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by Jodie | Oct 26, 2012 | Advisers, Business, Finances, General, Investments, Superannuation, Women
Well, I do love to travel and really enjoyed heading to fabulous Melbourne for the Women in Finance Vic (WIF) Lunch recently. I don’t need much arm twisting to get me to Victoria and was glad to combine some appointments with clients and colleagues with a great lunch.
WIF had combined forces with the Australian Centre for Financial Studies and the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA) to put on a great lunch in Collins Street to discuss “Finding Parity for Women’s Super.”
A great panel of women leaders representing the Industries of consumer and wealth management sectors discussed:
- Why the Value of women’s super is so much lower than men’s
- Why some women don’t have super and don’t focus on it
- What various sectors of the industry are doing about it; and
- What is and isn’t working
Some of the history of discriminatory superannuation measures against women were highlighted, including the Married Women’s Fund, available for the Public Sector; along with limited or no access to superannuation benefits for working women and the exclusion of super being mandatory for those earning under $450 per month from certain employers.
As 75-80% of Australians currently access the Age Pension (of approx. $20k p/a) self-funding for retirement is becoming of increasing importance to all.
Not surprisingly, it was highlighted that women often have multiple or many employers, especially for casual work, and an erratic working life, due to pregnancy, child birth and motherhood. Women also have a longer life expectancy than men, and need to fund for retirement longer. On average, the girls currently have around 17% less than men in their Super funds, but require around 13% more.
Women are perhaps more disengaged with their funds feeling superannuation saving is for the future, not really important, that their family situation will take care of things or that most Advisers are men, and they aren’t really sure about trusting them with their small and unimportant nest eggs.
Anne-Marie Corboy, CEO of HESTA, a large industry fund highlighted that the average balance across their 750,000 members is $29 886 for men, and a bit over $26k for women. Hardly enough to set up for a comfortable retirement, for anyone!
So, what can be done?
Some of the suggestions included constantly consolidating superannuation accounts whenever changing employer, not to ‘lose’ any super funds, make the most of incentives such as the Co-Contribution and Spouse Superannuation schemes and taking a lot more interest and control over your own financial journey.
As one of the Advisers put it, ‘A Man Is Not a Financial Plan!’ So girls, time to engage more with what is yours and ensure every penny is accounted for. And if you need help, I’d love to give it! Please call on the mobile 0410 455 158 if you’d like a hand on how to get started.
![Finding Parity for Women's Super]()
by Jodie | Oct 9, 2012 | Advisers, Debt Management, Finances, Insurance & Protection
If faced with a brush with death, many consumers would sooner jump on the next plane to a sun-kissed getaway than contemplate getting life insurance, according to research commissioned by CommInsure. Not that it doesn’t sound appealling, I guess. But then, I’ve got all my personal insurances sorted.
Tim Browne, General Manager Retail Advice at CommInsure, recently revealed that large challenges remain for insurers when it comes to the priorities of their potential customer base.
“We have been working to convince the broader community that insurance is something which is important and worthwhile,” Browne told the conference delegates.
“In the last couple of years we have spent a great deal of energy working with the government, regulators and the media to help them understand how important insurance is. Our big challenge now is to further our efforts by focusing on consumers.
Browne stated that their research into consumer views of insurance revealed both “rational and surprising responses”.
“When we asked consumers how they would respond to a brush with death, more than half of them said their first reaction would be to fly overseas and recuperate! The response we want to hear is that in the event of something like that happening, they would sit down and carefully contemplate their insurance and take proactive action to ensure their financial details are covered. However, most people think of the Greek Islands instead! We need to change that,” said Browne.
What I believe is even trickier to help consumers understand is to take out the cover while you’re still healthy. Once you’ve had the scare, or the brush with death or that twitch in your eye that just won’t go away – you’re much more likely to be hit with higher premiums for some cover, or exclusions for others.
The process to reverse this trend is pressing home that people need to contemplate how they or their family, would survive in the event of job loss, serious illnesses or injuries or worst case, a death in the family.
“Consumers often feel that they will just have to dip into their savings, but that is only going to look after things for a short amount of time,” added Browne. Added to that, with most families living week to week, there’s not always a lot of savings on hand.
“Consumers next fall back is to rely on the government and social security, but no government in the world can tailor a safety net to meet everybody’s individual circumstances. This leads us down the path of why insurance is so important.”
Source: insurancenews.com.au article – Clients Pick Holidays Over Insurance – 24/5/2012
by Jodie | Oct 4, 2012 | Business, Debt Management, Economy, Finances, Interest Rates, Superannuation, Taxation
So the RBA have dropped the official cash rate down to 3.25% at the October Board meeting. Xmas in October then? Or once again, too little – too late? How does our Resource Story and China fit in with all this?
Read the Macquarie Investment Management take on the likely impact of the cut and future economic outlook it was based on, here: Macquarie RBA Oct12 Cut
Well, I do love to travel and really enjoyed heading to fabulous Melbourne for the Women in Finance Vic (WIF) Lunch recently. I don’t need much arm twisting to get me to Victoria and was glad to combine some appointments with clients and colleagues with a great lunch.