Financial Service Guide

Preparation date: 16 Feb 2024

FSG prepared by SuperEd Pty Ltd ABN 88 118 480 907 AFSL 468859

This Financial Services Guide (‘FSG’) is an important document you should read, understand and retain for your records. It is provided to help you make an informed decision about the services we offer and whether they are appropriate for you. The purpose of this FSG is to describe the financial services we provide, how we are remunerated, any relationships or benefits that could influence our advice, how we handle complaints and our privacy policy.

What documents will I receive?

Consistent with our terms and conditions and where you use our Centrelink application services, you will receive fully completed Centrelink forms that we lodged (on your behalf) with Centrelink as your nominee or ready for lodgement with Centrelink.

We act as your agent when we assist you to access your Centrelink entitlements, so these can be accessed as efficiently as possible. 

When we give you general advice, we will give you a general advice warning, but do not provide you any formal documentation other than this FSG.

Where we provide you personal advice services, we will provide you the following documentation from our website and/or via email. 

Statements of Advice (‘SoA’)

If we provide you with advice about your personal circumstances, we will confirm it in a Statement of Advice(SoA). The SoA sets out our personal advice to you, including the scope of our advice you agreed to, the basis on which the advice is provided, your current personal and financial position, needs and objectives, the benefits of our advice and the risks associated with implementing our advice, and information on fees, remuneration and associations relevant to the provision of your of advice.

Further advice

Where a further review is conducted, or ad-hoc advice is requested from you and personal advice is provided, the advice may be provided via a new SoA or a Record of Advice (RoA) as applicable to the circumstances. Further advice may be in the form of a RoA where the further advice does not significantly differ from the original advice provided. You may request that we provide you with a copy of such an RoA by contacting us at/on hello@retirementessentials.com.au.

Product Disclosure Statements (‘PDS’) 

If we recommend that you acquire a financial product, we will also provide you with a PDS or a hyperlink to the relevant PDS/s. The PDS will provide you with detailed information about the product we have recommended you acquire, including features, benefits, fees and associated risks, and contains important information you should read and understand in order to help you decide whether or not to buy that product.

About us

Retirement Essentials Pty Ltd (‘Retirement Essentials’) is a Corporate Authorised Representative (‘CAR’) of SuperEd Pty Ltd, the holder of an Australian Financial Service Licence (‘AFSL’).  Retirement Essentials is a privately owned advisory firm and a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperEd.

Retirement Essentials provides an invaluable service to retirees and pre-retirees through proactive, cost effective, support services to empower and guide them successfully preparing for retirement and managing their retirement savings and financial resources throughout retirement.

Retirement Essentials can provide you information and general advice through education on our website and webinars, while assisting you to understand and make an application for senior Australians Centrelink entitlements and concessions.  

Our details are:

Company:                     Retirement Essentials Pty Ltd

ABN 35 615 383 232

CAR no 001260855

Email:                  hello@retirementessentials.com.au

Website:             www.retirementsessentials.com.au

Telephone 1300 527 727

Company:                    SuperEd Pty Ltd (‘SuperEd’)

ABN 88 118 480 907                                     

AFSL no 468859

Email:                  hello@supered.com.au

Website:             www.supered.com.au

Telephone:       (02) 8282 2982

Registered Offices:     100 Walker Street, NORTH SYDNEY, NSW, 2060

Postal: PO Box 527, NORTH SYDNEY, NSW 2059

About SuperEd services

SuperEd holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (‘AFSL’) which authorises us to provide both general and personal financial advice and services and to deal in by applying for, acquiring, varying or disposing of a financial product on behalf of another person in relation to:

• superannuation, 
• Interests in managed investment schemes, including investor directed portfolio services, 
• deposit and payment products, 
• securities, 
• government debentures, stocks or bonds, and 
• annuities and life insurance risk products and life insurance investment products; like annuities.

SuperEd is also authorised to operate custodial or depository services other than IDPSs although we don’t maintain custody of your assets.

SuperEd is responsible for the general and personal advisory services provided to you as well as authorising the content and distribution of this FSG.

