Sack, you don't say how old your friend is but with that balance shall we assume fairly young?
Do they have another option, or must they use the Industry super fund?
The reason she 'lost' a lot of it is because she left it in a long-term growth strategy. Unless something has changed in her circumstances, then why does she want to change streams now? You say 'in the current climate', you mean where we've already had a significant loss in value and (with some patience) we are starting to see some slight recovery.
You ask about admin costs...what is high in your opinion? You get what you pay for generally and an industry fund is usually cost effective (comparatively). Forget about stock options - if you want share exposure, then there is probably a fund that provides that. trying to be a 'picker' might be a good way to lose more. With under $10k the allocation to shares or cash is probably more important than to BHP or RIO.
RSA's are a bank account under the super rules. People complain about managed fund MER's at 0.5% to 2%, but think about a bank Term Deposit. You get 4% if you're lucky and the personal loan borrower pays maybe 9%?? That's an MER of 5%. Even with a Home Loan at say 6.5%, that's still a hefty MER...with no potential any more upside!!
