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‘Compare the pair’ campaign to relaunch
Industry SuperFunds is set to relaunch its ‘compare the pair’ advertising campaign in a bid to attract more members, despite some of the concerns raised by ASIC with its previous campaign.
The industry super fund lobby group announced it will launch the third generation of the famous ‘compare the pair’ advertising campaign, which it said is aimed at reminding Australians at “what to look for when choosing a superannuation fund”.
Industry Super Australia senior manager brand and marketing, Bronwyn Hooton said it was a challenge giving “such a well-known campaign a new lease of life”.
“The team has done a great job of giving viewers something fresh, with a touch of intrigue,” she said.
When the ‘compare the pair’ advertising campaign was run between February and May in 2014, ASIC raised some concerns that consumers could be misled by the superannuation choice advertisements.
Industry Super Australia, the umbrella organisation of Industry SuperFunds, agreed to a series of amendments, agreeing that future versions of the campaign would clarify the terms ‘Average Retail Super Fund’ and ‘Average Industry Super Fund’ by providing details about the samples used in the comparison, including the number of retail and industry funds in the samples.
If you are an FP that does not charge commissions and it is in the client's best interests for insurance cover to be inside superannuation, many modern retail funds are a lot cheaper than industry funds. Importantly if you compare investment performance of the industry funds with many modern retail funds with similar asset class weightings, the performance is comparable.0- Why is it that after Labor forced MySuper onto every product provider, that they limited the available options for MySuper to a handful operated by their union mates? If the purpose of MySuper was to present a level playing field and protect the interests of super fund members, why wouldnt all funds that qualify as MySuper be eligible to be used as the default fund for every employer?
It wouldn't be a back hander to their union mates would it? It wouldnt have been a way to ensure that the money continues to pour into union super would it? Couldnt have been that.....0
- Fancy the delight at Union Super HQ when ASIC came in and whacked them with a wet lettuce. And be told what you can and cant say in your ad.
It's amazing how your connections to ASIC determine the level of the fine / action. Operate a Union Super Fund and its a wet lettuce, please dont do that again. Be related to the chairman and be guilty of a massive deceptive & misleading campaign and you only cop a fine of $21,000. But run an independently owned/non-bank-aligned business and get slapped with the same fine of $21,000. Plus there's no direction given to assist you on any wording to differentiate your business from those operated by bank and AMP run licensees. Run a comparison on your website between ungeared shares and geared property with enough disclosures but still cop a fine of $21,000.0 - It is probably only me being pedantic. The main focus on the advert is that historically, industry funds have done better. Then there is a disclaimer (in very small print) that historical records are no indication of future performance. So in other words, their main selling point is disclaimed in the same advert as being irrelevant to potential future returns. Why then would you choose to join an industry fund0
- Apart from the fact that they spruik their performance as their raison d'etre (and then disclaim it as a sop to their mates at ASIC) what else are they doing?
I was at a forum recently where a panel of advisers were asked about the challenges surrounding the advice they provided and what they would do in a post-election environment assuming that Labor gets in, Shorten gets his Royal Commission and the super environment becomes even more skewed towards Union Super funds. There were some good comments but to me most missed the point that super is just one component of a clients financial life. It's only the second biggest asset most people will own apart from their home because of what most people don't do. They don't get advice, they don't get control of their cashflow, they don't get control of their debt, they don't invest in property, they don't invest in shares, they don't build themselves a cash buffer or safety net, they don't adequately protect themselves against sickness or accidents that interrupt their incomes. All of the things that a good adviser would assist them with that arent related to super in one way whatsover.
I would love to be able to fund a campaign that had good union people like John Setka from the CFMEU, John Maitland also from the CFMEU and soon from a jail cell at Long Bay, Sally McManus from the ACTU all screaming their bile from any union rally, with a nice voiceover saying that the unions want your super, union bosses want to get a cosy board seat with you paying their directors fees. Unions arent super!0
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