Financial Observer - 27 January 2015

The financial advice industry needs more certainty on regulation of the superannuation system to assist the growing number of individuals who plan to self-fund their retirement, one consultant has said.

Financial Consulting Services director Peter Dorrian told financialobserver regulation of the sector had become a political football.

“Everyone has a view about how the government should get its fingers out of the honeypot,” Dorrian said.

He said the 2007 Australian Bureau of Statistics study - the last to look into the nation’s retirement intentions - found 3 million people were looking to retire over the following 20 years.

“More than half of these expected to be self-funded,” he said, adding a greater level of certainty was needed for the mass wave of people moving out of the workforce.

He said concern over the lack of clarity around retirement planning and products was shared throughout the financial advice industry.

“[I’m] trying to get momentum across the industry to push the government to provide more for people who are trying to do the right thing and look after themselves in retirement,” he said.

Financial planning firms and fund managers were also seeking better access to the retirement income space through designing products and strategies targeted at the area, he said.

“In the past, people have focused on term deposits and bank accounts,” he said.

“[Now], they’re looking for a nirvana product that offers a high level of security and reasonable level returns, which is hard to find in the current market.”

Dorrian stepped down from his role as PIMCO Australia global head of wealth in October last year to focus on his retirement consultancy business.

He previously worked at Rothschild, BT and Macquarie Bank, where he began in financial services in the late 1980s. - See more at: http://www.financialobserver.com.au/articles/dorrian-pushes-for-self-funded-certainty#sthash.lHmbG3DO.dpuf