Last night ABC TV’s 4 Corners program featured a segment about superannuation which included reference to Mercer’s approach to charging and communicating information about fees in the Mercer Super Trust Allocated Pension.
REI Super wishes to reassure its members that while Mercer Outsourcing Australia Pty Ltd provides outsourced administration and financial advice services to REI Super, Mercer is a completely separate company to REI Super and the Mercer Super Trust is completely separate to REI Super’s super and pension products.
Further, REI Super does not have a policy of charging different fees for existing and new members in its super and pension products.
REI Super is an industry fund, which means we exist only for the benefit of our members and to maximise their retirement savings. We do not pay dividends to shareholders and we return all profits to members’ accounts. As a result, we seek to minimise our fees, we always seek to provide members with the lowest fees possible and we always tell members when they can access arrangements or benefits that enable them to save on fees or costs or maximise their savings.
The administration services Mercer Outsourcing Australia provides to REI Super include provision of a call centre to assist our members and employers with their inquiries. This is on a pure outsourced basis and the call centre staff do not represent the Mercer Super Trust.
We have never instructed our call centre staff to withhold any information from our members. In keeping with our philosophy of reducing costs for members in order to maximise their retirement savings, our instructions to our call centre staff are always to provide our members with all the information they need to make the most of their super and to enjoy all the benefits of being a member of an industry fund like REI Super.