The Association of Superannuation Funds Australia this week released research that showed only 51 per cent of adult Australians, including around 60 per cent of those aged 65+, have consulted any source of information on preparing for retirement.
ASFA CEO Mary Delahunty said it’s concerning to see such a lack of engagement with information about retirement.
“It means many Australians may end up worse off than they should be in their post-working lives, simply because they haven’t been empowered with the relevant guidance,” Delahunty said.
“This research highlights the need for urgent reform to make high-quality, low-cost advice easily accessible to every Australian worker through their super funds.”
The ASFA research showed that only 21 per cent of people source retirement information from financial advisers – the same percentage as those who access information from family and friends – while only 12 per cent received advice from advisers attached to super funds.
For those who had consulted at least one information source, older Australians were more likely than younger people to have consulted formal sources like professional advice and advice provided by super funds.
Furthermore, younger Australians were more likely to have consulted informal sources like friends, family, and social media. People in the 18–34 cohort were 15 times more likely to source advice from social media than people aged 65+, leaving them far more vulnerable to scams involving superannuation.
The survey found that Australians of all ages have a high degree of trust in professional advisers, advice provided by super funds, and industry benchmarks.
“Given the high degree of net trust in financial advisers and advisers from super funds, it’s concerning to see how low the use of these sources of advice are. This mismatch suggests that there are significant barriers preventing Australians from accessing the advice they need,” Delahunty said.
“Although people trust financial advisers as a source of information, the problem is that their services remain too expensive for the average working Australian to access. Sadly, these are the people most in need of quality financial advice to improve their retirement outcomes.”
She added that the advice in super legislation will reduce red tape and improve the efficiency of accessing advice and will be a “revolutionary step for Australians’ access to trusted advice that will improve their financial wellbeing in retirement”.
“Our research shows how critical these reforms are to ensure that our superannuation system remains the envy of the world, we will continue to work closely with government and with other stakeholders to align the sector to progress these issues as a matter of priority,” Delahunty.
