AllMyFunds offers retirement savings advice for Australians

The Australian version of the US 401k retirement system is both liberal and complicated at the same time. In Australia, employers must pay an additional 9% of an employees wage into a superannuation retirement account. The original system didn’t offer choice, with the employer simply nominating where those payments went, but as July 2005, employees have had the ability to select where they want the funds to go.

As of last year, Australia had 300,000 superannuation funds in operation, with 362 have assets totaling greater than $50 million. The funds themselves invest in everything from property, shares, or more typically mutual funds, and because the system is compulsory, Australians now have more money invested in managed funds per capita than any other economy on earth.

Knowing where to place money you can’t access until your 65 isn’t exactly easy, and the system allows financial advisers to take a cut along the way as well, often as a percentage of contributions. Startup AllMyFunds seeks to cut through the difficulty with a flat rate advisory service that helps users maximize their superannuation returns.

AllMyFunds provides superannuation planning advice “to the Joe Citizen of Australia.” For AU$385/year (charged in most cases to the members super account), the company provides advice on some simple no-cost steps users can take to maximize their superannuation, including reducing all adviser commissions to 0%.

The site offers a risk profile calculator and super checkup report that provides an assessment of what the user currently is getting, and what other (and better) choices are available to them.

While these sorts of sites are probably a dime a dozen in the United States, Australian financial services regulations mean that you’ve literally got to jump through hoops just to get to launch. The system isn’t perfect, but likewise Australia never saw bank collapses last year, and the strict oversight in prudential regulation has seen the Australian financial services sector sail through the storm nearly untouched. For a little startup to enter against the big players is always a positive, and AllMyFunds offers some much needed independent competition in the sector.