Australian Ethical

Just joined Australian Ethical Super tried to work with AustralianSuper who managed to take over $220 off me and leave me with $2.26 for insurance which I did not want and when I tried to opt out they wanted a scanned form, my left kidney and my first born and still charged me a further $120 even though I opted out before my super and was sent a letter saying all this 5 days before my super went in saying it was their accounting put in a complaint 2 weeks, nothing, nada except the no reply email, Australian Ethical Super now have a much better designed member login where you can log in and opt out, see your balance even its a nil because you have just joined, will ring and make sure that I am not charged anything, because I have opted out in the beginning, stay tuned.

A super fund that is clear and honest in it's goals and fees. Is very easy to change your investment options and provides the tools through it's website to make doing so easy and hassle free.
I joined in 2015 and unfortunately have only had minimal work since then, yet my investment has increased by 49.4053% with the contributions I have been able to make, and by 42.4089% excluding my contributions. That's over 10% per annum excluding contributions!!! This is a much better return than I ever received with the industry super funds I have been with through most of my 22 year career so far.
Despite the bad publicity surrounding these sort of super funds, ETHICAL investment can and does provide good returns, while helping people and our environment.
An awesome SUPER fund!!!

Last year Australian Ethical changed its fund manager. Despite the availability of technical solutions that would have prevented the need, it decided to change every members membership number. This resulted in the predictable confusion, inability to access fund information, and repeated phone calls to resolve problems during the changeover period. The worst was, however, yet to come. Due to each member now having an old and a new membership number, when AE reported contributions to the ATO it double reported member contributions leading to my (and no doubt many other members) receiving letters from the ATO demanding money with menaces as it appearing that we were over cap. More calls. More time wasted. To compound the error I was advised by AE to ignore the letters from the ATO. When I ignored their advice and contacted ATO, the ATO advised that had I not contacted them my file would have been sent to a debt recovery agent. Thus had I followed AEs advice I would have ended up with an adverse credit rating. All of this could and should have been anticipated by a competent project manager. That it was not and that AE thought it was OK to outsource the problem to their clients tells us what we need to know about AEs management competence. Their response to a formal complaint was effectively to blame the ATO even though the error was clearly AEs. I suggest you look elsewhere for an ethical fund. I currently am.

Early in 2018 I found out that I was getting charged adviser fees when I have never received or requested any financial advice from Australian Ethical or any other company. When I complained, AE assured me I had authorized deductions some time ago however they were never able to provide any evidence of this 'authorisation'. Despite my complaint they continued to deduct adviser fees on a monthly basis while I still did not receive any service. After a number of calls over +6 months and lodging a complaint they washed their hands and sent me contact details of a financial advisor for me to liaise with to get a refund!!!
My advice to anyone considering joining this super fund is stay away!!!

I wanted to do the right thing and change to an ethical fund, but in the process of trying to transfer my account and my insurance I was just met with really bad and condescending customer service. They simply don't care about their customers. I have changed my husband into this fund and made our business fund of choice, but will now change it all over again to a different fund, probably future super which was the other one I was considering. I asked to put in a complain and the person advised me that they will get back to me in 30 days and I can expect up to 90 days for the resolution. I suppose that says a lot about the company.

After my review on Ethical Super 3 years ago, am happy to report that I will soon be joining Ethical Super. Their fees are now much much lower. Even thought the super I am in now is good, I prefer to support Ethical Super, and still get good returns. You live and learn.

It hasn’t escaped my attention that AE holds investments in AMP and other institutions being investigated by the Royal Commission. I understand that I pay higher fees for a more rigorous screening process. Two questions arise:
1. How effective is the screening if we are investing in so called ethical company’s that admit to breaking the law and behaving unethically towards regulators and customers.
2. How effective is the so called advocacy strategy of buying shares in these big unethical banks to influence behaviour as a shareholder? No very effective it would seem.
I want to believe in AE approach but this undermines my confidence.

Initially, their fees were quite high. However, they've dropped them and are more competitive than before.

I have both a collection of funds within the AE managed-fund options plus AE Super and I've received consistent, fast and useful customer service. When I have requested further details about their investments, they've been more than happy to help.

- They're quite transparent about their investments and have a plethora of information online.

- The major website upgrade has made it easier to navigate and have a good mobile website too.

- When I had to change my personal details a few years back, they made the process fairly easy and was done reasonably quickly. Moreover, there are many changes that I can readily make online.

- Withdrawing and depositing funds from/to my managed funds account has been very simple. I have always managed to do it all online, no physical paperwork required; just an extra paperwork to open the account but nothing excessive.

