Ripping Off Kids!

Hi Scott,

I’m angry. Why are 15-year-old kids working at Macca’s forced by their super funds to hold life insurance? It costs so much that it leaves them with bugger all at the end of the year in their super accounts. Why do they need to pay insurance -- is it just an industry rip-off?

Al

Hi Al,

Yep, your average pimple-faced burger-flipper doesn’t need the three types of default insurance that most super funds automatically enrol them into (Life, Total and Permanent Disablement, and Income Protection). Combined they can cost upwards of $300 a year.

Want the good news? There’s a simple solution: write to your kid’s fund and say they want to opt out of the insurance. And now the bad news: in 2013 some political pinhead decided it would be a good idea to abolish the ‘member protection’ rule put in place to protect small super accounts (less than $1,000) from being eaten up in fees. Mark that down to a win for the finance lobbyists.

Scott