As the baby boomers reach retirement age, NGS Super is adapting its seminar program to meet the changing needs of its members.
The growing interest in the seminar program is partly due to the increasing number of baby boomer members reaching retirement age, said Andrew Dunkerley, manager for financial advice and education at NGS Financial Planning, which is owned by NGS Super.
“A lot of the members who go to these [national] seminars are close to retirement age,” Mr Dunkerley told InvestorDaily. “We are involving Centrelink more in our seminars because people are interested in what they are entitled to in terms of pension and other benefits that may be available before pension.
“We listen to members’ feedback and provide information that is relevant to them. Transition to retirement is a very popular topic – we spend a lot of time just on that,” he said.
But while there is a focus on retirement, Mr Dunkerley said there are several strategies in mind for future educational programs.
“We are looking into having more workplace advisers available, and want to offer more personal advice. We want to give cost-effective advice and we are also looking into software development to help with this,” he said.
“In addition, we’d like to help young people get on track in terms of their investments and their superannuation, and any additional advice that they need.”
NGS Super expects the national seminar program to increase by 54 per cent in 2013. Take-up of workplace seminars, meanwhile, is expected to increase by an estimated 73 per cent. Workplace seminars involve NGS Financial Planning staff visiting members’ workplaces to speak directly with them.
“Over 90 per cent of the feedback we get is very positive according to surveys we conduct post-seminar. We survey about half of the attendees,” said Mr Dunkerley.
The seminars are prepared by NGS Financial Planning for NGS Super and its members.