- I am glad to see more ethical funds around nowadays that give people greater options to invest in more ethical companies.

It's impossible to trust a company who can't even get your date of birth correct, due to problems with their online signup process. This may have something to do with their systems 'upgrade' which another reviewer mentions.. :|
I was asked to get certified copies of birth certificate and to "keep checking" my account to see when the update had occurred, and then to again go through the process of rolling over my super.
All this after already arranging the transfer with my payroll team.
I'll try a different ethical fund...they couldn't possibly be worse.

Customer service absolutely shocking. No call backs, no follow ups - once they had my money their job was done and I had to do all the chasing. I needed to apply for a financial hardship withdrawal due to a mental illness relapse/hospitalisation, and these guys made it hell for me - they exacerbated my symptoms tenfold.
I applied for withdrawal on the 5th of December and never heard anything until I called them in January, and it still hadn't been processed because they needed more evidence of my financial outgoings. By this stage the 21 days had passed and I would have had to get a new letter from Centrelink, plus start collecting receipts to prove the expenses I had documented on the application form. None of these expenses were unreasonable for a single person, so they could have seen that what I was claiming was reasonable. This still wasn't enough, they wanted petrol receipts, grocery receipts, loan documents, utility bills, etc. That is ridiculous to ask me for that 6 weeks after I sent the original application in. Nobody took responsibility for the process being delayed, kept blaming "the system". No apologies for the delay either.
I then applied to Ethical Super to process a rollover into MLC and weeks later they still hadn't contacted me nor processed the rollover! So I put it in MLC's hands and it got done within a week.
Absolutely disgraceful effort guys, not ethical at all. Never recommending you to anyone I know and very, very disgruntled with our dealings!

I switched to AE a few years ago and love their service. They recently updated their systems and website making it user friendly and easy to navigate. Cannot recommend them more highly! Fabulous fund with great service!

1. Australian Ethical Super (AES) invests your money in companies that do not engage in socially or environmentally harmful activities. In addition, they are one of the few financial institutions that tell you in which companies they spend their money. You know where and how your money is invested.

2. AES also offers great value insurance: Life, TPD and income protection.

3. Their fees are higher than industry super funds and most retail super funds but frankly, I get much better value on my fees at AES than I used to get at my previous super fund which was not-for-profit.

4. Website is a bit archaic and there is no smartphone application, but as of 22 November 2017, I have received correspondence from AES telling me that they are moving to a new service provider. Fingers crossed online services will be improved!

> Requested insurance policy
> Awaiting further confirmation of details on policy prior to agreeing to undertake the policy
> Several weeks go by and I am advised I will be contacted to confirm policy details before it is put in place
> Clarified terms of policy were indeed unsuitable and again advise to awaited for call to decline policy
> Australian Ethical put policy in place, with exclusions, without my consent
> Notified several weeks the policy was in place several weeks earlier
> Requested immediate cancellation and refund
> Month goes by, I called again and was advised they're looking in to it
> First fee is deducted from my account
> Call to complain and they tell me they're looking in to it - no advice on when they'll cancel my policy
> Work out that to cancel the insurance (that I didn't consent to) I need to complete a variation form - to reiterate,
- this is information I needed to obtain myself, they were happy to allow the fees of an illegitimate policy to be withdrawn from my account
> Commit to resolution in 90 days... which is 6 months after it all began...
.... the saga continues

Oh and to call them you need to log in with a passcode that does not exist... that's right you literally can not successfully contact them over the phone without defaulting on your passcode and being redirected to an operator... they know this and "they've told someone about it"...

It felt like faulty towers.

It's a small effort, but having some say in where my compulsory investment money goes to- I'd rather it in something sustainable for the future.

I was a member because I thought they were fossil fuel free. They've now gotten rid of some of their fossil fuel stocks, but this issue is the most important for me. I felt really upset when I found out how much they were investing in coal seam gas when I was a member.

As a consumer I have an obligation to not only think about returns, but also what my money is used for while it is on the market. It was a dead simple choice for me to switch to AE.

Said it all on my Vicsuper review, please check Lamont's review there. I am a Victorian teacher of 28 years standing
Why more people are not using this company is beyond me. I think Australians are too trusting and lazy and don't get actively involved in their super contribution choices. If you read this and are in Vicsuper, study their investment choices and returns against AE. I reckon you will be shocked.

Choosing ethical investments and 100% renewable power options is easy. I chose Ethical Investments because they have a conscience and so do I.

This is a simple decision for your super, and you.
Safe in the knowledge that your fund is making the ethical choice you want

Good performance and good for the heart! I think this is a powerful way to put your money where your mouth is.