Christine Hornery

Some of the most disturbing statistics in the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA)’s March 2014 update on the level and distribution of retirement savings, according to financial planner Christine Hornery, director of FMS Group, are that more than a third of all women and around 60 per cent of those aged between 65 to 69 reported having no superannuation.

“What these statistics tell us is that one in three women in Australia does not have a single cent in super,” Ms Hornery said. “They have no money stashed away in superannuation for retirement whatsoever.”

Ms Hornery said women need to take extra care of their financial future – and not just because typically they are likely to live longer, live longer in retirement and earn less than men but because moving forward, fewer people are likely to be able to access the age pension entitlement.  “I believe there are women retiring today who are using Centrelink to subsidise their retirement and that just may not possible for as many people in the future,” she said.

Women need to understand that the preservation age (the age at which people can withdraw money from their superannuation funds), the retirement age and the ability to access retirement benefits is likely to lift so they need to act early if they want to have sufficient funds to do what they want to do in retirement.

“The other disturbing thing is that many women are not engaged when it comes to their superannuation and, I believe, are only becoming less engaged,” she said.

The Suncorp-ASFA 2012 Super Attitudes Survey (the Survey) revealed only 19 per cent of women say they are actively involved with their superannuation. “The main reason given by women for their lack of engagement was that they didn’t know how to get more involved,” Ms Hornery said.

Although the numbers are not broken down by gender, the Survey also said one in four Australians don’t know their current balance, one in 10 don’t know who their super provider is and one in four either don’t know what fund option they are in or that they could choose. “Finding answers to these four questions is a good place to begin for women who don’t know where to start,” Ms Hornery said.

Time spent on managing other day-to-day finances was also a common reason for people not to get involved with their super, according to the Survey, with 30 per cent of Australians citing this reason.

“What this tells us is that people think there are more pressing things in their current lifestyle so they aren’t thinking about the future,” Ms Hornery said. “My suggestion is to not just think about today – start thinking about what your future is going to look like. And then get financial advice. Talk to a professional and get some advice and strategy so that you can accumulate more funds towards retirement savings. A product alone is simply not going to give that to you.”

Ms Hornery was awarded the 2012 Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Female Excellence in Advice Award.

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