Colonial First State (page 2 of 4)

I have been with this superannuation fund for many years.I have been monitoring this company since I retired & their performance is getting worse .They are one of the poorest performers.

With them for nearly 8 years and the online system has always been really basic with very little features. No app, difficult to manage anything. Their statements are sometimes very slow to come out and sometimes had many issues trying to log into their system. Would not recommend if you are someone who likes to manage their own super online rather than calling someone.

Colonial bought out my previous Super fund. They have provided ZERO service, but continue to collect fees for services they do not actually provide.
Their phone and email "help" is useless. I do feel for the poor staff, but when they are put on the front line they bear the brunt of disgruntled customers, but they have so little authority they can't actually help.
Sound like a typical retail not-so Super Fund really!!

Sent an email quirey to an Anna Vederame...she couldn't be bothered to answer...passed it down the line..I think she lacks communication skills...and not a good telephoned manner

Had expected near 5% return based on advice from Banks financial advisor.
After nearly a year, have not even recovered entry fee of $1850.
Very disappointed.

We invested $500,000 in 2008 prior to GFC, our funds have still not recovered (as of 2018). Excessive financial planning and advice fees were eventually stopped by the open review scheme by CBA. Elected to have distribution reinvested into the funds this year - money hasn't showed up. Some nonsense excuse about the distributions being paid into the fund at large - thus diluting the unit price of our funds. Artificial manipulation of unit pricing to suit no one other than CFS. Biggest regret of our lives. As soon as we get our money back - we'll take it out. Would have made much more if left it in the bank.

My wife has 2 Super accounts with CFS, one in her married name and one in her maiden name. Attempts to have both accounts combined into her married name have been nothing short of horrendous. When told it had been done we found out that it hadn't been. There are always excuses that the signatures on file don't match, which is not strange given the signatures are 15 years old. Then there are always other excuses as to why requested things haven't been done. Don't even consider trying to draw part funds from managed accounts - lost paper-work or a myriad of excuses to delay things. We would not and could not recommend CFS to anyone.

Had an issue with my Super with Colonial First State. I made several transfers from my bank clearly marked as voluntary contributions using their coding. Most went through okay but for some reason some had an employer contribution tax deduction made - 12% deduction. Took a few letters to sort out including sending them PDFs from my bank of the transfer statements to show I had done the correct thing. Basically sloppy IT systems (glitches) in Colonial First State. Very annoying and I could easily have missed their tardy processes and lost around $12,000. Very annoyed.

Rang them to ask for a withdrawal form to be sent snail mail. Over 2 weeks still waiting. Said it would take about 10 days as it is going via a third party - Australia Post !!!!! Hello, don't most letters go via Australia Post, it is not a parcel just an envelope.

I've not experienced any issues with employees, who have actually been pretty quick in their dealings with me, but the processes are appalling. I've moved out of Australia now and claiming back the super that was paid under DASP, they won't pay international payments, so my ONLY option is a cheque in a foreign currency, plus I've been asked for a certified copy of my passport, which can't be emailed or faxed to them, so I'm forced to send that by post from the UK. Really not good at all, wouldn't recommend to anyone.

I took my money from MLC wrap that made good money, having been convinced by Commonwealth to move to Colonial First State.
Result, MLC Wrap made good percentages growth, CFS less than half of MLC.
I had 4 financial advisers in 30 months.
In that same time frame Not one share was moved, touched, changed..
I paid full fees, until I sacked their so called service calls.

Took my fees annually for managing my 250K funds over 15 years but in the end sent me a letter to apologize as wait for it... nobody from Colonial First State was actually overlooking or managing my fund. It had been in limbo all this time. And the balance is 5K less. Refund of $1700 for all the trouble with an apology was all I got.

Please note CBA introduced me to this fund at the outset with effusive praise and recommendation. Crooks looking after crooks?

Ive been with Colonial since around 2004, minor problems of no consequence, surprised by the Negative s here . i do manage all myown fund s though, reasonable return s, ive invested money in their Geared Fund s, did very well after the GFC

CBA employed two slimes to sell us CFS as a tax free income source (allocated pension).. Problem is the return does not match short term bank deposits and the investment capital has spiralled down. If we had left the money in property we would have had about 300$ appreciation plus monthly returns many many multiples of what CFS returns on the diminished investment. Incompetent at best. Closer to crooks in my opinion.

My very kind aunt invested $5000 for me back in 2008, my current balance is $3500. Yes this investment was made pre-GFC but it has not recovered whilst the markets largely have.

These guys have sat on my investment like lazy buggers, doing absolutely crap all with their thumbs up their butts like the numpties they are.

I could have invested this money myself back in 2009 when Domino's shares were like $4-$5 and literally duodecuple-d my money August last year when their shares peaked at about $70.

These nongs have no clue, I will be withdrawing my money and parking it in my own investments (ETFs and shares).

Crappy no-knowledge mouth-breathing noobs.

I have been with CFS for about 15 years with my super. Took a real big hit when the GFC happened, but my investment has recovered and gone from strength to strength. I log in to my account regularly to check my investment and would recommend others do the same, that way you can't complain about losing money.

Been with mob before it was colonial, was just state bank, invested two $10,000 funds into their imputation fund back in about 1994, over $300,000 these days, geared share fund and global resources funds also done great, very surprised by the negative comments from other reviewers.

People may rant about being charged for insurance (which you can cancel if you really don't want it) or fees (their fees are pretty low in comparison to plenty of the other superfunds), but they get great returns for the asset mix you choose. I can see some of their more aggressive investments give a really impressive return (20%+ in the 2016/17 year) but of course those are risky. If you like to be conservative, then there are still great returns when you want half of your money in cash or more. So many options to choose from as well. They don't win awards for nothing.