Who’s super dooper

THEY are super’s “best in show” — funds so good they can deliver workers an extra $375,000 in retirement, the Federal Government’s top policy advisers say.

News Corp Australia has brought to life the Productivity Commission’s new proposal for an official top 10 list of funds by assembling a panel of experts and asking them to select standout super products based on long-term net returns, fees, governance and history of meeting “member needs”.

The commission is recommending a radical overhaul of the way workers end up in super funds after its “unique assessment” of the system revealed: A THIRD of all accounts shouldn’t have even been opened because the owner was already with another fund, eroding balances by $2.6 billion a year through unnecessary fees and insurance; and, FIVE million people have MySuper default products whose average performance is so poor it’s costing them the equivalent of 13 years’ pay ($635,000).

The Commission argues it is possible to dramatically lift super savings by ensuring workers are only ever allocated to a default product once and encouraging the selection of a top-performer, or what it calls “best in show”.

“The best in show concept puts consumers in the driving seat,” Choice head of policy Erin Turner said. “It gives people the support to make a highquality decisions instead of leaving it up to the industrial relations system.”

But Super Ratings CEO Kirby Rappell there was still a lot of work to do on what the panel would look like, as well as on precisely how funds would be selected.

The “best in show” funds presented here are products that fit the commission’s broad criteria. They are not endorsed by the Productivity Commission nor are they necessarily the funds that would make the top 10 list if the idea becomes a reality.