The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued a warning to superannuation funds to not offer misleading information about fees and costs.

Executive Director of Consumer Protection Greg Tanzer says some funds believe they can tell consumers about fees and ignore costs.

“In our view, this is misleading or is likely to mislead consumers,” he said.

Mr Tanzer says ASIC had been monitoring new and revised superannuation advertising since mid-2004 and had published a report of key trends in super advertising up until late last year.

Already the regulator has raised concerns with two superannuation funds, Virgin Super and MaxSuper, about advertising that referred to a single fee without reference to other costs. ASIC believes these funds’ advertisements were misleading or likely to mislead consumers.

Mr Tanzer says Virgin Super and MaxSuper responded quickly and constructively to ASIC’s concerns and have agreed to make appropriate changes to their promotional material.