With only a few days to go before lodgements close, the Senate inquiry into the superannuation industry has received 53 submissions – about half of which are from financial planning firms.

As well as the individual submissions, over 100 financial planners have lodged a standard form supplied by the Financial Planning Association (FPA). The government extended the final date for accepting submissions from September 1 after a number of requests from the industry. According David Sullivan, secretary Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, the final number of submissions is expected to reach about 80 before the close-off date this Friday, September 29. “We’ve received a reasonable amount of submissions,” Sullivan said. “An inquiry held last year into corporate responsibility received 146 submissions – which was a record for this Committee.” While it hasn’t broken the submission record the ‘Inquiry into the structure and operation of the superannuation industry’, chaired by Liberal Senator Grant Chapman, has been a controversial one already with some observers claiming it is a veiled attack on industry funds. Among its 15 points of discussion are an investigation into “the meaning of the concepts ‘not for profit’ and ‘all profits go to members’” and the role of advice in superannuation. The first public hearings of the Senate inquiry are set down for October 24 and 25 in Sydney and Melbourne respectively followed by a Canberra hearing on November 13. The final inquiry report is due in June 2007.