Stockspot Super is now open to the public, the online investment adviser has announced, offering Australia’s first ETF-only superannuation product designed to keep costs low and provide members with “greater visibility and control over their retirement savings”.
While Australia’s super industry now manages more than $4 trillion, Stockspot pointed out that high fees, opaque investments and outdated strategies continue to gnaw at savings.
“Each year, Australians collectively pay $32 billion in super fees, much of it on high-cost, underperforming funds and unnecessary expenses like sports sponsorships and stadium naming rights,” the firm said.
Instead, founder and chief executive Chris Brycki said that “super should be simple”.
“Your money should be invested in cost-effective, diversified assets that work for you, not for fund managers,” Brycki said.
“Australians deserve a super fund that prioritises their savings over corporate sponsorships and hidden fees.”
The robo-advice firm said the announcement is a decade in the making.
Namely, in 2013 it launched its first Fat Cat Fund Report, examining how high fees and “poor investment decisions” were impacting retirement savings, and has made submissions to the Productivity Commission and the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry pushing for lower fees.
“For years, we’ve held the super industry accountable for high fees and underperformance,” Brycki added.
“But while some of the worst offenders have been forced to merge or shut down, Australians are still being short-changed. That’s why we built Stockspot Super – to be the change the industry refused to make.”
Expounding on the offering, the firm said the product invests exclusively in ETFs, ensuring daily pricing and full investment visibility, as opposed to “complex structures that benefit fund managers more than members”, the CEO said.
“Australians deserve to see where their money is going and have confidence that their investments are fairly priced.”
Moreover, research from S&P SPIVA found that, over the long-term, 80 per cent of active fund managers fail to beat the market after fees.
“The evidence is overwhelming – index investing outperforms active management in super,” Brycki said.
“Super funds that rely on stock picking are gambling with members’ money, and the data proves they’re losing.”
Notably, Stockspot Super is also the first Australian super product to include a “meaningful” allocation to gold.
This comes as Bank of America research shows 71 per cent of investors hold 1 per cent or less of their portfolio in gold. This, Stockspot said, leaves many superannuation portfolios overexposed to property, ASX 50 shares and cash.
Further unpacking the product’s strategy, it said it will be managing portfolios based around age, automatically adjusting investment allocations over time.
Brycki said: “Most Australians don’t need expensive financial advice to adjust their super – what they need is an investment strategy that automatically evolves with them.
“Stockspot Super is designed to make that transition seamless, without hidden costs or unnecessary decisions.
“Australians deserve a super fund that works for them, not the other way around.”
