For many of us, our super will play a vital part in our financial lifecycle journey—helping us with our move (over time) from financial dependence to independence, in terms of wealth accumulation and income-generation.
Although, the extent our super is optimally leveraged, and the beneficial result of doing so, can often be affected by our level of active engagement with, and appropriate understanding of, our super.
In a previous article, we provided research* about this. Using a ‘people in a car’ analogy, the research categorised super fund members into four groups—the driver, the passenger, the backseat, and the boot.
A recent paper^ expands on this analogy with more group description, as well as the inclusion of an additional group and the percentage of super fund members categorised into each group:
Notably, the research suggests that disengaged and ill-informed members often:
If you feel that you could be more actively engaged with, and well-informed on, your super, consider:
When reviewing your annual super statement using the points in the below checklist, it’s worth considering their meaning and relevance to you. This is important if there is a disconnect between your annual super statement details and your financial situation, goals and objectives. For example, if you’ve had a recent change in circumstances that needs addressing.
Annual super statement review checklist
When reviewing your personal details summary, consider:
When reviewing your account balance summary, consider:
When reviewing your beneficiaries summary, consider:
When reviewing your insurances summary, consider:
When reviewing your investment summary, consider:
When reviewing your transaction summary, consider:
Moving forward
It’s important to be actively engaged with, and well-informed on, your super throughout your financial lifecycle—as you progress from wealth accumulator to pre-retiree, and finally retiree. The receipt of your annual super statement can be an opportune time to review and make changes (where appropriate).
If you have any questions regarding your annual super statement, please contact us.
*Choice. (2016). Project Superpower. Informing a strategy to engage people with their superannuation.
^Australian Government, Productivity Commission. (2018). Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness. Inquiry Report.