Super SA

Need an app! – It's been long enough now and I've been a member for 30 years, even been on paid focus groups for SuperSA where I suggested years ago that they needed an app. And STILL no app! Why? This is 2024. Members need an app.

Mature business service responses – Apart from finding SuperSA awkwardly servicing their system (downtime) on Friday nights and weekends, I've had respectful, prompt assists to take out funds and get advice. ...and I suspect they've adapted downtime after hearing dissatisfaction. Returns have been on a par with other good funds, to my knowledge. Show details

Growth is good. Communication is normally good – This year 2023 they have failed to send out statements with no explanation. I had to ring and was told there had been a technical issue. Statements are now 4 mths overdue. Totally unacceptable. Been with them for 30 yrs. Also fund performed badly this last year. Show details

Will not release funds – This was a default Super that I was forced to join. I literally did not have a choice as they had some kind of loophole which meant you had to have Super with them. When first signed up took months for them to give me access to my account. In November 2022 loophole closed. I have been given contradictory excuses since trying to leave in 2022. … Read more

I do not pay Super contributions (haven’t since beginning Dec 2022). They used this as one of the excuses for not transferring funds to my nominated fund, until I sent them my payslip. They no longer contact me at all. I believe that this organisation is in serious trouble and may not have my funds available. Try and get your money, I think you will find it pretty much impossible.

SuperSA not so super! – After 32 years with SuperSA and now 2 months of being retired from SAHealth, I am still waiting for SuperSA to release my funds for my retirement. After numerous phone calls to see what the problem is, it appears that they haven't emailed my payroll to get confirmation. They have told me that they have put a priority on my case and it should be available in another few months. This is not acceptable. What am I supposed to live on?

Avoid SuperSA Flexible Rollover Product At All Costs – When I retired pre-pension age in 2015, I decided to rollover my SuperSA balance into their 'Flexible Rollover' fund. To be fair, initially my returns each year were reasonable and I had no concerns, until 2019-2020 when I paid over $5,000 in fees and my investment return was under $200. On top of their high fees, trying to withdraw a partial… Read more

amount is tedious and takes too long. A paper form had to be posted through the mail, which took over three weeks to process (even pre-COVID). Subsequently they allowed part-withdrawal request forms to be emailed. I had hoped that would be faster but no - I had to ring up because it was taking so long, and they offered to 'escalate' my request. Conclusion: you only get quicker service if you ring up to make an enquiry about what is happening.

This year after comparing their responsiveness and fees to UniSuper (with whom I had a smaller balance at that time) I decided to do a part rollover from SuperSA to UniSuper. You guessed it, I had to ring up to ask why it was taking so long and predictably they offered to 'escalate' my request. By that stage I was fed up and decided to rollover my remaining balance to UniSuper and exit SuperSA completely. Apparently this normally takes 4-6 weeks! When I asked why it takes so long, I was told they are "different to other funds". After 2 weeks I rang and you guessed it, they offered to 'escalate it'. Two weeks later (and $13,500 less in my account in that short period of time), I rang up again. This time a very obliging staff member promised she would speak to her manager and get it finalised by end of day. True to her word, it was. That process took over four weeks.

I wish I had rolled over my complete SuperSA balance to UniSuper years ago. If I had, my balance would be now considerably higher because of UniSuper's consistently high performance and very low fees with the added bonus of their excellent, speedy customer service. If you are with SuperSA and looking to retire soon, my strong advice is to avoid SuperSA Flexible Rollover Product at all costs.

Can’t get a response – I’ve been trying to roll over my funds into another account for almost 2 months and cannot get a response from my request. They might as well be on another planet.

Super SA is the worst experience I have had from a Super Fund – Super SA provides the default fund for most public servants. It is constitutionaly protected and as a result public servants get tax benefits that private citizens can't. I have found dealing with them a soul destroying experience and their website is woeful. Thankfully from 2022 people will be able to opt out. I note that value for money (high… Read more

fees) has been analysed below.

