re the wealth management: I read with interest that Westpac was the only bank that stayed in that game. I actually did not know that when I posted future revenue can come from managing the honey pot of Aussie super. But (as I personally found out long before the Royal Commission) 90% of wealth managers and organistions are looking out for number ONE (and the superannuant is not number one in their mind
)
Ok, let me tell you a story re my super and wealth managers
1 - I told an industry fund, where all my super was, in early 2008, to move my monies to capital safe, USD centric managed funds; then the crash came... USD rocketed and I should have made a motza forseeing the crash.... alas, I lost 40% of my super in the one month of Nov 2008; the manager could not explain why, but that was 'just' what the managed fund 'units' were worth (value went from 51,000 to 28,000)
2- so I took all my money out and started a SMSF with an online mob (with 28,000 ha ha); I grew my 28,000 into about 200,000 in 3 or 4 years; but then my online SMSF provider refused to lodge my tax returns, so I had a problem, so I had to leave them
3 - it took me a year to find a new wealth manager; I finally found one; this wealth manager 'lost' almost all of my 200,000; over three years I salary sacrificed 50,000 to add to the 200,000, and then I had 50,000 total
4 - It took me three years of working with ombudsman (who are useless) and a 100 page affidavit I did for ASIC, to get this 'financial planner' into the Supreme Court of Victoria and have his license revoked for 10 years; there was no punishment given out, and ASIC did find the person did transfer million(s) overseas whilst he was scamming me (and others); but the judge said there was no way to tie the million(s) sent overseas to the million(s) 'withdrawn' from clients accounts
5 - so back I am to managing my own SMSF; my 50k is now 160k in about three years; all my taxes are up to date
My point, re WBC, is very simple. If somewhere, somehow, some organisation exists to manage money for the benefit of the client, then they will do really, really, really well
Oh, let me add between 4 and 5
4.5 - with my 50,000 cash and upward of 100,000 in tax losses in my SMSF I tried to find another manager; okne recommended to me by a friend recommended I close my SMSF and give the 50,000 cash to him to manage (he was with one of the wealth managers really caned by the Royal Commission). So this 'adviser' advised me to write off 100,000 in tax losses and start afresh. Do you all now if you have a tax loss it cannot be transferred from one fund to another. I learned that in 2008. My capital safe, USD denomiated fund that lost 22,000 in a month - well, THAT 22,000 was 'trapped in the fund', as they say; so the Industry fund kept 22,000 of my money (that is the tax law, so they did nothing wrong)
So the entire wealth management industry in Australia was set up to scrape money from the superannuation honey pot. The big problem is they do not look after the client for a fair fee - they simply look at the honey pot and try to get AS MUCH AS THEY CAN AS FAST AS THEY CAN. And the current laws and courts and ombudsmans and regulators do a crap job. They (the regulatory industry) are only interested in getting THEIR salary and THEIR govt entitlements.
I wonder if Westpac could actually create a morally upright wealth management arm. That would be good for WBC.
(20min delay)