Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Australian Super cuts fees
Over the last few months, we’ve seen a number of headwinds slam global share markets and push volatility and risk higher. Extreme market volatility caught up with super funds, with many recording falls, reversing the previous month’s gains. The median growth fund fell by 1.2 per cent in April bringing the overall returns for the financial year to date to -1.2 percent. For the month of May, super funds are expecting super funds to have lost around another 1 percent.
This ongoing tug-of-war on financial markets is set to continue through to the end of the financial year with tax-loss selling due to take place towards the end of the month. Chant West estimates the financial year return will be a marginal loss of 0.5%.
The country’s largest super fund, Australian Super, has announced a new fee structure aimed at reducing member costs by $300 million this year, following what has been a busy year for consolidation in the industry. With the regulator pushing for a smaller, larger-scale pension fund sector, the ultimate aim was clearly a reduction in costs.
At the same time as this industry consolidation, the trend towards internalising more and more investment roles was expected to see lower costs for members, not unlike a Vanguard model, but up until this point, little has been seen in this regard.
The reductions are effective from September and will affect more than 1.7 million members. But some will see administration fees increase as the fund changes the way it charges.
- Members with an account balance of between $108,000 and $195,000 could see an increase in administration fee of up to $52
- Members with these balances will pay a flat $1 a week plus an asset-based fee of 0.10% of their balance, capped at $350.
- Currently they pay a flat $2.25 a week plus a fee up to 0.04% deducted from before-tax investment returns.
The fee changes announced by Australian Super will result in:
- Members with less than $50,000 in their accounts paying about 60% less than they currently do in admin fees
- Retired Choice Income pension account members will pay 25% less
Chief executive Paul Schroder said, “Australian Super’s fees are among the lowest in the industry and this, together with strong long-term investment returns, is helping members achieve their best financial position in retirement.”