I keep a fund I had as a public servant as they gave me insurance and I was unable to find anyone else who will even offer it to me let alone just dish it out because I am a public servant (as I am very high risk, in fact I have claimed on that insurance previously and expect to in the future). This is not good for incomming members who inherit that risk at the cost of their returns. I managed to keep my insurance by swaping to their FRP within 60 days of leaving the public service, I keep enough money in there to cover my premiums but have all my other super in another fund with far lower fees and better admin.

I think that with choice of fund that those who can get insurance cheaper (due to their low risk) and want better customer service would leave the fund and leave those of us who are high risk and can't get insurance staying with Super SA. If I am right then this could mean that fees will get even higher and savings may have to be made by reducing staff resulting in even worse service.

Whilst I was thankful to be able to call upon this insurance, I found their processes woeful. Like many below complaining about their claims process they were not timely, I returned requested information within hours and I don't think they EVER approved a calim within THEIR excessively generous (to them) service level standards.

Head in the sand bureaucracy – Into my third week of trying to withdraw some funds while Super SA won't accept a scanned signature on the form. They claim a scanned signature is an electronic signature (which is something very different). I had to print the form and take a photo of it on my phone and send that to them. Isn't the signature still a scanned copy? There are no… Read more

instructions for this procedure to be found anywhere and they didn't tell me until I phone to find out what was happening with my form. As someone else said, 'yes minister isn't supposed to be instructional'.

I'm moving to another fund that performs better and is living in the 21st century.

Conflicted, shackled, restrictive and opaque - The last Authoritarian Superannuation Scheme left in Australia – For the individual, SuperSa is currently both a legal and an administrative black hole - and your money is trapped inside it. Beware. SuperSA is a unique Superannuation Scheme - and not in a good way. In Summary, Why you shouldn’t bother with SuperSA: 1. Your fees are high 2. Your tax benefits are meagre in relation to the high fees… Read more

(especially for contributions less than $27,500) 3. The products offered are limited, opaque and lumped together with little real choice. 4. The products are poorly described, and the returns are very difficult to analyse or project, as you don’t actually know what constitutes most of the privately curated and managed products you have been sold, and it is difficult to find out. You can’t avoid any products you don’t like anyway, as they are all lumped together. 5. Your legal recourse, Federal rights and access to information may be severely limited by the Constitutional protection granted to your state government fund manager. 6. There are much better run, more flexible, competitive, cheaper and more transparent funds now easily accessible.

For the individual Triple S member, SuperSa is currently both a legal and an administrative black hole - and your money is still trapped inside it.

If you must know more details, and are a glutton for slabs of text, you may be rewarded with some curly disturbing facts and a little wisdom on how many Super Funds work, including the one you have been forced into, then read on -

* UPDATE JULY 2022 * [After 15 months since the state laws were changed in parliament in March 2021, Super SA still does not allow employees to rollover their Triple S account to other funds. There is still no apparent disclosure when this employee right is to be fulfilled, or any mention of when this change is due can be found on the SuperSA website.]

Part 1: SUPERSA: The Non Financial License Disclaimer to Sell you Mandated Products

Because this is a state government mandated fund, the operators don’t need a license to sell you their products (the products are compulsory for your employer contributions anyway) But just so you know what limited recourse you actually have, the SuperSA website states for clarity:

"The superannuation products administered by Super SA are exempt public sector superannuation schemes and are therefore not regulated by ASIC or APRA. Super SA is not required to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence to provide financial product advice in respect of the relevant products."

This disclaimer alone should have you running for the hills.

But perhaps more context about how this legal void affects you is required:

The intrinsic structure of SuperSA Triple S scheme violates five major principles of investment:

1. Know what you actually own, 2. Be sure you can control it, 3. Avoid diluting your assets 4. Don’t buy a product primarily to avoid tax 5. Don’t pay high fees

Part 2: The Mandated Edifice

So, who knows what is actually in any of the SuperSA products, apart from the private fund managers who sell us the products?

