Noel Whittaker is the author of Wills, Death & Taxes Made Simple and numerous other books on personal finance. Email: [email protected]

The email made me sick to the stomach. It was penned by a woman whose husband—let’s call him Jack—worked as a fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) worker. Unfortunately, due to an unfortunate combination of circumstances, the nest egg his wages funded may be lost to the couple.

The story began innocently enough. One evening, the husband was having a beer with his mates on site, and the conversation turned to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs). A co-worker spoke glowingly about SMSFs, assuring those gathered around that they were a surefire way to make more money than traditional superannuation funds. This piqued Jack’s interest, and he started trawling through the internet, wanting to learn more.

During his search, he came across a website called ‘Compare Your Super’. Intrigued, he made contact and quickly got a call back from someone purporting to be from Australian Fiduciaries Limited (AFL). Jack mentioned his preference was to buy an investment property, but the caller told him there were much better options available.

They suggested he start an SMSF, which would offer freedom and control over his superannuation. Once he had his own fund, they assured him he could withdraw money whenever he wanted, free from the usual preservation rules. It seemed ideal! They then convinced him that their own funds were a far better option than real estate or traditional investments. The upshot was that they talked him into investing in their grandly named Ethical Alpha Fund (now known as Global Diversity Fund).

Do you have a SMSF? Image Credit: Shutterstock

Jack explained it to his wife, and they went ahead and set up an SMSF with AFL, rolling all their superannuation into the new fund.

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[Jo Piper3]

Thank you Noel.

 

[Petra]

Dumb-a$$ people will never learn. They are not satisfied with what they have .. no, they are looking to put their thousands of $'s in the hands of scammers to make more money. Hungry-for-more people deserve to get scammed.

 

[Jo Piper3]

Dumb-a$$ people will never learn. They are not satisfied with what they have .. no, they are looking to put their thousands of $'s in the hands of scammers to make more money. Hungry-for-more people deserve to get scammed.

No sympathy then?

 

[Babbie]

Dumb-a$$ people will never learn. They are not satisfied with what they have .. no, they are looking to put their thousands of $'s in the hands of scammers to make more money. Hungry-for-more people deserve to get scammed.

There are plenty of people who run successful self managed super funds. These people are all stupid and greedy are they? Envy is alive and doing well!

 

[deni67]

Many years ago, before the Government decided to let people dip into their super if they needed it, we got a call from a guy asking if my partner would want to have his super withdrawn to him. Of course he said yes so the person told him all about it and even came to our house to finalise things. He promised that by Christmas Eve we would have a lump sum put into his bank account.
Well Christmas Eve arrived and sure enough there was $40,000 in his account, exactly the amount he said there would be.
He also told us that if we needed to dip into it again there was $90,000 still in there so when we needed a new car my partner called them up and got a lump sum of $10,000 to get a second hand car.
Over the years we've had to dip into it for emergencies and it was there to get.
We lucked out big time and the guy was genuine, and as far as we know he took no commission, or if he did we didn't notice it

 

[IAN3005]

Dumb-a$$ people will never learn. They are not satisfied with what they have .. no, they are looking to put their thousands of $'s in the hands of scammers to make more money. Hungry-for-more people deserve to get scammed.

If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is too good to be true!!!!

 

[Mika in the van]

It’s hard now. So hard to deal with people and companies face to face, everything has to be done “On- Line”. then doing anything On Line puts you at risk. I feel sorry for these people but at the same time, if it’s too good to be true, then it needs to be checked out properly ‘Cos it probably isn’t real.

 

[marni]

There are plenty of people who run successful self managed super funds. These people are all stupid and greedy are they? Envy is alive and doing well!

Yes one of the best things we did. Closed it when we retired to make sure we were investing in a secure fund that was not Growth. We are retired and appreciate the security but it was a well run SMSF when we needed to build it up

 

[Babbie]

Yes one of the best things we did. Closed it when we retired to make sure we were investing in a secure fund that was not Growth. We are retired and appreciate the security but it was a well run SMSF when we needed to build it up

Well done!

 

[mylittletibbies]

There are plenty of people who run successful self managed super funds. These people are all stupid and greedy are they? Envy is alive and doing well!

I was thinking the same thing myself.