As the introduction of super fund choice gets closer, ASIC has shown that it is carefully monitoring advertising by funds.

ASIC has announced that it has accepted an enforceable undertaking from Industry Fund Services Pty Ltd (IFS) in relation to its super choice advertising campaigns ‘Compare the pair’ and ‘A lifetime of difference’.

‘ASIC was concerned that consumers might have been confused by the advertisements as previously published, and is pleased that IFS has changed its advertising in response to our concerns’, Mr Jeremy Cooper, Deputy Chairman of ASIC, said.

IFS has, without accepting ASIC’s views, undertaken to refrain from:

• using projections of retirement payouts or future fund balances applying comparisons of current or past fees or average fees, unless these projections were properly qualified, and
• representing that the only relevant factor for comparisons of different super funds, in the context of projections of retirement payouts or future fund balances, is the fees charged by the operator of the fund.