Ask the experts

Regardless of age, it pays to check that your super still meets your needs

NAME: Wilfrid D’Cruz

STATUS: Aged 77, retired, a fit and keen ballroom dancer.

QUESTIONS: What is the best pension fund for me? How should I be invested so I don’t run out of money – diversified, balanced or conservative options, given my age? ANSWERS: Find a good adviser who is not linked (via their licence) to a fund manager and who has excellent qualifications with reviews from real clients. Consider joining the class action that is seeking compensation for the low return of the cash option you are invested in. SuperRatings recommends an account-based pension with strong long-term investment performance, competitive fees, flexibility and access to advice. Its top-rated pension funds include AustralianSuper, HESTA, QSuper, Sunsuper and VicSuper. Review the level of risk in your fund.

For the past 17 years Wilfrid D’Cruz has been living off the retirement savings that he accumulated while working as a teacher and in the Royal Australian Air Force. But the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry has made him question whether he is in the right pension fund.

Wilfrid transferred his superannuation to Colonial First State, which the royal commission’s blowtorch questioning revealed had been charging fund members high fees, including commissions, and paying out uncompetitive cash interest rates. An avid reader of magazine and intrigued that CFS’s pension funds never appear on the list of top funds, Wilfrid wants to know which one he should choose. He notes that industry super funds such as Hostplus, Cbus, AustralianSuper, CareSuper and Intrust were recently recommended by researcher SuperRatings for Australians in their 60s but what about people in their 70s? What investment option should Wilfrid choose?

His bank financial planner has invested around 40% of Wilfrid’s pension in cash and local and global fixed income, plus 60% in Australian and global shares and property. About 10% of Wilfrid’s pension sits in Aspect Wholesale Diversified Futures, a managed fund that trades in around 120 global futures, using short selling. It has a total management cost of 4.23%, including a performance fee.

Wilfrid understands a fair bit about investing, having taken courses run by the Securities Institute, such as ones on understanding company reports.

He owns some shares outside superannuation. “They have probably gone down but I don’t worry. All you have to do is have sufficient money so that you don’t run out.” He says the prospect of being an old man with no money does haunt him.