Looking for super Super in Canberra?

caf said :

dungfungus said :

caf said :

Go with an industry fund.

From what is said in the OP it would appear that he is already with one.

From the fact that it advertises on TV and charges unreasonable fees it sounds like a for-profit commercial fund.

Don’t be fooled by the spin about certain funds “not paying one cent for investment advisers”. They certainly don’t do this directly but the “advice” comes from the board of trustees who charge handsomely for it. The boards of these funds are mainly union affiliated people and if you are looking for a general business acumen profile then check out the latest happenings at the ICAC enquiry in Sydney or proceedings against the previous head of a national health services union.
Do some internet research and then contemplate how safe you contributions are if there was a run on lump sum withdrawals for example. A lot have funds are overweighted in large commercial property investments involving billions of dollars. Some of these properties are shopping centres (a perilous investment now) so how are they going to sell them to get liquidity when their members need to draw down or go on a pension? Other funds have gone into dubious “unlisted assets” which are not required to be reported on.
It is likely that future governments will regulate to ban lump sum withdrawals to protect the solvency of some funds and they even nationalise all superannuation funds as has happened in other debt strapped countries.
It makes sense to have as much control over you retirement as you can. Who do you trust?

Well, I was with AGEST (an Industry fund) and was very happy with them. Now taken over (they say it was a merger) by Australian Super, who seem to be OK. They have an office in Civic. See http://www.australiansuper.com/about-us/contact-us.aspx.

TheBusDriver said :

Wow, I guess some of gthe adds are right. No one wants to talk about Superannuation. Ishould have incuded words like Super Hero and Super Sonic.

I don’t know anything about Super, and I suspect nobody talks about it because nobody really understands it. I only started a proper tax-paying job last year and Super is pretty far from my mind, though it would probably be wise to take an interest in my financial future. Good luck getting some helpful responses.

Orrite, I’ll have a go then.

I spent nearly 20 years contributing to a commercial fund and being ripped off by sharks dressed in suits without realising it. Towards the end I discovered that buried amongst all the other f*&king fees, was a fee for “financial advice”. I was advised that this had been entirely voluntary, and if I’d checked the teeny-weeny little box buried in 5 pages of fine print, I wouldn’t have paid that fee. Too damn late though. I’d paid $500 per annum over 20 years…yes, ten thousand dollars to a bunch of people I’d never even heard of who had never once bothered to call me in all that time to give me the slightest goddamned bit of “advice”, damn them. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there.

So, the general principal is that commercial funds are run by mongrel thieving dogs whose only objective is to steal as much from you as they can so that they can purchase more stupid looking pointy toed shoes, sharp suits and European sports cars. In a just world I would be able to put them all on the 200m mound and use them to sight in my scopes from left to right, but that’s not legal right now.

To fix the situation I moved all my Super over to AustralianSuper. They’re not perfect, but they’re better than the foul bunch of turds I used to be with.

I don’t know it they have an office in Canberra. For me, that’s not necessary as they have a pretty good website. On the website you can choose how your funds are allocated through a bunch of premixed options, or you can invest in generic index type funds that track the ASX200 for example, or you can invest directly in companies on the stock exchange and bank term deposits etc. It’s all up to you, and you can change how your funds are allocated on a daily basis.

Instead of losing money with outrageous fees and stupid investments, I’ve done well with AustralianSuper. I’ve made conservative decisions, and with contributions and interest my super has increased by $35000 over the past 16 months, instead of plummeting every year, as it did with the previous arsehats.

As dungfungus said, forget about fantastic returns in the current climate. The key thing is not getting a colossal return on your money, it’s just getting your money returned to you. Don’t pay stupid arseclowns thousands of dollars to gamble and lose your money for you.

I have no affiliation with AustralianSuper apart from having my super with them. If they screw up, I’ll transfer all my money to another outfit in a New York minute. In the meantime, they’re better than swimming with the sharks.

All ile say is you will be super shafted by any of them

dungfungus said :

caf said :

Go with an industry fund.

From what is said in the OP it would appear that he is already with one.

From the fact that it advertises on TV and charges unreasonable fees it sounds like a for-profit commercial fund.

Wow, I guess some of gthe adds are right. No one wants to talk about Superannuation. Ishould have incuded words like Super Hero and Super Sonic.

caf said :

Go with an industry fund.

From what is said in the OP it would appear that he is already with one.

Why not establish a SMSF? It’s never been cheaper and you can choose to do the annual returns yourself to mimimise costs. If you get a big name organisation to run it for you that is OK but avoid financial advice; the idea is to make your own investment decisions.
Also, forget this constant mantra from the investment industry that you have to live off the investment returns from your fund. This most important thing is to preserve your capital and if necessary you draw it down as required. Remember, you can’t take your super with you when you die.
Also, forget the notion of “good returns”. In the current economic climate, good returns can mean taking a lot of risk and it isn’t worth it. Put your contributions into investments you alone can control/access and make investment return secondary to capital preservation. The new “norm” is hanging on to your money.

Go with an industry fund.