Four in five happy with their super: ASFA
Friday, 14 November 2008 10:25am
The global financial crisis prompted only 13 per cent of Australians to change the way they save for their retirement and a majority 80 per cent are happy with the performance of their super fund, a new industry survey shows.
The findings were from the latest annual superannuation survey conducted in September and prepared for industry body ASFA by research firm McNair Ingenuity. The research looked at how respondents viewed the performance of their super fund and how satisfied they are with their fund's services.
The key message, said ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos, was that people generally understood what happened in the market and how that affected their super. A minority nine per cent saw the market collapse as an issue and 12 per cent raised their contributions to super this year.
Choice-of-fund is working with eight per cent of respondents switching funds in the past 12 months, a low number in context of changes to the investment markets over the same period.
The survey once again confirmed the gap between how people aged 25 to 39 years old view their super versus those aged 50 to 69 years old - providing opportunities for public offer funds keen to attract or retain their members.
For example, those aged 25 to 39 are happy with their main super fund while those aged 50 to 69 years old are not. Younger Australians did not increase their contributions this year while those aged 50 to 69 years old took advantage of the Better Super incentives.
Finally, adequacy of the superannuation guarantee remains a key issue. A high 78 per cent supports the idea of their superannuation contribution automatically raised by a certain per cent on top of the minimum 9 per cent SG when they get a pay rise or when changing jobs.
Michelle Baltazar