Federal Law now allows FOI disclosure to find out what we have been sold in your Super Fund, but as with immunity from ASIC, Federal laws are unlikely to apply to any SuperSA products.

Constitutional Protection, again, is likely to limit your disclosure rights. Legal Protection is there - but predominately for the benefit of the owner of the Fund.

For the individual, SuperSa is currently both a legal and a administrative black hole - and your money is trapped inside it.

With SuperSA, you are paying at least 100% to 175% more in Fees than a major equivalent Superannuation provider, and up to 800% more in Fees than a leading ETF Index Fund, such as Vanguard.

You wouldn’t drive down a highway blindfolded with your hands off the steering wheel - so why would you be expected to do the same with your Super?

This review is written in context of people who have been forced to be part of this Triple S Fund from 2005 to 2022, a full 17 years longer than would have been reasonably allowed if successive State governments had adhered to the smoke signals sent from Canberra for Superannuation Choice for Australian citizens since 2005, which all other jurisdictions have now adopted.

With SuperSA Triple S products, you are at best a passenger trapped on an expensive locked bus which you currently can’t get off.

If anything, this has led me question the nature of any ‘investment product’ or ‘investment vehicles’ we are being sold (or forced into).

Finance is in fact very simple to understand. The complications usually come from the vendors of products, as keeping people in the dark is a much easier way to make money, than dealing with even slightly educated or informed customers. (See Part 4 for convoluted product disclosures, Part 5 for convoluted fee structures)

While the rest of Australian State and Federal Public Service organisations have allowed their employees to rollover their Super Accounts into competitive not for profit Industry funds, like Australian Super or other certified funds, South Australians who still work for the state government who were silly enough to transfer money into this fund have been ‘locked in’ - until they resigned or retired. SuperSA have had your money by the short and curlies - and there is nothing you can do about, even today - and perhaps not up until 'sometime in 2022'.

To prevent conflicts of interest like this, in 2005, the Federal Government regulated that all current employees in Australia can choose which approved Superannuation Fund their money is invested in.

Part 3: The Meagre Tax Benefits

SuperSA once highly promoted their salary sacrifice provisions. Now all Australian funds offer tax exempt contributions up to $27,500 per annum. So why do SuperSA still promote themselves using this tactic?

The caveat being State governments are protected from this Federal Regulation by a constitutional loophole - which SuperSA have often trumpeted as a selling point to new members. The same constitutional loophole acts as a tax-deferral mechanism - This initial tax deferral doesn’t benefit the member directly - the main benefit is that the same 15% tax is not paid annually on the subsequent profits, which may increase annual returns marginally.

But even these small annual tax benefits are still taxed at the standard 15% rate at draw-down. Tax benefits therefore aren’t huge for the member compared. In fact, the lower 15% tax limit applies to the first $27,500 per annum Salary Sacrifice contributions available to all Super Funds.

Are you in a position to sacrifice more than $27,500 per annum into Super? First of all, congratulations - but if so, perhaps you would first like to know more about SuperSA Triple S products and fees.

Part 4: The Vague and Convoluted Products.

SuperSA Triple S wouldn’t be so bad if the products and trading platforms were diverse, individually tailored, specifically detailed, fully transparent and immediate.

But SuperSA Triple S products are none of these.

What’s worse - you don’t actually know exactly what you own.

Other Industry Superannuation funds like Australian Super allow members to invest wholly into certain specific and/or detailed asset classes, such as the ASX200/300, or Individual Australian listed companies, or 100% International Equities, or Bond agreements or an individual member selected combination: You can actually know and understand what you own!

In comparison, the choices allowed by SuperSA are vaguely specified blends of products bundled up through private companies, and dictated to you by the fund managers in predetermined ratios, then funnelled through private firms - which may explain why the fees are so high. (More on that in Part 5.)

