Roskow Blog

I'm getting very irritated by the Australian Super advertisements that are being shown during the the tennis so it's time to take some revenge.

The reason I'm irritated is because Australian Super have a massive marketing budget and I think they are wasting money on lazy messages.  The industry super funds have done a great job of pointing out that keeping fees low on your superannuation fund is very important but there more to it than just keeping fees low.

There was one advertisement that they were running where one of their members admits "I have no idea how the funds are invested but the fees are low so that's good".

Risk, asset allocation, investment strategy and investment managers are all other important issues, but Australian Super just keeps crapping on about low fees.

If keeping fees low is the most important thing then here's something Australian Super won't want their 1.8 million members to know: there's another industry superannuation fund out there with even lower fees than them.

Which one?

First State Super.  Their fees are incredibly low.  Their fees are over 50% lower than Australian Super.  The Australian Super High Growth Fund investment fee is 0.62%, First State Super investment fee is 0.29%

Australian Super Balanced fund fee is 0.56%, First State Super is 0.19%; that's 66% lower!

For more information on the fees at First State Super click here.

Please note, this is not a recommendation for First State Super.  Keeping fees low is important but they utilise crystal ball gazing fund managers who constantly underperform benchmarks so we don't have faith in their investment strategy.  If you want to learn more about our investment philosophy you will need to call us to schedule an appointment but we do intend to have more educational tools on our website to provide more detail later this year.

So forward this blog on to everyone you know who has an Australian Super account because if fees are all that matters, then there's a better option out there (note: be careful when rolling over your superannuation; if you have insurance cover through your existing fund and are rolling it over, you must get replacement cover in place BEFORE you send a rollover request form; you can instruct your employer to start contributing to your new fund, get the insurance cover in place and THEN send the rollover form off; sound like too much hard work?  Then get us to do it for you).

So one final point to make to Australian Super if any of their board members are reading this: keeping fees low is important and you've won that battle.  But as a well known barefooted friend of mine has already advised the industry super fund network, it's time to take it to a new level and start educating members on the other elements listed above.  Stop being lazy and complacent.

And stop utilising crystal ball gazing fund managers in your portfolios.  There is overwhelming academic research which proves they aren't worth the fees you paid.  It baffles me how you can't know about this yet...