By Blake Briggs, CEO of the FSC
There’s an old joke, that the only person excited on a Monday is a retired person.
Retirement is often considered your golden era. After many years of hard work and raising a family, a person finds themselves free to do whatever they want, whenever they want.
But to really enjoy those golden years, a person needs peace of mind that they have enough money to pay for those dreams. That is where superannuation comes in.
It is easy to think of superannuation as set and forget. For most people, their employer will soon be paying 12 per cent of their salary into a superannuation fund chosen by their employer, often decades before retirement. They did not choose the fund and cannot access that money for many years, so Australians often think there is no point in paying close attention to their superannuation.
For most Australians, however, superannuation will become their biggest asset after their family home.
The government recently backed away at a rate of knots from a proposal to dictate how Australians should invest their money in retirement. Instead, they have accepted the importance of making financial advice affordable to help Australians make their own decisions.
Unnecessary red tape on financial advisers, however, has increased the cost of financial advice to over $5,000 putting it out of reach for most Australian consumers.
Bipartisan legislation to reduce the red tape burden has stalled in the closing days of the current parliament, and the Financial Services Council (FSC) is calling on both sides of politics to prioritise advice reform in the next parliament.
FSC modelling has shown that reform will reduce the cost of providing financial advice by 40 per cent, making it accessible for many more Australians.
The benefits of good advice start from a young age. The Productivity Commission has concluded that which superannuation fund you choose matters, with the cost of a poorly performing fund affecting your retirement balance by as much as 45 per cent. A financial adviser can help you choose a high performing superannuation fund and select an investment strategy that suits your personal goals.
As we get older, our financial circumstances become more complex. People start a family, take out insurance and invest in ETFs or managed funds. The FSC projects that the number of people with complex financial affairs will grow by about 70 per cent to 7.2 million Australians in the next 25 years.
The more complex your finances, the more important it is to seek professional guidance from a trusted source. Australians from all walks of life are at risk of following the latest Reddit craze, or risk falling victim to sophisticated investment scams that are being circulated on social media or with direct contact via phone calls or emails.
A 45-year-old living in Sydney, earning the average weekly wage of $1,974 could retire at age 67 with almost half a million dollars. This might sound like a lot, but retirement is unique to each person and most Australians need help to answer a simple question – have they saved enough?
Many forward-thinking superannuation funds are also adopting digital solutions to help their customers make informed decisions around their superannuation. These digital tools leverage the latest technology to provide easily accessible guidance which can be a very useful tool in planning retirement.
Even if you are not retired, make your Monday a little more exciting. Log into your superannuation account, review your balance, and arrange a consultation with a reputable financial adviser to ensure you get the retirement you deserve.
Blake Briggs is the CEO of the Financial Services Council
This oped was published in The Daily Telegraph, Sunday 2 March 2025.