Super Fierce flies past $116m in super savings for Aussies in just 5 months
Wealth advice platform and social enterprise Super Fierce has officially flown past $116 million in anticipated super fees saved for its customers after launching just 5 months ago, passing $50 million by early June, and then rapidly accelerating after launching the Fierce Performers Index in early July.
The speed at which Super Fierce met its audacious $100 million goal is clear evidence of the unmet demand for unbiased, personal, affordable financial advice in Australia according to Super Fierce, and a timely reminder of the importance of Treasury’s current Quality of Advice Review.
The $116 million in anticipated savings are the result of the Super Fierce algorithm locating the lowest-cost and best-performing super fund for an individual’s particular circumstances, needs, life stage, gender, financial situation, and a host of other critical factors, delivered in a personalised Statement of Advice.
The data also shows that the earlier a Super Fierce customer switches, the greater their savings are estimated to be in retirement. This is due to fewer years of paying higher fees and more years of greater performance, combined with the compounding nature of super.
Inside the $116 million in anticipated savings
Breaking down the $116 million, the average age of all customers is 36 years old, and 87% of the anticipated savings will go to female customers who achieved $125,000 in savings on average. This is compared to $152,000 on average for male customers, likely due to the gender pay gap and gendered time out of the workforce.
To date, the largest average savings for any age group was $165,000 for customers aged 25 to 35 years. By comparison, the average for all customers is currently around $131,000 in lifetime anticipated fee savings.
Of the total $116 million, most can be attributed to customers who switched their super out of retail or corporate super funds using Super Fierce.
The Typical Customer
The current typical (median) Super Fierce customer is a woman around 30 years of age, working full-time earning $75,000 to $125,000, and holding $45,000 in super.
She is charged 1.05% per annum in fees by her existing fund, and will likely grow her super to around $835,000 by the time she retires at age 67. This means she will pay around $560 in fees this year alone, and around $452,000 in her lifetime if she makes no change to her super.
By contrast, the average fee in the funds Super Fierce has recommended to this age group is 0.22% per annum. Switching using Super Fierce would therefore instead result in this typical customer paying $118 in fees this year and around $205,000 in her lifetime.
After adjusting for inflation and the compounding impact of performance on the difference in fees in these two scenarios, this adds an extra $345 of income per week for the rest of her life in retirement!
The Secret Sauce
The Super Fierce proprietary scalable advice technology creates high quality, independent superannuation recommendations and is available to every Australian in the form of a free Super Fierce Statement of Advice.
This Statement of Advice is presented in easy-to-understand language, yet is informed by an incredibly sophisticated analysis using 180,000+ calculations for each statement.
As a result, Super Fierce offers this Statement of Advice free and only charges if a customer would like its assistance in switching funds, offering much-needed affordable financial advice to all Australians, says Trenna Probert, Founder and CEO of Super Fierce.
Trenna Probert said, “When I launched Super Fierce, I set the audacious goal of saving Australians $100 million in unnecessary super fees in under six months.
“It was an ambitious goal, but why get out of bed for anything less than a life purpose that scares you a little?! Especially when it is all about creating positive change in this world.
“As a social enterprise, Super Fierce is on a mission to drive measurable social impact outcomes including our current goal of ending the gender wealth and retirement gaps.
“We envisage a world where women are not penalised financially for being born their gender, or for becoming a mother. We decided to start tackling this goal with super, because Australians pay an extraordinary $32 billion in annual fees to super funds – at least half of which is wasted on poor performing funds.
“Next we will take our independent and fiercely anti fee-for-no-service approach to the poor practices and prohibitive costs in investing, home ownership, and small business funding. Stay tuned!”
