The sale of the private marketing company I work(ed) for to a large Multinational Company was finalized on 30 June (end of the Australian financial year), and we were treated to a bit of a motivational session/corporate ethics intro by the incoming management team one afternoon last week, followed by a hello/goodbye social event (drinks and finger food) hosted by the outgoing owner and the new management on the following afternoon/evening. I was pleasantly surprised to get a thank you card and a cheque for a gift of $5,000 from the departing owner, a nice gesture since the sale had been finalized a few days previously and she could have just ridden off into the sunset without a backward glance. DW also received a thank you card, but her cheque was for $2,000 - presumably because she works part-time (3 days/week), given that she's worked for the company a few months longer than I have (more than 15 years).
So, I now officially work for a regional specialist branch office of a large multinational 'Fortune 500' company, that has around 10,000 staff globally. I expect there will be some major changes not too far down the track - they are planning to spend the next 2-3 months with an interim management structure in place while they go through the 'integration' process and work out what changes to implement by the end of this year. I don't think the 'integration' will be a particularly pleasant experience for the 400 or so staff that are the 'integratees', given that the parent company generated about $300K profit per existing employee. The figures for the private company weren't public, so I don't know exactly how much profit per capita it made, but I'd guess it was only around $100K per headcount, or less. So I'm sure 'head office' will be expecting to implement major 'efficiency gains' during the first year. Although there is apparently a sizable budget earmarked for growing this regional business, the initial signs don't suggest that they are going the spend very much of that budget on staff remuneration. It was quite amusing to hear during the introduction session that the new owners were 'surprised' to learn that our company routinely does that annual performance review/remuneration review cycle in June - we normally get our annual salary letters in the first week of July. The parent company follows the US practice of doing its compensation reviews in Dec/Jan - so it looks like we are getting an 'accidental' pay freeze for the next six months!
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2014
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Wednesday, 4 June 2014
Beware "low" fees on Superannuation accounts
While the Australian Superannuation system has a lot of good features (practically universal coverage, tax advantages in exchange for preservation until retirement age, providing some mitigation of the impact of the aging population on the cost of the aged pension system, encouraging workers to plan for their retirement, and a reasonable rate of enforced savings of current salary income towards retirement) it also has some bad features (such as complex tax rules, changes to rules over time eroding confidence in the system, the tax benefits being negligible for below AWOTE workers, and the biggest tax benefits being available to those who probably wouldn't get the aged pension in any case and don't need any encouragement to save for their retirement - for example the ability to make a $150K pa 'after tax' contribution into superannuation provides a 15% tax rate environment to high income earners who would otherwise be exposed to the top marginal tax rate on investment income if it was invested outside of the superannuation system). And one of the worst features is the often excessive fees charged by superannuation fund administrators (especially the 'retail' funds).
A side effect of the generally outrageous fees charged by superannuation funds is the growth of so-called "low fee" funds that many retail funds have set up to stem the flow of superannuation savings away from retail funds and towards Industry (trade union) superannuation funds and self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs). However, not all "low fee" funds are particularly good value! As a random example I had a look at the Suncorp Everyday Super Fund that is advertised as being a "low fee" superannuation fund.
Suncorp Everyday Super charges an administration fee of $1.50 per week plus 0.65% of your balance. And for the Suncorp Lifestage Fund investment option there is an 'Investment Fee' of 0.2%.
While 0.65% admin fee is certainly a lot lower than many retail funds (some charge around 1.50% administration fee), it still can excessive for anyone with a signficant amount accumulated in their superannuation savings. For example, with my current superannuation balance of around $600K, a 0.65% 'admin' fee would cost me $3,900 every year! By comparison, our SMSF administrator charges $699 pa for admin (including audit report costs), and even with the extra SMSF 'supervisory levy' charged by the ATO (a ridiculous $259 from 2014), the total 'admin' cost of $958 for our SMSF is less than 0.15%.
The 'sticker' cost of 0.2% Investment Fee for the Suncorp Lifestage Fund may appear to offset some of the higher admin costs, given that in our SMSF the Investment Management Fee charged by Vanguard for the LifeStrategy HighGrowth (Index) Fund is around 0.4%. However, drilling down into the Suncorp Lifestage Fund 'Profile' reveals that there is a 0.85% 'Management Fee' embedded in the Lifestage Fund.
So, overall, putting $600,000 into a SMSF and investing in a 'growth' index fund investment option would cost around $3,458 pa, whereas having the same amount in the 'low fee' Suncorp Everyday Super Fund and invested in the Lifestage Fund would cost you $1200 'up front' as an Investment Fee, and then an annual cost of around $9,000. A difference of over $5,500...