Each one of SuperSAs 6 choices are simply a different ratio of various opaque products - a bit like a selection of raw pork sausage meat all made from different ratios of vaguely specified ingredients - which require quite a bit of digging to find out what are actually in these schemes - and how this whole edifice fits together.

To find out what your money is actually invested in, you can spend hours pouring over a Funds SA prospectus - which is stored off-site from SuperSA on another government website - but even this convoluted 100+ page report won’t tell you very much.

You will need to search a minimum of three different websites to find out what are actually in these schemes - and this still won’t tell you exactly what you have been sold - since SuperSA products are made up from a thick blend of third-party bits and pieces packaged up from dozens of private companies: You may never be 100% sure what you have been sold.

Apart from mentioning your fund is currency hedged by 40% (which means your fund manager has used your profits to buy insurance on currency exposure fluctuations elsewhere in their fund) it lists a veritable who’s who of private for-profit fund managing firms, all with their fingers up inside every piece of your pie.

The products SuperSA offer forces you to be an average investor at best - at a hefty price.

Part 5: The High Fees and Convoluted Fee Structure and Disclosures

Ironically, SuperSA provides this warning on page 13 of their 36 page ‘August 2021 Triple S Product Disclosure Statement’, with a not so subtle hint to visit the Federal Government MoneySmart website to learn more:

“Small differences in both investment performance and fees and costs can have a substantial impact on your long-term returns. For example, total annual fees and costs of 2% of your account balance rather than 1% could reduce your final return by up to 20% over a 30 year period. For example reduce it from $100,000 to $80,000. You should consider whether features such as superior investment performance or the provision of better member services justify higher fees and costs.”

Here, SuperSA gets a bit cheeky - all their Fees are not disclosed in the August 2021 ‘Product Disclosure Statement’. Confused? Perhaps the confusion is intended.

In the supposed ‘Product Disclosure Statement’, only those Fees for the Balanced option are disclosed.

To see all their fees, You will need to also read another 27 page document, the August 2021 ‘Triple S Reference Guide’ as well.

In Balanced Option, You will pay up to 0.82% Fees, EVERY YEAR on the ENTIRE balance of your account each year. (0.05% or $325 Admin Fees + 0.76% Account Fees + 0.06% Transaction costs).

In their High Growth option, You will pay up to 1.15% Fees, EVERY YEAR on the ENTIRE balance of your account each year. (0.05% or $325 Admin Fees + 0.7% Account Fees + 0.19% Transaction costs + 0.21% ‘performance’ costs).

That will teach you a lesson for being greedy!

These Fees are Not just on your returns - but the entire balance of your account.

Compare this to Australian Super which charges a flat rate 0.40% for all equivalent accounts (+$110 annual admin fee).

With SuperSA, you are paying at least 100% to 175% more in Fees than a major equivalent.

So your account is being eaten away, regardless of whether the account is earning anything. The account managers still take a significant chunk of cash out of your account, even if it went backwards.

Compare both to a venerable Index Fund, Such as Vanguard, which charges 0.15% in annual Fees. SuperSA charges 2 - 3 times more in fees than an equivalent Super Fund, and 9 times more in fees than a publicly accessible ETF Index Fund.

Is the 800% premium in Fees charged by SuperSA worth it? Let’s look at the returns to compare:

Part 6: The Weird Returns on the Vaguely Described Products

If eating away of your account with fees is not bad enough, now compare the returns.

For example, In the last 12 months using the ‘High Growth’ portfolio option of 36% International and 24% Australian Shares, with the remaining in 50% blend of ‘property’ and ‘diversified strategies’ - the return after currency conversion and less dividends (assuming SuperSA or their private fund managers keeps your share equity cash-flow dividends as their own management and hedging fee structure), shows that you would have only received returns on half your portfolio.

Alternatively - If you had simply invested the equivalent amount of 50% of your portfolio in a low cost ‘no brain’ Index fund such as the Vanguard ETF 36% US SP500 and 24% ASX200, and the other 50% in cash - you would have been no better off putting 100% of your money in the equivalent undiluted SuperSA ‘High Growth’ product.

