In the media

David Murray signals push to protect clients of financial advisers
MEDIA – 21 August 2014 – The "vertically integrated" banking model, under which banks sell advice to existing customers, is squarely on the radar of financial system inquiry chairman David Murray, who has indicated his final report may call for changes to the way banks remunerate advisers to restore trust with customers. More...

Class action fee ruling key to extra cases
MEDIA – 21 August 2014 – The Federal Court will today hear an argument for litigation funders to receive a cut of all winnings, with Canada's International Litigation Funding Partners chasing approval for as much as 35% of winnings should a class action against Allco Finance Group succeed. More...

New "dashboard" measures the best way to fund Australia's economic growth
INDUSTRY SUPER AUSTRALIA – 20 August 2014 – The ISA has released its innovative new "dashboard", which measures the efficiency of the finance sector in funding Australia's economic growth by transforming savings into investment. The dashboard reveals that the finance system's efficiency in transforming savings into investment has stalled – or even gone into reverse – over the past 30 years. More...

More evidence of industry super funds outperforming retail funds
INDUSTRY SUPER AUSTRALIA – 20 August 2014 – New data from independent ratings agency SuperRatings shows once again that the industry fund sector has outperformed the retail fund sector (such as those run by the big banks) over the 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 year periods, based on balanced fund median rolling returns to 31 July 2014. More...

Litigators slam Macquarie remediation
MEDIA – 18 August 2014 – Macquarie Bank has escalated its compensation process for aggrieved former financial planning clients, but law firm Maurice Blackburn has criticised the scheme as "flawed". ASIC announced that the investment bank has commenced writing to 160,000 former clients, inviting them to "raise concerns about the quality of advice" they received from Macquarie Private Wealth advisers. More...

Super funds edge up in July
MEDIA – 18 August 2014 – Australian superannuation funds made small positive gains during July, with the median growth fund generating a return of 1.4%, according to Morningstar. More...

Investigating financial advisers a "top priority" for ASIC
ASIC – 18 August 2014 – ASIC plans to have more "cops on the beat" as it targets the financial advice sector. The ASIC chairman sees the financial advice sector as the "highest risk" area under its remit, and said the regulator regarded monitoring financial planners as a "top priority". More...

Further regulatory change in super inevitable
MEDIA – 14 August 2014 – Further regulatory change to Australia's superannuation system is inevitable as governments worldwide are looking to find new ways to ensure the sustainability of their pension systems, according to professional services firm EY. More...

Super allocations leave "investors at risk"
MEDIA – 13 August 2014 – Australian super funds are falling behind global best practice on asset allocation strategy, leaving many pre-retirees at risk, argues a newly released academic paper by the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR). More...

SCT finalises 18% more complaints
MEDIA – 13 August 2014 – The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) finalised 2719 complaints during 2013/14, an increase of 18.4% compared to the previous year's 2296 finalised complaints. In 2013/14, the tribunal received 2491 written complaints, compared to 2444 complaints in 2012/13, an increase of 2%, according to preliminary figures published in the SCT's Quarterly Bulletin yesterday. More...

Don't tamper with industry fund boards: report
MEDIA – 12 August 2014 – Mandating independent directors on industry super fund boards will not improve fund performance and may actually harm the retirement incomes of members, according to the latest McKell Institute report. This concluded there is "no evidence" supporting the Abbott government's intentions to mandate independent directors onto industry superannuation fund boards. More...

The Success of Representative Governance on Superannuation Boards report
THE McKELL INSTITUTE – August 2014 – Drawing on 25 years of data, the report examines the governance structures and performance of industry superannuation funds in comparison to other funds in both the Australian and international market. More...

SPAA Explanatory Note: Progress on change to the tax on non-concessional contributions
GOVERNMENT – 20 August 2014 – SPAA is receiving a number of enquiries from members concerning the progress of the changes to the tax on non-concessional contributions which was announced in this year's Federal Budget. Here is a link to the ATO website concerning the Budget announcement on the refund of non-concessional contributions. More...

APRA: Reporting framework for superannuation and insurance FAQs
APRA – 12 August 2014 – APRA has updated its FAQs on the reporting framework for superannuation and insurance. More...

APRA: Prudential Practice Guides for superannuation FAQs
APRA – 12 August 2014 – APRA has updated its FAQs on the Prudential Practice Guides for superannuation. More...

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