Is my super likely investing wholesale or retail fund?

I'm with BT super and when I changed jobs I stuck with them as they allowed me (at the time) to pick Vanguard funds. To keep things simple, I split between Vanguard Australia Share fund and Vanguard International Share fund.
I assumed this was investing as ETF, but only now aware of the wholesale and retail funds option. Does anyone know whether it would be most likely that BT invests through wholesale or retail ?
As my monthly contribution goes in and allocated and the mix between the 2 are readjusted, I'm wondering how being wholesale or retail may impact the transaction fees. I guess in the end there isn't much I can do about the fees (opaque) but good to know.

 

BT Super is a retail super fund... you will have to read the PDS for specific fund(s) you're invested in to get a breakdown of fees.

 

Check the fees. There are probably funds with much lower fees offering a very similar product.

 

Unless you have more than their threshold in super (I'd hazard a guys at >$300k), it will be a retail fund. Even with that amount, your planner would need to arrange it.

 

BT will have an insto level wholesale agreement in place with Vanguard (i'd expect lower than the wholesale fund available to the public). They will be stitching you up on the other hand...I'd be surprised if your total costs were less than 1% p.a.

 

Oneone, some of the answers may be confusing.

Because you are invested in what is generally known as a 'retail' super platform. (BT Super is regarded as a 'retail platform' as the platform is owned and distributed by a for profit entity).

The underlying fund you are investing in through this 'retail platform' will be a wholesale Vanguard fund. But if you are 100% keen to continue investing with vanguard as the underlying investment manager it may be worthwhile considering other platforms that offer access to Vanguard to compare cost. (Or offer similar passive market cap investment exposure at low cost).

Keep in mind that the Vanguard ETF's just invest into the Vanguard unlisted wholesale funds (i think.. someone correct me if thisis wrong).

 

thanks everyone. Its hard to understand actual net fees, its mudied with these 'advice rebates' that seems to be them giving me credit back for whatever reason its for. Plus there are probably several cuts they take at different points in time of rebalancing portfolio which will be on various product disclosure PDFs

My balance is about $100K
can anyone can suggest some cheaper platforms that will just allow me to pick low cost ETFs/index funds ?
My work uses Russell Investments - but they only let you pick their managed funds like the low/medium/high growth etc risk portfolios. - with nice management fees attached

 

Hostplus seems to be popular for low cost indexed super options. Australiansuper also has well priced active options. Industry funds in general will be your best bet imho.

 

Nobody knows how much you're paying in fees at the moment, so a little difficult to recommend cheaper options?

 

I don't have knowledge of your platform oneone and the underlying costs. I haven't really ever looked at the Russel platform you mentioned so can't tell you anything about that.

Myself and my wife have had accounts with Sunsuper and QSuper for a while. Both have low cost passive investment options available for both Australian and International equities. QSuper also provides access to invest into ETF's (but given they already have access to passive index aus/international investment options I have never bothered looking at the ETF options in truth. The QSuper fee is only 0.27% for Australian shares and 0.30% for International shares. There is no other fee, the underlying investments are passively managed by state street, which is not vanguard, but you may have heard of state street as they run quite a few ETFs).

I would suggest:

• Calling BT and asking them exactly what your fees are or...
• Going over your last statement to try to calculate what fees you are paying ..
• Than doing some research yourself into other platform options..
• Or obtain financial advice from a suitable adviser (but ask for one off advice only for an initial advice fee).

 

Thanks @Goodison . I've been reading a bit and Sunsuper is one of the ones I'm looking at, alongside Hostplus and Australian Super. QSuper's fee sounds pretty good! I will take a look as well.

I'm also considering long term, as at some stage later on I'd want to be more active with it and would like a superfund that has choices and mimics somewhat like holding a SMSF but with less paperwork and rules. Although I guess I always move superfunds later
For now as I have direct shareholdings outside super, I just want my super to be indexed with low fees.

I'll keep trying with BT, they are slow responders. The fee PDS has a lot of * and caveat notes. The transaction list makes it look like I'm making a profit from the rebates they are giving me, don't think that can be right. As it is a retail fund, I can't imagine it would be cheaper then nonfor profit industry - so I will be moving.

 

Can you link the PDS for people on the forum to look at?

 

https://www.bt.com.au/content/dam/p...gacy/downloads/offerdocs/btlspp-IBR-part1.pdf
pg 14-16

It mentions a Part 2 brochure but I only see Part 1 and 3 on the website.
I no longer seem to be able to access the VAS/VGS fund fact sheets with the fees info. It could be they've now stopped new investors accessing these investment options and just removed all the info off the website.

 

From that, it looks like you are paying at least 1.03% in investment fees, plus at least 0.16% in indirect cost ratio fees for a total of at least 1.19% to invest in an index fund - which defeats the whole purpose of investing in an index fund!

Hopefully this is not the case as you're merely invested in an idex fund... but, if it's true it's criminal!

 

Russell have just started offering index ETFs (I think as of this week - but the portal is down for makeover)
The fees are much lower than the previous options, may be worth reviewing again before switching.

 

Thanks for that. I have actually moved all funds to Sunsuper now and shut down my BT super account.
But as my workplace is still with Russell, I have an account with them as work pays for income protection etc as part of work package. So will check out and compare