"My Mrs has stopped working for good now we have kids, she is in her low 30's and has super from working the past 10 or so years.
By the time she hits retirement age the super fund will be empty as the money will have literally been taken out in fee's.
What can we do? "
If she is only in her early 30s probably she will have a minimal balance in the SF. She will have had a choice of investment options, ie growth, balanced, conservative. Which has she chosen?
The share market has made good gains in the last year or more so if she has the growth option she should have made some money.
If conservative option, then cash and fixed interest has fallen so, yes, the balance will have probably been usurped by fees.
others have suggested a SMSF. However, if you do this you need to have a decent understanding of how to profitably invest what funds you have plus be prepared to keep careful records and remain up to date with the ever changing SMSF regulations.
If your only criteria for creating a SMSF (and you would need a minimum of around $200K to make it viable) is dissatisfaction about the returns currently being achieved via a public fund, then I'd suggest that's not a good enough reason.
Most people starting a SMSF have a history of successful personal investing/trading over several years.
