Pension savers risk being bamboozled by choice

The headline, Australian pension savers risk being bamboozled by choice, says regulator, comes from the FT.

In the article, this point was made

“We are troubled by the proliferation of products in the choice area,” she said. “We have to question whether that is providing a good outcome for members.”

Margaret Cole, an executive board member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, said the body would be having “serious” conversations with trustees that were not improving so-called choice superannuation products for members and it was “troubled” by the number of options offered on the market.

It’s not exclusively an Australian issue; it’s an everywhere issue. There are so many funds, so many product providers, so many fund managers, so many wealth managers…the choice is enormous.  Whilst choice is good, you have to question whether choice adds value.

If history shows us that investors don’t take action when performance is poor, it means fund providers can keep selling funds without consequences.

At some point, investors need a sharp stick to poke their fund manager’s so-called performance statistics.  And if you are not prepared to do it for yourself, we’ll do it for you.