And which super has the highest complaints numbers
Today’s topic will be of interest to almost anyone, and we will get to it in a minute. I have been running this YouTube channel for few years now, so I think most listeners got to know me a little. Most likely you have noticed that in each video I have a bouquet of flowers and in most cases that would be a bouquet of native Australian flowers. I just adore native Australian plans, which most likely is a side effect of my many years of hiking.
But my new passion now is also gardening, which only started after last Christmas, as the landscaper that we employed, basically took the deposit and disappeared with the money not to be seen or heard from ever again. There is lots of places to make a complaint against the financial institution or its representatives, but there is no place to turn to if a tradie takes advantage of you.
It was devastating to be losing thousands of dollars, but at the end I decided to start working on my own garden and do it all myself, and now 10 months later my garden started looking beautiful.
But the flowers are too small and too young for cutting, so as I forgot to buy new flowers for this video, I have created one with the cuts from my baby gum tree.
It is a dwarf sugar gum, and I cannot wait to see its gorgeous white and blue trunk, which I just adore.
So here we go, another side of me exposed, I love gardening, and my garden is 100% natives.
And that brings me to the topic of our today’s video, if you have a problem with your super fund and you find your superannuation staff is not assisting you, where should you go, what steps can you take?
As an added bonus, I will disclose to you the biggest super fund offenders with the highest complains numbers by their members.
So what do you need to do if you have an issue with your super fund for example your request has not been acted upon and followed through or your claim is being delayed unreasonably.
First, contact your super fund and make your request, if after few days there is no response, contact the fund again.
If still nothing happens, you can make an official complaint to the fund.
Each super fund has to provide you with details as to how to make your official complaint, so you should receive either a direct phone number to the complaint department or an email address.
According to Australian regulations a trustee of the fund should respond to your complain within 45 days, and in case of death benefit distribution, within 90 days.
If your super fund continues to be non-assisting, then your next step is AFCA, the Australian Financial Complaint Authority.
You can contact AFCA by calling 1800 931 678, which is a free call and submit your complain over the phone. AFCA’s services are free of charge to you.
AFCA deals with the following superannuation products:
- Superannuation annuities
- Corporate, industry and retail super funds
- SMSF (but handled under the investment advice)
- Approved deposit funds
- Some public sector schemes
- Small funds
- Retirement savings accounts
The main types of complains are:
- Incorrect advice provided by the fund
- Incorrect fees charged by your super fund
- If you are in a severe financial hardship and the fund refused to assist you with access to your funds
- Decision about your disability claim
- Payments of a death benefit
- Unreasonable delay in payment a benefit
- Not following and completing your instructions
- Transactions that were incorrect or unauthorised
Our office encountered such issues when assisting clients, when the withdrawal of the benefit was requested, and it took a super fund close to 6 months and trillions of excuses why there is a delay. Our client was considering an official complaint, but at the end decided not to get into more drama and save himself lots of grief dealing with the fund.
So who are the biggest offenders and had the highest number of complaints?
- The first price goes to AustralianSuper
- Cbus is second
- With AMP to follow as the third super fund with the highest number of complains
And to be fair, the table showing provides the number of complains per 10,000 members, to ensure that nobody will try to find the size of the super fund as justification for this very poor outcome.
The main complains about AustralianSuper were about the administration of customer’s accounts, together with complains about handling customer insurance claims and death benefits.
Cbus had the highest number of complaints especially for handling members claim for death benefit, with AFCA finding the claims were incorrectly handled with evident breached of obligation under the SIS Act and cancellations of policies, with ASIC’s lawsuit against Cbus for failures in handling customers claims.
ASIC is suing the fund over at least $20 million allegedly owed to 10,000 members and claimants whose death and disability insurance claims were delayed for 12 months or more.
ASIC very clearly said that his is just a beginning, and Cbus is not the only offender being looked at.
The super funds with the lowest number of complaints are CFS and UniSuper with CFS having the highest complaints reduction when compared to the prior financial year. Congratulations Colonial.
At least I managed to finish on a good note, but I think it is essential that you have the full picture about your super fund and not influenced by those TV and radio commercials.
By: Katherine Isbrandt CFP®
Money Strategist & Retirement Planner
Principal of About Retirement
