Most Australians don't believe they will have enough retirement savings and say superannuation funds are not transparent enough on fees and charges, a survey has found.
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The survey - of 1000 working-aged people by the Financial Services Council and ING Direct - found that 48 per cent of respondents did not know the fees they pay for superannuation, but two-thirds believed super funds did not make clear their costs.
According to a recent report by super fund research body Rainmaker, Australians paid a record $18.6 billion in fees to their superannuation fund over the year to June, about four times the amount households paid in bank fees.
The FSC is a lobby group representing funds managers and super funds. ING Direct, best known in Australia for its online-only savings product, now offers superannuation products.
According to the two bodies, the average super balance for women is $112,000; for men it is $198,000. Financial services company Challenger last year tipped that the median Australian balance would reach $200,000 by 2017.
On how much they expected would be needed for retirement, 46 per cent of respondents to the FSC–ING survey said $500,000 would be sufficient, while a further 38 per cent said $1 million or more.
Sixty-two per cent said they did not believe they would have enough for a comfortable retirement.
Australia's $1.6 trillion superannuation system is the world's fourth-biggest pool of money. Now 21 years old, the system is expected to increase further as the percentage of wages that compulsorily goes into super rises to 12 per cent.
Superannuation also had a bumper year in 2013, with the average balanced fund returning 15.6 per cent. Both the Coalition and Labor have pledged not to change super tax laws during this parliament.
Rainmaker's 2013 super fund fee survey estimated that costs in the compulsory super system equate to 1.23 per cent of super funds under management, equivalent to $18.6 billion a year.
While the 1.23 per cent figure is lower than the 1.31 per cent charged across the superannuation system in 2007, Rainmaker said the decline was not driven by falling fund prices but the drift from "higher-fee retail funds to lower-fee not-for-profit and self-managed super funds".
Rainmaker's survey sample covered $919 billion in funds under management and nearly 26 million accounts.
It was contested by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, which said that on the average superannuation balance for Australians of around $70,000 the average fee paid is around $700.
"For this fund, members receive a range of services, including management of a diversified investment portfolio, the administration of their account and in many cases the provision of education and basic financial advice," it said.
"With a range of measures being introduced to increase industry efficiencies and place downward pressure on costs, value for money for fund members should only get better."
A separate report commissioned by FSC found overall industry fees, expressed as a percentage of assets, averaged 1.2 per cent in the 2011 financial year.
