The superannuation trustee business currently has oversight of 80bn of funds invested for more than 790,000 Australians, including a growing Small APRA Funds (SAF) service line. The portfolio includes $6bn FUM from the recent appointment as trustee of Perpetual’s superannuation products.

A highly regarded governance specialist, Ms Furlan is a former Chairperson of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal and has held appointments on boards and committees including Aware Super, Vanguard Investments, Financial Counselling Australia, the Customer Owned Banking Association, Perpetual Superannuation Limited and Russell.

“Jocelyn brings significant superannuation industry experience as a practitioner, regulator and director. She has a deep understanding of relevant regulation, member experience and risk management, and will be a great addition to our highly experienced Boards” said Mick O’Brien, Managing Director, Equity Trustees.

“Given the digital transformation which has been taking place across our whole enterprise, including the superannuation part of the business, Jocelyn’s insights from her experience throughout other digital transformation programs will be invaluable to the work of the Boards.”

Ms Furlan, who holds law and commerce degrees and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, said: “I am delighted to be joining the Boards of ETSL and HTFS and look forward to contributing to great member outcomes and good governance of the funds under trusteeship.”

“On behalf of the Board and our team of leading superannuation trustee specialists, I welcome Jocelyn to Equity Trustees,” Mr O’Brien concluded.

Ms Furlan’s appointment is effective 1 April 2025.

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Misha Schubert

The Super Members Council has strongly welcomed the Australian Government’s plan to introduce mandatory service standards for superannuation funds.

Member service is at the heart of what superannuation funds do. This is a clear way to ensure millions of Australians get the service they rightly deserve by setting minimum service standards that uplift customer service across the industry.

The new standards will focus on the key service areas of processing death benefits, insurance claims, and communications with members.

Super Members Council CEO Misha Schubert said super fund members rightly expect the highest standards of service, communication, and care.

“Super funds have tens of millions of interactions with their members every year, and members expect those interactions to be timely, responsive and clear.”

“We look forward to working with the Government to ensure the new mandatory standards improve the experience when members are dealing with their fund – often on complex and challenging issues.”

Developing the new standards through industry consultation will ensure the Government can draw on the significant work that has already been undertaken by industry to lift standards.

SMC held a roundtable in February 2024 with Government and industry to identify initiatives to streamline and strengthen customer service, including:

• Creating a simple and digital binding death nomination form – which would eliminate the need for submitting hardcopy forms with dual signatures from two witnesses. Claims with binding nominations are generally able to be processed more efficiently
• Ensuring all ID documents issued by States and Territories are included in the Government’s digital verification service and that the detail on death certificates is enough to process claims
• Legally recognising Indigenous kinship arrangements and culturally adopted children as death benefit beneficiaries.

A new service standard on death benefit payments was launched in September 2024.

That process was convened by ASFA and involved funds, consumer groups, SMC, CALI, and the regulators, and was led by expert and former Chair of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal, Jocelyn Furlan.

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Jocelyn Furlan

Total Risk Management Pty Limited (TRM), trustee of the Russell Investments Master Trust, announced today the appointments of Jocelyn Furlan and Ben Walsh to serve as independent directors, effective 1 July.

Ms Furlan is a superannuation industry consultant specialising in consumer affairs. She is currently a director of Financial Counselling Australia, Perpetual Superannuation and the Mother’s Day Classic Foundation. She has also held a directorship at Aware Super and was previously Executive Chair and CEO of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.

Mr Walsh was previously the Chief Life and Health Insurance Officer and Chief Investment Officer at AIA Australia, and before that was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Mercer Australia and New Zealand. He is currently an independent director of Gen Re Australia and Gen Re Life Australia along with holding various board positions across the education and non-profit sectors. He has also held directorships at the Financial Services Council and Pillar Administration.

“These two appointments reaffirm Russell Investments Master Trust super members continue to benefit from the expertise of directors with an enormous amount of experience across superannuation, investments and member services,” said TRM Chair Patricia Montague.

“Jocelyn deeply understands the inner workings of super funds and the fiduciary duty to members. Ben brings investment, distribution and product expertise that will further support the continued development of personalised superannuation solutions for Australians.​

“As trustee, we aim to improve members’ financial security by helping ensure their superannuation savings give them the very best chance at a great life after work.”

Through the Russell Investments Master Trust, TRM oversees iQ Super – for Life and iQ Retirement products, as well as Nationwide Super, Resource Super and Salaam Superannuation. The Russell Investments Master Trust currently has approximately AUD$11.2 billion in assets and around 85,000 members.

The two new appointees join board members Patricia Montague (chairperson), Alexis Dodwell, Keith Knapman and Peter Gunning.

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