In a statement, the fund announced it will replace its $96 per annum flat fee with a new system that will have members with account balances below $4,800 pay 2 per cent of their balance.
Members with balances above this threshold will continue to pay the $96 flat fee.
UniSuper chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan said these changes will assist young, new and casual fund members to grow their balances more quickly without moving any other members onto higher fees.
“Recently, there has been an increasing focus on superannuation fees, especially for members with lower balances. It was a key focus area in our annual fee review,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“The members who will benefit from this change tend to be younger or working casually so this change will help address the very real issue of fees eroding their account balances.”
The statement also noted this shift to a 2 per cent cap for members with balances below $4,800 will already meet proposals made in the federal budget to limit administration and investment fees in superannuation funds to 3 per cent.
In May this year, UniSuper announced it would open physical shopfronts within universities to provide members with access to financial advice.
“We are committed to making our advice services accessible to all members and opening a branch on-campus is an innovative way for us to achieve this goal,” said UniSuper executive manager for advice Jack McCartney.
Now that the trustee has identified that it’s in the members best interest to pay lower fees they should send those members to a bank owned super fund with a fee below 0.8%
2% is a huge portion of an account to be eaten away by administration fees.
People go mad about Acorns being $15 a year – at least that’s a mobile app and has some functionality to assist you in saving.