Digging up the dirt on super shockers
I IO ONCE knew a very rich guy in his 60s who prided himself on ‘calling a spade a spade’.
“You’re fat!” he once said to a bloke we’d just been in introduced to.
“You need to look after yo yourself. I’m telling you this fo for your own good”, he said to the stranger.
Anyway, my wife says that so sometimes I behave like him wh when she wheels me out in so social settings — the only di difference is that I’m brutal ab about people’s financial flab.
Case in point: a while back at a BBQ, a guy I didn’t know struck up a conversation with me by saying he had his super with what I knew to be a high-fee fund. He wasn’t asking for advice, just making polite conversation.
“What on earth made you go with them?” I asked.
But before he could burble out an answer I said: “I mean it’s just a stinker of a fund.”
As I type, I’m cringing at reliving this moment.
My wife’s right: no one wants to talk about personal stuff with strangers in a social setting. But, hey, it’s just you and me sitting here, so let’s say we poke a bit of fun at a few flabby funds.
Last week, investment group Stockspot came out with their annual Fat Cat Awards, which ranks the worst-performing super funds. Each year the finance industry gives out thousands of awards to itself, but this is one award you do NOT want to win.
1. OnePath Masterfund OnePath Tax Effective Income Trust
2. OnePath Masterfund OptiMix Moderate Trust
3. OnePath Masterfund OptiMix High Growth Trust
4. OnePath Masterfund OnePath Balanced Trust
5. Perpetual WealthFocus Superannuation Fund Perpetual Diversified Growth
6. AMP Superannuation Savings Trust — BlackRock Global Allocation
7. Queensland independent Education & Care Superannuation Trust Conservative Growth
8. Labour Union CoOperative Retirement Fund Targeted Return
9. AMP Superannuation Savings Trust — Future Directions Moderately Conservative
10. StatePlus Retirement Fund — Balanced
What do all these crazy cats have in common? They all charge high fees, presumably to pay for all their expert fund managers.
Stockspot says there are only two things to consider when choosing a super fund: first, find the right type of fund based on your capacity to take risk. (Which Barefoot decodes as “anyone under 40 should go for growth, anyone over 40 should find a bit more balance”.)
Second, choose the fund with the lowest fees.
So, if you’ve read this far and are thinking to yourself “maybe I’m getting licked”, by all means get in touch with your fund and call a spade a spade.