The head of a research house has acknowledged members of public offer superannuation funds are becoming more dissatisfied with their chosen retirement savings vehicle and has predicted SMSFs as being beneficiaries of this trend.
“Members are increasingly dissatisfied with their fund. The [public offer] superannuation funds are scrambling now to try and build satisfaction to get people back into the fold and start to tell them what’s going on, but it’s going to take them some time to recover, so the leakage is going to be significant,” CoreData chief executive Andrew Inwood told his audience at the SMSF Association National Conference 2025 held in Melbourne recently.
“My suspicion is, observing the number and knowing the numbers of some of the superannuation funds, that [members with] high balances will leave and they’re going to come to people like you and they’re going to be seeking service and outcome.”
Further, Inwood identified the areas on which SMSF practitioners will need to focus to service these clients properly.
“Utility at the moment is all about income. If you want to have satisfied clients, if you want to be able to speak to them and want to drive up value in those circumstances, having the conversation about income and certainty of income is going to win at the moment,” he suggested.
However, he stressed the importance for advisers to ensure they observe prudent practice management for the prosperity of their own businesses when looking to onboard clients wanting to switch from public offer superannuation funds to an SMSF.
To this end, he pointed out practitioners need to charge more for the processes involved in servicing a new client.
“Three of the advisers I spoke to today have all put their first-meeting prices up, but I still think they’re too low,” he said.
He indicated CoreData had performed some pricing analysis and it suggested a commensurate fee for bringing on a new client is around $10,000.
In addition, he assured delegates a fee of this magnitude would not deter the new client from seeking their services.
“The cost of the advice in all the research that we do is not seen as a choice driver,” he confirmed.