About Retirement Essentials services

Factual Information

Retirement Essentials may provide you information that is purely factual and is not tailored to your individual circumstances.  This is generally provided to you in information articles on the website or via email.  Examples of factual information include notification of Centrelink entitlement rate changes or notification of updates following budget night.

Centrelink Entitlement Services

Supporting Senior Australians attain their Centrelink Entitlements

Retirement Essentials provides Senior Australians in or those approaching retirement with support, guidance and assistance with applying for relevant Centrelink entitlements, such as the Age Pension and the Commonwealth Seniors Health Care Card.  These services assist you to apply for your eligible Centrelink benefits through our digital technology application tool and with the support of the Retirement Essentials customer service team.  The service will allow you to easily generate the Centrelink paperwork required to lodge your application. With your permission, we will then act as your Centrelink Nominee to ensure the efficient processing of the application. This service provides you the support you need to make claiming your entitlements easier.  It also provides you access to tools, information and regular articles on the Centrelink entitlement changes including useful retirement tips and more.

Protecting your Centrelink Age Pension Entitlement

Retirement Essentials provides retirees with the option to subscribe to one of the annual services aimed at assisting you in protecting your entitlement.  The services are designed to provide different levels of support and assistance.  Please refer to The Retirement Essentials team and or our website for further details.

Advice

General Advice

Retirement Essentials may also provide general advice, which may give you only general information about a specific financial product or service or is tailored to a specific group of people, such as retirees. General advice can be useful as it can help you learn more about these products or services and assist you in personally assessing whether a product or service may be right for you. 

However, general advice should not be a substitute for seeking and/or receiving personal advice from a licensed financial adviser who can provide personal advice and in your best interests.  General advice does not take into account your specific financial needs, circumstances or objectives. Therefore, it is important that you personally assess whether any action you take as a result of general advice is appropriate given your own financial situation and read and understand any relevant Product Disclosure Statement (‘PDS’) before any decision regarding a financial product.  This is generally provided to you in our conversations on the phone with you, with our Retirement Essential Consultants, our tailored education information on our website and in webinars.

Retirement Forecasting Tool

Our Retirement Forecaster is a calculator/illustration tool intended to provide you with a stochastic forecast of potential retirement income and wealth over time, including some of the trade-offs you could consider. Spending in retirement is a complex issue.  Many Australians ask questions like “how much can I spend” and/or “how long will my money last”.  The forecasting is based on many economic scenario paths approved by the SuperEd Investment Committee. Each economic scenario path contains return projections for a range of asset classes over a long period of time as well as some basic information provided by you.  

The Retirement Forecaster does not capture enough information about your personal circumstances, situation, retirement goals and current investments to be relied upon as anything more than an illustrative tool.  There may be other factors you should take into account and should consider your own needs, financial situation and investment objectives.  Consequently we will not make any recommendations to you and you will be presented with a link to a statement of advice “on screen” advising you to not take any action based on your interaction with the Retirement Forecasting tool.   

Personal Advice

At Retirement Essentials we appreciate that everyone is on an individual retirement journey, which is why our services are provided as ‘bite sized’ offers. We aim to give you the confidence, knowledge and information to make more informed decisions aimed at providing for your retirement needs. You are able to choose the service or services that are right for you, as and when you need them. Topics we typically provide advice on:

• Understanding super and how retirement income streams work.
• Planning an appropriate retirement spending level so your money is likely to last the distance.
• Options to help maximise government entitlements.
• Feeling more confident by understanding different risk and return investment strategies and what impact they might have on your wealth over the long term.
• Showing you the impact of paying down debts at retirement.

Our advice is limited in scope. Our advice services are limited to a particular issue that you have or you may encompass a number of issues like how long your retirement money may last in retirement, (considering different factors, such as your retirement spending plans, your longevity, eligible to claim Centrelink benefits and how much you might be entitled to, and/or the potential impact of your investment choices and different risk and return settings). We will advise at the beginning of the meeting what is not considered and if our service would not be appropriate for you  We provide this limited personal advice in a Statement of Advice (‘SoA’)

The limited advice will be agreed and confirmed up front with you.  We need to be licensed to provide this limited advice and we use qualified financial advisers to assist you in this process. Our financial advisers use our adviser specific retirement forecasting calculator with you in the meeting This information is not comprehensive, as it is based upon the outputs from the calculator only. 

