In a statement yesterday, Roy Morgan released data from its Single Source consumer survey that looked at the satisfaction levels of 30,000 superannuation members.
Over the last 12 months to March 2017, consumer satisfaction with the financial performance of their retail superannuation funds increased by 3 percentage points to 60 per cent, while satisfaction levels for the performance of industry funds decreased by 3.2 percentage points to 57 per cent.
Roy Morgan said six out of 10 (59.7 per cent) people have superannuation have balances of less than $100,000.
Retail funds lead industry funds in overall customer satisfaction but, more importantly, they only hold the lead for balances under $100,000, Roy Morgan said.
Industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research Norman Morris said that although satisfaction with retail superannuation funds is now higher than industry funds for the first time in over a decade, it is important to recognise that this has mainly been as a result of gains among lower value clients.
“This is possibly due in part to the introduction of the no-frills, low-cost MySuper products over recent years, which appears to be mainly impacting on the less engaged, lower value customers who didn’t actively select an investment option but are now more satisfied with their returns,” Mr Morris said
“Superannuation is becoming a very complex area which is likely to lead to a lack of confidence and engagement, particularly as it involves very long-term decision making which is competing with shorter term priorities like buying a house.”
Whitely forget to pay his bill?
Maybe it’s a result of “industry fund” members gradually finding out that they are in union funds. Designed to benefit union members and officials.
Maybe its a result of people trying to claim unsuccessfully on the crappy life insurance policies offered by most industry super funds. I know that i’d be more than a bit miffed if i tried to claim on a policy that i’d held with Australian Super for 10 years or more, only to find that they changed the definition of TPD 2 years ago to something that makes it pretty damn hard to achieve a successful claim and that the only real communication to me as the member was a small note that said it was ‘good news because premiums werent rising this year….’ No notice that they had changed the policy conditions significantly to avoid a further increase. And i’d be pretty upset that the trustee’s focus on getting new members disadvantaged me as an existing member. It’s Australian, but it’s not Super….
Yep Jimmy, the insurance offering, pricing and claims servicing is undoubtedly an issue. Not saying that it’s all glowing on the retail provider side either, one industry funds premium are re-rated annually by their insurer and no other insurer wants to go there.