A side effect of the generally outrageous fees charged by superannuation funds is the growth of so-called "low fee" funds that many retail funds have set up to stem the flow of superannuation savings away from retail funds and towards Industry (trade union) superannuation funds and self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs). However, not all "low fee" funds are particularly good value! As a random example I had a look at the Suncorp Everyday Super Fund that is advertised as being a "low fee" superannuation fund.
Suncorp Everyday Super charges an administration fee of $1.50 per week plus 0.65% of your balance. And for the Suncorp Lifestage Fund investment option there is an 'Investment Fee' of 0.2%.
While 0.65% admin fee is certainly a lot lower than many retail funds (some charge around 1.50% administration fee), it still can excessive for anyone with a signficant amount accumulated in their superannuation savings. For example, with my current superannuation balance of around $600K, a 0.65% 'admin' fee would cost me $3,900 every year! By comparison, our SMSF administrator charges $699 pa for admin (including audit report costs), and even with the extra SMSF 'supervisory levy' charged by the ATO (a ridiculous $259 from 2014), the total 'admin' cost of $958 for our SMSF is less than 0.15%.
The 'sticker' cost of 0.2% Investment Fee for the Suncorp Lifestage Fund may appear to offset some of the higher admin costs, given that in our SMSF the Investment Management Fee charged by Vanguard for the LifeStrategy HighGrowth (Index) Fund is around 0.4%. However, drilling down into the Suncorp Lifestage Fund 'Profile' reveals that there is a 0.85% 'Management Fee' embedded in the Lifestage Fund.
So, overall, putting $600,000 into a SMSF and investing in a 'growth' index fund investment option would cost around $3,458 pa, whereas having the same amount in the 'low fee' Suncorp Everyday Super Fund and invested in the Lifestage Fund would cost you $1200 'up front' as an Investment Fee, and then an annual cost of around $9,000. A difference of over $5,500...
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2014
Net Worth: May 2014
The net value of my geared stock portfolio, retirement account (SMSF) and home all increased during the past month, resulting in a solid gain in overall net worth estimation. The retirement account gain was largely due to 5 months of employer contributions (Jan to May) all being deposited into our SMSF bank account during May.
Normally employer contributions for each quarter (eg. Jan, Feb and Mar) and due by the end of the month following the quarter (eg. Apr), and take a week or more to be processed by the Company Superannuation administrator (BT Super) and arrive in our bank account (eg. early May). The HR department had been talking about making the superannuation payments monthly, which accounts for the Apr and May payments being processed in May as well. Fortunately my age and current superannuation rules regarding concessionally tax contributions mean that even with 2-3 months extra payments being processed in the current financial year I wouldn't exceed the contribution cap.
Recent Sydney real estate index figures from RP Data are showing a slight decline in house prices, so the estimated valuation for my half of our home is likely to decrease slightly over coming months (my estimation used a moving 12-month average price guide for our postcode, rather than the daily Sydney Index value). As usual, I don't include assets or liabilities belonging to DW, DS1 or DS2 in my personal net worth figures.
* the Stocks figure is portfolio value - margin loans. The LVR is around 80% overall.
^ doesn't include the ~$675,000 of investment loans, as these are already deducted when calculating the value of my geared stock portfolio.
Normally employer contributions for each quarter (eg. Jan, Feb and Mar) and due by the end of the month following the quarter (eg. Apr), and take a week or more to be processed by the Company Superannuation administrator (BT Super) and arrive in our bank account (eg. early May). The HR department had been talking about making the superannuation payments monthly, which accounts for the Apr and May payments being processed in May as well. Fortunately my age and current superannuation rules regarding concessionally tax contributions mean that even with 2-3 months extra payments being processed in the current financial year I wouldn't exceed the contribution cap.
Recent Sydney real estate index figures from RP Data are showing a slight decline in house prices, so the estimated valuation for my half of our home is likely to decrease slightly over coming months (my estimation used a moving 12-month average price guide for our postcode, rather than the daily Sydney Index value). As usual, I don't include assets or liabilities belonging to DW, DS1 or DS2 in my personal net worth figures.
| Assets | $ Amount | $ Diff | % Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stocks * | $245,086 | $9,583 | n/a |
| Retirement | $602,386 | $11,039 | 1.87% |
| Home | $496,457 | $9,328 | 1.91% |
| Farm | $325,000 | $325,000 | n/a |
| Debts ^ | $ Amount | $ Diff | % Diff |
| Home Mortgage(s) | $102,358 | -$7 | -0.01% |
| Net Worth | $1,566,571 | $29,957 | 1.95% |
^ doesn't include the ~$675,000 of investment loans, as these are already deducted when calculating the value of my geared stock portfolio.
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)