Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993

The trustee or the trustees of a regulated superannuation fund must not charge against a member’s interest in the fund the cost of financial product advice provided to the member unless:

the financial product advice is personal advice; and

the trustee or trustees charge the cost in accordance with the terms of a written request or written consent of the member; and

if the arrangement under which the advice is provided is an ongoing fee arrangement—any applicable requirements of Division 3 of Part 7.7A of the Corporations Act 2001 are met in relation to the arrangement and, if relevant, the deduction of ongoing fees; and

if the arrangement under which the advice is provided is not an ongoing fee arrangement—the request or consent satisfies the requirements in subsection (2); and

the trustee or trustees have the request or consent, or a copy of it.

The other obligations under this Act, including to act in the best financial interests of the beneficiaries (see paragraph 52(2)(c)) and to comply with the sole purpose test (see section 62), continue to apply to trustees.

See also Division 5 of Part 2C of this Act for fee rules for MySuper products.

For the purposes of paragraph (1)(e), the written request or written consent must include the following:

the name and contact details of the member;

the name and contact details of the provider of the financial product advice;

the name of the fund from which the cost of the advice is requested to be paid;

a brief description of the services the member is entitled to receive under the arrangement;

a request from, or consent by, the member for the cost of the advice to be paid by the trustee and charged against the member’s interest in the fund;

either:

the amount to be paid for the advice; or

if the amount to be paid for the advice cannot be determined at the time the request is made, or the consent is given, a reasonable estimate of that amount and an explanation of the method used to work out the estimate;

either:

the amount to be charged against the member’s interest in the fund; or

if the amount to be charged against the member’s interest in the fund cannot be determined at the time the request is made, or the consent is given, a reasonable estimate of that amount and an explanation of the method used to work out the estimate;

the member’s signature;

the date the request is made;

any other information prescribed by the regulations.

For the purposes of paragraph (2)(e), the Minister may, in writing, approve a form.

If the Minister has approved a form under subsection (3), a request or consent for the purposes of paragraph (2)(e) must be in the approved form.

Subsection (1) does not apply if the cost of providing financial product advice is shared between the member mentioned in subsection (1) and other members of the fund.

For rules on collectively charged fees for the provision of financial product advice, see section 99F.