ‘Satisfaction with Financial Performance of Superannuation in Australia January 2019’ report. The data in this latest report represents some of the findings from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey, which is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including over 30,000 with superannuation. Results presented here are based on interviews conducted in the six months to January 2019.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, CATHOLIC SUPER, UNISUPER LIMITED, MACQUARIE SUPERANNUATION, COLONIAL FIRST STATE SUPER

Super changes to cost AMP $30m annually

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Original article by Misa Han
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 19 : 19-Feb-19

Embattled wealth manager AMP has advised that the federal government’s superannuation reforms will reduce its operating earnings by about $10m in 2019 and up to $30m in 2020. The reforms will allow the Australian Taxation Office to consolidate super accounts that are inactive or have low balances. AMP estimates that the reforms will affect about 370,000 of its super accounts. The bill has been passed by the Senate with the Greens’ support, although it has yet to be passed by the lower house.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

AMP reaps $100m in zombie fees

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Original article by Michael Roddan
The Australian – Page: 6 : 1-Feb-19

The federal government’s legislative agenda for February will include a bill to enable the Australian Taxation Office to transfer monies from inactive superannuation accounts with low balances to the fund member. There are about 7.3 million inactive super accounts in Australia, and it is estimated that AMP alone generates at least $100m in fees each year from more than one million such accounts. Australians also pay some $2.6bn a year in fees for multiple super accounts.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, MOTOR TRADES ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA SUPERANNUATION FUND PTY LTD, REST SUPER PTY LTD, FIRST SUPER PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Murray in the crosshairs as battered AMP faces shareholder revolt

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Original article by Joyce Moullakis, Ben Butler
The Australian – Page: 15 & 18 : 23-Jan-19

AMP could face a board spill at its 2019 annual meeting under the ‘two strikes’ regime, after more than 61 per cent of votes cast at the 2018 meeting rejected its remuneration report. The election of chairman David Murray is also uncertain, with at least two institutional investors said to be planning to vote against the resolution. They include Hamish Carlisle of Merlon Capital Partners, who opposes the election of Murray and non-executive director John O’Sullivan.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, MERLON CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY, RESOLUTION LIFE GROUP LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, CREDIT SUISSE (AUSTRALIA) LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SUPERANNUATION INVESTORS INCORPORATED, ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED, IOOF HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX IFL, AUSTRALIAN ETHICAL INVESTMENT LIMITED – ASX AEF, AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Industry funds the likely beneficiaries of proposed superannuation changes

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 23-Jan-19

New findings from Roy Morgan show that the level of satisfaction with the financial performance of industry superannuation funds was 61.8% in the six months to November 2018, compared with 57.2% for retail super funds. Satisfaction with industry funds has increased by 2.6% over the last year, while satisfaction with retail funds has declined by 0.3%. Eight of the top 10 performing funds, based on satisfaction with financial performance, were industry funds over the six months to November. The highest rating was for Catholic Super with 70.5%, followed by Unisuper on 69.7%. The only retail funds to make it into the top 10 were ASGARD with 65.1% and Macquarie with 63.7% satisfaction, but both were below the average of 65.5% for the top 10. These are the latest findings from Roy Morgan’s ‘Satisfaction with Financial Performance of Superannuation in Australia Report’ November 2018, which is based on in-depth interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 consumers per annum in their homes, including over 30,000 with superannuation.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, CATHOLIC SUPER, UNISUPER LIMITED, ASGARD SUPER, MACQUARIE SUPER

Future Fund’s returns good, not great

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 16-Jan-19

Data from Chant West shows that the federal government’s Future Fund achieved an average return of 10.7 per cent over the seven years to September. This is lower than the returns of major industry superannuation funds over the same period, including AustralianSuper, Hostplus and Cbus. Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia CEO Martin Fahy says the Future Fund would have lower costs and lower net returns if it were to be converted from a sovereign wealth fund into a super fund.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FUTURE FUND MANAGEMENT AGENCY, CHANT WEST FINANCIAL SERVICES PTY LTD, AUSTRALIANSUPER PTY LTD, HOST-PLUS, CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING UNIONS’ SUPERANNUATION FUND, UNISUPER LIMITED, THE ASSOCIATION OF SUPERANNUATION FUNDS OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, RICE WARNER ACTUARIES PTY LTD