Aussies value easy access to advice: Report

According to State Street’s Global Retirement Reality Report, 61 per cent of Australians said they value the ability to access advice in a retirement plan, compared with 7 per cent who said it’s not important.

“Retirement is a uniquely personal experience, and it is notoriously difficult to find a reliable ‘one size fits all’,” said State Street’s Australian head of investments Jonathan Shead.

“The Australian superannuation industry has struggled with the question of advice for many years. How should advice be delivered? Who pays for it and what is a reasonable cost? What constitutes general as opposed to full scale advice?”

However, Mr Shead said that as more of the global pensions industry moves from older defined benefit to defined contribution designs, the questions the Australian industry has faced over advice have become global questions.

Of the other countries surveyed, 83 per cent of people in Ireland said they valued access to advice in a retirement plan, compared with 3 per cent didn’t.

The figures were similar in the US (81 per cent v 10 per cent), the UK (78 per cent v 11 per cent) and the Netherlands (71 per cent v 10 per cent).

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].