Except, using a ‘no brain’ Index fund such as Vanguard, you would still have received your 1.5%-2.5% dividend cashflow on 50% of your money, on top of your capital gains on equity.

So actually, you would have been a lot better off simply investing 50% of your money in two low-cost Index share funds at the same ratio SuperSA claims, and then hiding the other half of your cash under a mattress.

This realisation is disturbing when you run the numbers.

So after ‘currency hedging’ and ‘management fees’ harvested are all deducted from your account on largely opaque investment decisions and asset classes by a private third party, you are effectively seeing zero growth on half your money.

Furthermore, each portfolio adjustment takes three business days! - so be damn certain what you are doing in volatile environments - because you cannot change your mind again for several business days after.

Part 7: The Alternatives

Compare all this to an Industry Fund like ‘Australian Super’ - which allows members to trade their account with a personally selected set of individual companies listed in the ASX200 or ASX300, or a personally specified combination of real companies on their own individualised Superannuation trading platform - ** All in real time **

If you are locked up in supersa, forget about it. Dream on. The needs of Funds SA / SuperSA come first. And then wait 3 business days for your serving of raw fingered sausage meat to be served up in 6 slightly different (but all very similar) ambiguous flavours.

Sure, if you want to invest in these other Industry Superannuation funds, you can through salary packaging (Future contributions only - your employer contributions and all past contributions remain ‘under the care’ of the state government) - But if you do, you are immediately slugged with the 15% Federal Super tax, and 15% on profits every year after until you are no longer deemed.

So yeah, at best SuperSA is effectively a glorified locked box hedge fund savings account - where the fee structure and large parts of your portfolio are locked into a pre-determined ratio of privately managed asset classes with little real choice, and still mandated for use by all 100,000+ employees by the state government. (up until 'sometime in 2022').

Q: What is the Best advice for the average investor?: A: Don’t be an ‘average’ investor! i.e. Educate yourself to understand, and be able to control your investments.

Part 8: The Rub

If you are on a very high income and close to retirement or resignation - SuperSA is a convenient way to dodge tax with constitutional protection on pre-tax contributions in the last few years of your employment. But relative to the salary sacrifice provisions in the private sector, there is no real advantage, except on very large contributions. For most members living week to week, this is cold comfort - as it is only a perk for high paid or more comfortable employees with lots of excess cash to burn.

So, if you are under 50, or more than 5 years from preservation age - and you have excess cash to invest, there are much better investments out there. Talk to a knowledgeable tax accountant and get a few pieces of advice.

Even after you retire - There are further issues with income SuperSA streaming account products, which only allow for you to draw down your portfolio in equal quantities simultaneous - you cannot simply choose to draw down your cash component of your portfolio, say for five years before you start eating away at your equity components - you will eat away all parts of your portfolio at the same time. - But at least you still have the option to go elsewhere.

Conclusion:

The Intrinsic structure of SuperSA violates five major principles of investment:

1. Know what you actually own, 2. Be sure you can control it, 3. Avoid diluting your assets 4. Don’t buy a product primarily to avoid tax 5. Don’t pay high fees

With SuperSA, you are paying at least 100% to 175% more in Fees than a major equivalent, and 800% more than a competitive ETF Index.

Shop around. Don’t let yourself be the naive victim of a multi-billion dollar private fund manager’s passive cash-flow statistic.

Educate yourself. After all: it’s YOUR money they are playing with!

And for goodness sake - know what you actually own!

Good luck!

Disturbing – Disturbed to learn that this mandated fund does not need to comply with national financial regulations from ASIC or APRA to protect the best interests of individual investors. Will be getting my money out and investing into a nationally compliant fund as soon as i can.

