The Corporate Super Specialists Alliance (CSSA), whose members work with Australian companies and their workers to provide them with improved life insurance and superannuation outcomes via their corporate superannuation plans, is calling on Treasury to provide detail now around grandfathering provisions that will apply to MySuper legislation or for the Government to delay the implementation date.
“The Government has announced that MySuper legislation will apply from 1 July 2013 but to date Treasury has not provided any detail relating to grandfathering that will allow those of us who deal with ordinary super to make changes to the way we do business,” said CSSA President, Douglas Latto.
Treasury has made announcements relating to grandfathering and how it applies to non-platform related superannuation and investments, but has so far not released any details relating to platform superannuation and investments.
“The only announcement Treasury has made is that it intends to make an announcement,” Mr Latto said. “For those of us who work with corporate super funds, this is simply not good enough. We need to know now what the ground rules are so that we can make the changes we need to make in order to get on with business.”
The CSSA is calling for clarity on which forms of remuneration will be grandfathered in the MySuper regime and which will not.
“The questions we need answered are whether or not those of us who deal with corporate super funds will be able to be reimbursed for the work we do with companies and their employees,” Mr Latto said. “Are we going to continue to receive insurance commissions? Should we be converting clients to fees? Are fees going to be any more acceptable than commissions? We really don’t know and as long as we don’t know, we can’t move forward.”
Mr Latto said at an industry level lack of clarity from the Government around the MySuper legislation is stalling the development of MySuper products.
“It’s a problem that affects not just those of us who work with corporate super funds, it’s an industry-wide problem,” he said. “We are all stuck in this hiatus waiting for the Government to make announcements and all the while, the 1 July 2013 deadline hurtles towards us.”
Mr Latto said the CSSA is calling on the Government to furnish the detail the industry needs in order to operate in the MySuper environment without further delay or move the implementation date until 2014.