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MySuper, the new default fund guidelines that will be enforced by the Government from July 2013, allows funds to create investment strategies for retirees.
“MySuper doesn’t define anything in retirement, so funds are free to go down their own path,” Bowater says.
They should provide multiple investment strategies, she says, because retirees may have more complex demands than workers putting money aside for their retirement.
“It makes sense to understand what the members want and move down that path if it suits the fund’s strategy.”
The growth of self-managed super funds (SMSFs) should spur funds to act instead of wait for a silver bullet, Drew says.
In the year to September 2011, SMSFs, which are growing at the expense of collective funds, gained $13.2 billion in assets to manage $397.2 billion, according to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
“There is a big leakage of members with large balance to self-managed super funds. Losing that is a much larger risk,” Drew says.
