MLC has announced it will will stop deducting plan service fees from its MasterKey Personal Super (MKPS) member accounts, and that all MKPS members will be “fully refunded” for plan service fees paid while in the product.
“Today’s announcement follows ongoing discussions between the trustee and ASIC, with the trustee working with the regulator in order to achieve the right outcome for our members,” said the statement, which was posted on the ASX on Thursday.
MLC/NULIS will be one of the case studies examined during the the royal commission hearings into superannuation, which are set to begin on Monday, 6 August.
MLC has announced it will will stop deducting plan service fees from its MasterKey Personal Super (MKPS) member accounts, and that all MKPS members will be “fully refunded” for plan service fees paid while in the product.
“Today’s announcement follows ongoing discussions between the trustee and ASIC, with the trustee working with the regulator in order to achieve the right outcome for our members,” said the statement, which was posted on the ASX yesterday.
MLC/NULIS will be one of the case studies examined during the the royal commission hearings into superannuation, which are set to begin on Monday, 6 August.
The chief executive of MLC Super, Matthew Lawrance, said the fee was being refunded “because MLC did not clearly communicate to MKPS members that the fee could be turned off if they no longer wanted access to general advice”.
The announcement by MLC follows revelations about ‘fees for no service’ charged by financial advice companies in the April hearings of the royal commission.
“MKPS members regularly received the contact details of their financial adviser through communications such as their annual statements, but where we let our members down is we did not clearly explain that they could elect to not have this service and they could turn off the fee,” Mr Lawrance said.
Mr Lawrance pledged to “work with advisers as the change took place”.
The plan service fee for MLC MasterKey Business Super will also be turned off on 30 November 2018, after which no MLC products will have a plan service fee attached.
Well I have paid a fee for 17 years to MLC and never received any advice from anyone and yet the ‘advisor’ still took a fee. That is just plain wrong.
[quote=Anonymous]So which law firm do we speak to in regard to a class action.
Imagine if every phone plan re seller suddenly had their commissions turned off. We worked under a business model promoted by the product makers.
The advisers who recommended these products were working on a remuneration structure promoted by MLC and the government. MLC must be held liable and compensate the advisers who followed their business plan.[/quote]
I agree. I am in on it. What do we do, which lawyer to speak to. This has costed me $2,000 per month which is a lot of money.
This won’t stop if we are to become a profession. The only fee that will be able to be deducted for advice that isn’t a platform, investment, trustee fee etc will be a flat fee that is agreed upon annually by a client for specific advice services to be delivered in advance and paid via annual invoice. If that ongoing fee is tax deductible then in the client best interest it might not be wise to pay it from super if their MTR is higher than 15%. Industry funds will have to be the same.
So which law firm do we speak to in regard to a class action.
Imagine if every phone plan re seller suddenly had their commissions turned off. We worked under a business model promoted by the product makers.
The advisers who recommended these products were working on a remuneration structure promoted by MLC and the government. MLC must be held liable and compensate the advisers who followed their business plan.
When will ASIC be engaging ISA around their fees????? ASIC should show it is not biased or conflicted and do so with all ISA funds that charge their numerous fees that are not related to simply providing returns for members. But of course, that is very unlikely as Kell said they have no intention to focus on them. Of course not, they are only worth a measly $26billion or a third of all superannuation in Australia!!
Does Mr Lawrence have any superannuation or advice qualifications or any experience?
ASIC thinks only they should be paid a salary not the advisors. It all started with banks doing the wrong thing and this is only hurting the self employed model that is actually looking after the clients. Complete rubbish. In the end the banks will pay the compensation, there will be more red tape virtually hard for any self employed model to profit. Banks get stronger and stronger.
So how is this different to Industry Funds charging all their members a fee to cover intra fund advice, yet not refunding it if people don’t use it?
Well thats it for MLC. Poor performing and expensive products and now an aileniated sales force. I feel for all the advisers and their staff who will just simply have to walk away from their businesses.
Of course, its ok to pay fund managers a percentage of someones super balances for no service and performance below indexed funds. They arent financial advisers so can do whatever they want and claim their commission. They dont even have to operate in anyone’s best interests.
But those fund managers are actually providing a service for that fee… Performing or not, thats completely different to someone receiving a ‘plan service fee’ irrelevant of whether or not they have ever spoken to a client.
We know that most dont.
Who is the we you are referring to ?
Absolutely ridiculous. I was looking after the clients and MLC switch this off. This puts me out of pocket and my revenue dropped. How about giving advisors some time or probably understanding if the advisors are looking after the clients or not.
Just the start mate, next is Grandfathered comms, then cannot charge ongoing fees only invoice clients and so on, shut shop is the way
It would be very interesting to know what your value promise was to these clients……