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Archive for February, 2012

There are strategies that troubled companies can use to save themselves from dire straits and regain their former financial success. These same sort of strategies are valuable for business owners and financial executives to understand how their firms can avoid financial turbulence and failure.

We must first realize that business failure or bankruptcy never happens overnight. Normally there is a gradual trend of financial deterioration that is sometimes exacerbated by industry troubles. No doubt in the current 2009-2010 environment the auto industry is a poster child for a troubled industry, as an example.

Naturally firms that are on the very precipice of failure or bankruptcy do not have many options or time left. It has to fix itself, or sink. No business owners or entrepreneurs want to face bankruptcy, liquidation, and other creditor issues.

Do financially failing firms survive because of a revival in products or their services, or have they in fact executed on improved financial management. This is a challenging questions, because the very financial problems that beset a firm hinder it in getting new sales, acquiring inventory, and regaining supplier credibility.

Also, lets be realistic, banks and other finance companies do not throw themselves at failing firms with financial offers of loans, lines of credit, etc. In fact what usually happens is that the company is forced to pledge some or all assets at much higher rates, sometimes simply accentuating the financial problems that were already there.

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Industry super funds are a lot like different worker’s clubs. There’s one for the workers who wear blue overalls and there’s one for those who have to wear stockings and cufflinks every day. And yet, unlike worker’s clubs of old, super funds don’t actually facilitate contact between members. So, if you have recently changed careers, do you also need to change which industry superannuation fund you belong to? Is that even possible? We explore the answers here.

Am I Allowed to Belong to an Industry Super Fund for an Industry Which I Don’t Work In?

A valid question! The number of people who have either switched industry super funds or chosen a particular fund simply because it ‘belonged’ to their industry is staggering.

In fact, there are no restrictions on industry super fund membership based on your occupation. That could arguably constitute unlawful discrimination. So, now that you’re free to choose any industry super fund… SHOULD you pick the one for your industry?

Industry Super Funds: All Alike?

There is little benefit in choosing the industry super fund that your occupation belongs to … unless that happens to be one of the consistently higher performing funds! In terms of returns, industry super funds give the same amount back and charges the same fees whether you are an airline stewardess or a bartender. The freedom is yours!

Insurance and Industry Superannuation

However, there is one significant difference among industry super funds for members. Group insurance policies are one of the major benefits of membership in a particular super fund and, unlike investment types, there can be real benefits to having one type of policy negotiated for your occupation or industry as opposed to another.

Life insurance and Income Protection insurance are highly tailored towards specific occupations. Farmers have different needs than office workers, construction employees have different needs to self-employed artists, etc. Industry super funds are likely to have negotiated insurance policies that suit the needs of the industry they represent.

If insurance is an important part of your super fund membership, consider sticking to your own industry.