Simone Constant

ASIC is urging superannuation trustees to take accountability for blind spots in their oversight of issues arising from member complaints after a review identified concerning weaknesses that could expose Australians to avoidable harm.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said findings detailed in Report 844 Lessons to be learned: How trustees use insights from superannuation complaints (REP 844) suggest too many trustees are failing to treat complaints as an early warning signal for service failures affecting members.

‘Complaints are the canary in the coalmine for trustees warning them about issues affecting their members, such as service delays, payment errors, communications failures, or breakdowns in processes, even fraud and misconduct,’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘When trustees fail to learn from their complaints, small problems left unidentified, unattended or unresolved can snowball into widespread failures that expose members to harm and erode trust in the superannuation system. Complaints are the voices of the funds’ customers trying to talk to their trustees. Super funds must listen to what complaints are telling them.’

ASIC’s inquiries of all of industry found close to one quarter of trustees were not analysing complaints data to identify systemic issues on a regular basis, despite this being an enforceable requirement under ASIC’s internal dispute resolution (IDR) standards.

More than half of trustees reviewed across industry (24 out of 45) identified fewer than five systemic issues from complaints over a two-year period. Of these, 14 trustees failed to identify a single issue.

‘We see low levels of systemic issue identification as a potential red flag, not evidence of better performance, even more so where trustees have high complaint volumes or large member bases. Just because trustees don’t identify broader problems affecting their members doesn’t mean they aren’t there,’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘Alarmingly, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority appears better at picking up issues than industry. When comparing the two years of data we collected, AFCA identified systemic issues from superannuation complaints it received at almost twice the rate all trustees identified from the complaints they received.’

ASIC also found several trustees subject to our in-depth review too readily attributed the root cause of complaints to members, including members’ expectations, awareness or error.

‘Blaming the customer is not a complaints strategy. Trustees need to look behind the complaint and ask whether poor communication, unclear processes, delays or system failures are driving member dissatisfaction,’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘If a member cannot access their benefit payment, cannot get a timely response, or doesn’t receive the support they are entitled to or the services they are paying for, the consequences can be serious. These are not abstract governance issues; they affect people’s lives and the retirement savings they have worked hard to build.’

Maintaining effective IDR arrangements, including identifying and responding to systemic issues from complaints, is an enforceable obligation.

Commissioner Constant said the findings raise serious questions about whether trustees have the systems, culture and governance needed to detect member harm early.

‘Superannuation trustees manage $3.4 trillion in Australians’ retirement savings. Members are entitled to expect that when someone complains, trustees are not only resolving the individual dispute, but asking the harder question: are the same things going wrong for other members?’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘We have seen it time and time again in our work from fees for no service issues, to failures to pay timely death benefits and provide other critical services, to signs of fraud and misconduct. A trustee that does not effectively analyse complaints data or the true cause of complaints, does not escalate possible systemic issues from complaints, or does not quickly fix the broader issues they do pick up, is letting their members down and opening themselves up to further scrutiny by ASIC and, far worse, further failing of their members.’

ASIC is warning trustees to promptly review the findings and recommended actions outlined in REP 844 and implement timely improvements to ensure they comply with their obligations.

‘The message to trustees is simple: take ownership. If your arrangements to learn from complaints are not fit for purpose, fix them now. If you need further assurance or external support to meet ASIC’s requirements, get it,’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘ASIC will continue to focus on member service concerns. Where trustees fail to act on weaknesses and members are exposed to harm, we will consider the full range of regulatory responses available to us. We are already looking at what we have learned in this review to help us shape and target our next because member services that live up to the promises of superannuation are increasingly important to every Australian.’

Background

Supporting better retirement outcomes and improving superannuation member services remain key priorities for ASIC.

The work covered by REP 844 forms part of ASIC’s broader review into member services. It focused on how trustees use complaints to detect and address systemic issues and improve services for members. ASIC collected information to compare all 45 trustees ASIC regulates on select matters, and completed a deeper review of a sub-set of 10 trustees. A full list of the trustees (and their funds) that were reviewed is available in the report.

REP 844 follows earlier work on member services looking at death benefit claims handling, which showed that warning signs were often visible in complaints before problems became widespread, but not always acted on effectively by trustees.

Since 5 October 2021, trustees have been required to maintain internal dispute resolution arrangements that meet ASIC’s standards in RG 271, including requirements to record data on all complaints, analyse complaints data to identify systemic issues and escalate possible systemic issues for timely investigation and rectification.

ASIC has taken enforcement action against three superannuation trustees for alleged member services failures.

Last November, the Federal Court ordered Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund (Cbus) to pay a penalty of $23.5 million (25-286MR) after ASIC sued the trustee for unreasonable delays experienced by more than 7,000 Australians in handling death benefits and total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance claims.

In March 2025, ASIC commenced civil penalty proceedings against AustralianSuper alleging delays in processing of death benefit claims (25-034MR).

