Certainly seemed a bit light in detail. I would think the $35,000 pa would be total costs on his super balance and from the scenario painted, here is what might have happened:
He had an old retail super fund when he had his business and when business was sold, maybe put a big chunk into his existing super fund and kept contributing to it, as stated, without checking if it was still appropriate for such a large amount. Given he said he didn't know who the Adviser was that was linked to the fund (and who was probably named on the statement) or ring the super fund, as they would have directed him to the Adviser.
From what I understand, many advisers find it difficult to get the public to take an interest in their super and maybe they tried to get in touch, maybe they didn't, either way it was a pretty good income source. Based on what was quoted in the story (which may have been stretched a bit) a trail of $11,500 at let's assume max 0.6%pa = $1.9mill account balance. Even if it was half that, I would have been asking about fees years ago.
