Product disclosure statements (PDS) should be slashed to less than 20 pages to make them less "dull and uninviting" and therefore more effective, industry research has found.
A shorter PDS should contain a contents page, a corporate statement, contact details, simple fee structure and key features, the study for Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) found.
Disclosure by reference to a website was mooted by the study's participants to shorten the document.
The method has been used by the FPA to cut statements of advice and several companies, including MLC, Asteron and ING Australia have also released a short-form PDS.
"Last year's research told us that people want shorter documents, but are understandably sceptical about what less information might mean to them in terms of risk," IFSA deputy chief executive John O'Shaughnessy said.
"The length of the industry's PDS has confused investors and worse, has led to some investors overlooking important information - such as the ability to choose an investment option."
Wallis Consulting Group used focus groups and interviews with people who had recently made a decision about superannuation to conduct the study for in February.
The groups put together their own PDS. They wanted easy to understand charts and graphs, realistic pictures of people, concrete examples and a summary of the investment risks.
"Most felt the PDS to be a wasteful document, but a document that was probably legally necessary for the funds to provide," the study said.
"It was universally described as having too much information and thus being too long, disengaging and not encouraging reading."
Subjects described traditional PDS as "long", "wordy", "mind-boggling" and "an excess of information".
The research will be used to form an IFSA guidance note for members to help them produce shorter, more effective PDS.
