Superannuation Company Merged with ANZ and Charged a $50 'levy' - Is This Legal?

OnePath (which was already owned by ANZ for the last 6+ years) has recently merged their Super accounts into ANZ Super accounts, so now everything is ANZ 'branded' and using the ANZ super plaform.

on the recent statement they charged a $50 'transition levy'

It's not a withdrawal fee, (because I never asked for my super to be withdrawn) , it's not a mangement fee or a contribution fee… it's just an ad-hoc levy.

so is this legal to charge such a levy?

The way I see it, it's an opportunistic cash-grab by ANZ to hit up all the OnePath super accounts for $50. This kind of expense (migrating IT platforms) should be absorbed into the management fees. I'm not sure if I should complain directly to them, the ACCC / Ombudsman or what, but I feel like it's not ethical and I question whether it's actually within the legal parameters of superannuation law.

Otherwise what would stop the super companies from just charging ad-hoc levies on anything that occurs?
"April Flood levy" , "Misfortune levy", "Managing Director wants a bonus levy"

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Comments

  • +4

    charge them with a 100% transferring-to-another-fund levee

    • +1

      Agree with you there.

      Legal or not, I wouldn't want to stay with a company like that. Move ur super else where.

      • well it's ANZ Smart Choice Super , I have considered moving to an "Industry fund" Super, but I kind of prefer having access to choose between fund managers.

        Chances are they will charge me a hefty withdrawal fee too

        • Think for moment.

          You state that you are not happy, yet you are prepared to stay? Inside this sentence is the reason why they are charging the fees, and why they will increase.

  • Well, I think you will need to check your contract/pds but I would be outraged too.
    Call them up - you might find its a stupid/lazy tax that they'll withdraw if anyone kicks up a stink.

  • same boat here, but i never thought to complaint lol
    ok let me know if anyone succeed to claim that $50 from onepath and i will follow.
    they said actually anz one will have cheaper admin fees thats why i dont mind the transfer.
    the anz website also much better than onepath.

    can we open any industry super fund even though we working at completely different industry?

    • Australian Super is an industry fund that doesn't have an industry - anyone can join it. I don't know about any other industry funds.

  • Nothing you can do about it legal or not. Not worth enuiring/arguing about. Just move your super somewhere else if you dislike it so much.

    • What are you basing that on? Do you know for sure?

      • Of course I am not sure but if you want to prove me wrong go ahead and sue ANZ.

  • Probably normal if the trustees are different.

    E.g MLC is owned by NAB, Plum Super is also owned by NAB but they operate as different Trustees - in other words, while they are both under the NAB family, they are really separate entities that report separately to the bank.

    In that sort of scenario, you can't call MLC the same as Plum and vice versa because they are technically two companies. If you want to move from Plum to MLC or the other way around, you pay a withdrawal/exit fee.

    While your question isn't about a withdrawal fee, I suspect it falls in the same line of logic when they talk about combining them.

  • Are you sure it's actually an additional fee? Levy usually means a tax. APRA is imposing a levy until 2018 for the transition to the SuperStream system.

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