MLC has refined the disclosure documentation for its suite of MLC MasterKey, MLC MasterKey Business Super and MasterKey Custom products, making them easier for customers to understand, the company announced yesterday.
"In the past, disclosure documentation across the industry has been complicated, lengthy, and as a result often not read by investors," MLC Investment Platforms executive general manager Michael Clancy said.
MLC product disclosure documentation is now divided into separate, significantly shorter documents to support the customer's decision-making process from consideration to application and ongoing management, he said.
Technical jargon has been removed and replaced with simple language, while the MLC MasterKey Super and Pension disclosure documents have been combined.
MLC believes this approach is an important step towards ridding the industry of unneeded confusion and said it is one of a handful of companies in recent times to move towards more straightforward product information for customers.
Last year, AMP slashed its product disclosure statements for super and pension products by more than 80 per cent, while ING cut its product disclosure statements by a third. Asteron reduced and simplified its product disclosure statements in 2007.
Around the same time, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law Nick Sherry said many complex and lengthy disclosure documents were often between 50 and 100 pages long and were "as readable as Latin" for the majority of Australians.
