The financial services industry must present a united front to government in order to safeguard superannuation and solidify confidence in the system, SMSF Association patron Sir Anthony Mason said today.
“All too often in the past, stakeholders in the industry have pursued their own sectional interests at the expense of the industry as a whole,” Mason said in his opening address to the SMSF Association National Conference in Melbourne.
“At this time, when politicians, confronted with revenue shortfalls, are hopefully looking at superannuation concessions as a possible replacement, the stakeholders should unite in sending the politicians a powerful message that any changes to the system should be limited to the removal of excesses or inequities.
“A united approach to some regulatory issues would also be in everyone’s interests.”
Although Australians had good reason to be confident in the current superannuation system, which recently was ranked number two in the world in a Mercer report, that confidence rested on the stability of the system as it stood at present, he said.
“Confidence is at risk of being shaken when assumptions are disturbed by changes to the system, whether the changes are tax related, such as taxation rates, concessions or dividend imputation, or otherwise,” he said.
“Such assumptions form the basis on which contributors and their advisers decide the level of superannuation contributions and the nature of investments to be made to support the benefits which the individual contributor makes to fund his retirement.
“If government disturbs those assumptions, it may frustrate the expectations of superannuants.”
He identified poor financial advice as an issue that had the potential to disrupt public confidence in the superannuation system.
“One of the greatest threats to the existence of public confidence in the superannuation industry arises from the provision of poor and, in some instances, flawed financial advice on the part of the financial advisers, including advisers employed by major Australian financial institutions,” he said.
“The most important remedy is to lift the professionalism of financial advisers – a message that the SMSF Association has proclaimed constantly for many years.”