No product recommendations

We do not offer the services of providing any personal financial or credit product recommendations or asset allocation recommendations, statements of opinion and/or endorsement on any current financial and or credit product holding or ideas you have communicated to us.  

Where you require these additional services to take this educational information and make financial decisions, we recommend you contact Centrelink’s Financial Information Service, your super fund, or a licensed professional offering the services you seek.

What limitations are there on the information, general and personal advice we provide?

Our advice and services are tailored to super fund members and retirement planning. There are a number of other areas you may require advice on which may be outside of the services we offer. We will make the scope of any advice or information we provide you very clear as well as highlighting any implications. We are unable to assist you or advise on the following specialist areas: 

• general insurance
• derivatives or foreign exchange
• real estate and direct property advice
• taxation services, such as completion of tax returns
• accounting and audit services
• estate planning professionals such as a solicitor
• legal services
• administration and compliance of Self-Managed Superannuation Funds and 
• credit product advice such as mortgage or finance broking

We will make you aware upfront of the scope of any general and personal advice or services along with any risks or considerations you should be aware of when agreeing to engage our services. Even though we assist you with Centrelink, any matters that may impact your taxation, social security and legal situation should be discussed with your tax adviser, solicitor and/or the relevant Government Department.

How can you connect with us? 

You can connect with us via our details on page 2 of this FSG.

We generally require that you instruct us in writing and to arrange financial products and services on your behalf. We rely on your signature or written word consent as your authority.

It is important that you provide us with complete and accurate information about your circumstances and you take the time to check and understand the basis of our advice, such as any key assumptions we have used in formulating your advice before accepting it. If you don’t, there is a risk our advice may not be appropriate for your needs.

How are we paid? 

Centrelink Entitlement Services

We charge fees for supporting Senior Australians in attaining their entitlements.  We also charge fees for our annual “protecting your entitlement services”.  You will be provided with the cost prior to submitting and paying for the service.  The cost will be GST inclusive and based on the complexity of your situation.  

General Advice Services 

We charge simple, transparent fixed fees. We do not charge you based on a percentage of your assets. The cost of the service will be quoted prior to the service based on a flat dollar cost.

Personal Advice Services

Where we provide you with personal advice, detailed information about the up front fees or other benefits will be contained in the SOA.  We are committed to ensuring we clearly inform you (including seeking your consent) of our advice fees prior to proceeding with preparation of advice.

We charge simple, transparent fixed fees. We do not charge you based on a percentage of your assets.  The cost of the service will be quoted prior to the service based on a flat dollar cost.

Where an upfront fee is payable directly by you as a super fund member or client, this will be fully disclosed along with the basis for the amount before you agree to use any of our services. 

Ongoing Personal Advice Service

We currently do not offer an ongoing personal advice service.

Who do we pay?  

All fees you pay are paid directly to Retirement Essentials Pty Ltd.  Retirement Essential pays SuperEd licence and service fees for its AFSL, technology, contract and employee services required for the provision of Retirement Essentials services to you.

Relationships, associations and other benefits we may  receive?

Some employees may own equity (or options in respect of equity) in the company, and thereby may stand to benefit from the profitability, or an improvement in the valuation, of the company.

SuperEd or its representatives are unlikely to receive any benefits, however will disclose any additional benefits received from product providers. These benefits may include education, training, meals and events provided at the cost of the product providers. These are not of a material nature and do not influence our advice to you. Any Payments or benefits received where the value of the benefit exceeds $100 will be disclosed in a register. A copy of the register is available to you upon request.

Retirement Essentials may directly offer their clients personal advice in selected areas where their clients may benefit from personalised advice  SuperEd may refer you to Retirement Essentials where you are likely to benefit from their specialist services and through this association may benefit via increased business growth and profit.

SuperEd’s approved list of products and services includes products and services provided by entities with whom a SuperEd director, employee, have a relationship or association, either directly or via a related entity.

We believe that your interests should be placed first and that products and services should only be recommended if it is in your best interests. However, it is important that you know of, and are comfortable with, those relationships and associations and any benefits that arise.

