O’Neil Financial Planning is now part of  Fortuna Advisory Group

Recommendation 43 in Appendix 1 of the Financial System Inquiry discusses the 25% of invested funds in Legacy products are old products that are closed for new investment or obsolete as they presumably have uncompetitive charges or terms.
These products incur great costs for fund managers and are generally not that great for the investors that are still invested however there has always been the issue of capital gains taxes and other exit fees that may apply in these cases.
The financial services inquiry has suggested a no disadvantage test for the consumer however then discusses the consumer paying a fee to cover the administration cost of moving to another fund.
Two issues here.
Considering there should be cost savings to the fund managers you would think the fund manager would be happy to wind up the old fund by rolling benefits into a new fund. They perhaps dont want to wind up the funds because the new fund is going to have much lower management fees.
No doubt the Financial System Inquiry thinks the consumer should be happy to pay a small fee to get out of an old uncompetitive fund. The reality is they are still in the fund because they are not prepared to pay to move or are completely disinterested and will not want to send good money after bad.
The consumer has already paid a big price being in the old funds and that price has been paid to the fund manager so the fund manager should pay for the rationalisation which will be to their long term benefit.
A by product will be that they will potentially be able to re engage with consumers who should be happier in the current market priced products.