Claims process is more traumatising that it's worth – I have been with this fund since about 2014 (forced to use them due to being an SA government employee). Thought I'd try accessing the 'safety net' of income protection insurance when I became too unwell to work, and started the claims process in April 2012. Spent >$1,500 in specialist appointments to get the paperwork ready and final claim was… Read more

submitted in early Aug. Virtual radio silence from claims team (who I understand are seriously overworked, so I do not blame them). As of today, 21 Sept, following numerous emails and a phone call seeking reassurance that my claim was being processed, and an indicative timeframe, I was finally emailed. Super SA informed that they're sorry for the situation and hope to get on with it as soon as they can. No timeframes. This puts my family in a situation where we need to consider putting our home on the market and is absolutely exacerbating my health issues. I appreciate the claims process is a lot of work, but as an organisation they need to do better. I've heard anecdotally from work colleagues that it's not worth putting in a claim as it's too much work. I am sick of this being a default strategy of insurers to minimise claims / maximise profits. It's NOT okay.

Can we get an app? – It would be great if there was an app, the website is okay. But an app would be better. Also should allow easier personal contributions. Why make life so hard?

Superannuation Scheme – Finally, after many years, employees may soon be allowed to rollover their Super Accounts into competitive not for profit Industry funds, good to see. This hasn’t been the case for a very long time, (the federal law was changed in 2005 to allow all private sector employees to choose) causing frustration for many public employees. Recent changes in parliament may finally allow government employees to choose other funds. Show details

Appalling excuse for a mandated super fund - 3 months later and STILL no income protection paid – My husband and I were in a serious car accident late March 2021. Our car is a write off. We have been seeking income protection insurance via Super SA as he has endured a serious shoulder injury that required major surgery. He’s not been able to work for 3 months. His shoulder recently got infected which meant another operation. He’s currently… Read more

home bound with daily nurse visits. Despite repeated attempts to claim income protection insurance we’ve not received payment. We call our case worker and she rarely rings back. We email - emails go unanswered. We have $2000 worth of outstanding bills needing urgent payment but Super SA doesn’t seem to care about this. It’s meant to be a safety net. How fortunate this is a mandated fund as we would not be members if we had a choice. Absolutely disgusting. This has added to our already incredibly stressful and distressing accident.

Members portal doesn't work, poor customer service – Members portal won't let you login and the customer service is poor. There needs to be an option to invest with other super funds for those forced to use SuperSA.

website doesn't work- don't expect too much – Their website is a joke. Sometimes it doesn't let you log in, sometimes it freezes, and when I wanted to make a change to my investment option online, it didn't let me do it! Unfortunately, as SA Health sector employees we don't have a choice but stay with this provider. I'd definitely run away from Super SA if I had a choice.

Super SA - Your confidential superannuation information held by Super SA is not confidential – Information of a personal or private nature, or information as to the entitlements or benefits of any person, may be given to any of the following groups without your consent or knowledge. Super SA will just give it out and not tell you. There is no information sheet to explain this on their site. Nor is there any guarantee as to how this… Read more

information will be stored or used by those that Super SA gives it to. They don't keep records of who they give the information to. I thinkl we should demand an information sheet on their site and a policy that lets those involved know that their personal or private nature, or information as to the entitlements or benefits has been given to a third party. (a) as required by or under any Act of the State or the Commonwealth; or (b) to, or with the consent of, that person; or (c) to that person's employer or employing authority; or (d) to any other person for purposes related to the administration of this Act or, if relevant, an administered scheme under Schedule 3; or (e) as may be required by a court or the Tribunal; or (f) if relevant, as may be allowed under the rules of an administered scheme under Schedule 3.

5.7.2018—Superannuation Act 1988 Miscellaneous—Part 6

Still No Income Protection decision – It's been 3 months and I still haven't heard a determination, they haven't even got my information from my employer, Payroll Department, and that is the just the first step. How long is a reasonable timeframe, they don't mind taking money out of my account to deduct the insurance payment. How am I supposed to survive while I am waiting for someone to do their jobs?