CPHIC Investments Pty Ltd, which is part of Challenger Limited, has a minority economic interest in SuperEd Pty Ltd. This relationship does not involve the use by SuperEd of any products or investments owned, operated or managed by Challenger Limited. The relationship SuperEd has with Challenger Limited does not conflict with the provision of financial services to you. SuperEd does not receive any financial incentive to provide advice that directs a client towards Challenger Limited. 

PSC Insurance Group Ltd (PSC), a diversified insurance services group, has a minority economic interest in SuperEd Pty Ltd (SuperEd). This relationship does not involve the use by SuperEd of any products or investments owned, operated, recommended or managed by PSC.The commercial relationship SuperEd has with PSC does not conflict with the provision of financial services to you. SuperEd does not receive any financial incentive to provide advice that directs a client towards PSC.

Current SuperEd directors are or have participated on boards of directors/trustees at Unisuper, Vanguard, MLC Wealth, among others. SuperEd directors are not remunerated by any of these firms due to their roles at SuperEd.

SuperEd does not have any other associations or relationships, than those already disclosed, that might reasonably be expected to be capable of influencing the advice we provide to you and our clients.

Our professional indemnity insurance

SuperEd maintains a group policy which includes appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance cover for SuperEd and its representatives as required by the Corporations Act 2001. This cover is designed to offer some insured protection should any work carried out result in a claim against SuperEd or one of its representatives for work carried out by past and or present representatives.

What do you do if you have a complaint?

If you wish to complain about our services, you can contact our Complaints Officer by emailing us at compliance@supered.com.au or calling us on 1300 527 727. 

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 24 hours (1 business day) and attempt to resolve it within 30 calendar days.  Our resolution process will include assessment and investigation of the issue which may require us to contact you/seek from you further details/documents/information relevant to your complaint.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive or your complaint cannot be resolved within the 30 calendar days, you have the right to contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provides a fair and independent ASIC approved external dispute resolution body and provides fair and independent financial services complaint resolution that is free to consumers.  Their contact details are as follows:

Email: info@afca.org.au

Website: www.afca.org.au

In Writing: 

Australian Financial Complaints Authority Limited

GPO Box 3

Melbourne VIC 3001

Phone: 1800 931 678 (Free call) 

9:00am–5:00pm AEST/AEDT weekdays

Calls from an international number add +61

International calls may incur a charge from your carrier

You may also contact the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) by phoning +61 3 5177 3988 or 1300 300 630 to make a complaint and obtain information about your rights.

For more information you can obtain a copy of our Public Complaints Policy on the footer of our Website.

What personal information do we collect and disclose?

At Retirement Essentials we take your privacy very seriously. We collect your personal information, and information relating to your partner, to enable us to provide our services to you, including assisting you to apply for and keep your Centrelink related entitlements, We may ask you to consent to the collection of sensitive information, such as your race and ethnicity, in order to complete government applications. Generally, we will collect your information in application forms and webforms relating to our services. We provide your information to the government agencies and the financial product issuers with whom you choose to deal (and their representatives). If you don’t provide us with full information, we can’t properly advise or assist you with your financial services needs, and we may not be able to fully complete any government application forms on your behalf which may put you at risk of inappropriate payment and repayment or refusal.

To ensure that any personal financial advice we provide is appropriate, we ask you to provide accurate information, free from error and omission.  If you do not provide all the information we request, we may no longer be able to provide a product or service, including financial advice, to you.

We do not trade, rent or sell your information. We also do not disclose your information to overseas recipients. 

How do we protect your privacy?

We and our technology service providers ensure that any cloud hosted data services we use to maintain our members’ data within Australian based data centres. Our Customer Contact Centre is based in Australia. 

For more information about how to access the information we hold about you, how to have it corrected and how to complain if you think we have breached the privacy law, obtain a copy of our Privacy Policy on the footer of our website, or contact us using our contact details on the front page of this guide.

We will update our Privacy Policy from time to time.

Where you have provided us information about another individual, you must make them aware of that fact and the contents of this privacy statement. 

We may also use your information to tell you about products or services we think may interest you.