In May 2026, the Federal Court also found that Telstra Super (now known as Tetra Servicing Pty Ltd) failed to comply with its internal dispute resolution procedures (26-091MR) after ASIC took action for failures to respond to about one third of the relevant complaints made between 22 October 2021 and 13 January 2023 within the mandatory 45-day timeline. In about 30% of those cases, Telstra Super provided its response more than 100 days after it had received the complaint.

Downloads

• Report 844 Lessons to be learned: How trustees use insights from superannuation complaints (REP 844)
• Regulatory Guide 271 Internal dispute resolution (RG 271)
• Report 831 Delivering on death benefits: Have super trustees stepped up? (REP 831)
• Report 806 Taking ownership of death benefits: How trustees can deliver outcomes Australians deserve (REP 806)

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Simone Constant

ASIC is strengthening safeguards for automated and AI-enabled trading while streamlining regulatory requirements for securities and futures market participants under incoming changes to its Market Integrity Rules (MIRs).

The post ASIC strengthens AI trading safeguards and streamlines market integrity rules appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Simone Constant

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) are urging financial market entities to move from gaining awareness of risks linked to frontier AI to taking decisive action.

Both APRA and ASIC have warned publicly in recent months that frontier AI is increasing the speed, scale and sophistication of cyber threats to the financial system while also accelerating technology and operational risks.

Building on those messages, the regulators hosted nine roundtables in June and July involving more than 600 attendees from across the financial system.

They were supported by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and included participation from the Reserve Bank of Australia, Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, signalling a whole-of-government response to this urgent threat.

Key themes to emerge included:

• the importance of getting the cyber fundamentals right, including identifying and managing critical assets and systems, timely patching, strong identity and access controls, attack surface reduction, backup integrity, tested response and recovery arrangements, and third-party risk management;
• the need to consider key decisions such as risk appetite, escalation authority, recovery priorities and communication strategies at board level before a crisis hits, given that frontier AI compresses incident response timeframes;
• a growing interest in defensive AI, including for threat intelligence, vulnerability detection, code review and incident response, however it was also acknowledged that capability remains limited;
• common dependency and concentration risk associated with third-party service providers can turn isolated individual incidents into much broader sector-wide disruption; and
• the importance of actively contributing to industry-led collaboration, including sector-wide threat intelligence sharing, dependency mapping, supplier assurance and sector incident coordination.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said, ‘The urgency of this challenge cannot be overstated. Threat actors are exploiting frontier AI models to identify and exploit vulnerabilities that previously may have taken a team of professionals months to find.

‘Now is the time to ensure you have a strong, tested plan to respond when the worst happens. Australia’s financial system is only as resilient as its weakest link. Boards and executives must move beyond awareness and ensure their organisations have well-tested response plans and understand where they are vulnerable, so they can respond effectively under pressure.’

APRA Deputy Chair Therese McCarthy Hockey said, ‘This was the first time APRA and ASIC have created forums for rapid information-sharing across such a broad cross-section of the financial sector. It highlights both regulators’ commitment to better regulatory practices that support and enable industry – especially in the face of complex and evolving risks.

‘A particularly encouraging theme that stood out was the willingness of more advanced entities to share practical insights, lessons and approaches with peers and less mature entities. This is precisely the type of ‘Team Australia’ mindset that is needed to shore up resilience across our highly interconnected financial system.’

An information paper with more insights from the roundtables, as well as a preparedness checklist for boards and executives, are available below.

Download

• Information Paper: Resilience at Frontier AI Speed, Insights from the APRA—ASIC Industry Roundtables (PDF 357 KB)

Background

On 30 April 2026, APRA called for a step-change in how banks, insurers and superannuation trustees manage AI-related risks (media release).

On 8 May 2026, ASIC called on all licensees and market participants to urgently strengthen their cyber resilience measures, as frontier AI intensifies the global cyber risk environment (26-092MR).

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Simone Constant

ASIC is warning superannuation trustees to address stark and persistent failures to protect retirement savings, including gaps in the monitoring of harmful advice fee deductions, unusual fees and investment patterns, and high-risk superannuation switching activity.

ASIC Report 833 Safeguarding super: How well are platform trustees monitoring risks to retirement savings? (REP 833) details findings from a review of six platform trustees entrusted with over $300 billion in retirement savings — about three quarters of total funds managed by platform trustees.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said there was no excuse for the troubling lack of protections put in place by some trustees.

‘It’s clear some trustees are not doing enough to protect their members, despite repeated warnings from ASIC and APRA about the dangers of poor oversight. Nor have they learned lessons from the collapses of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund, which cost more than 11,000 Australians around $1 billion in retirement savings.

‘In one disturbing case, a trustee failed to take further action for 13 months after becoming aware of suspicious activity from a representative of an advice licensee. During that time, another representative of that licensee submitted applications to rollover superannuation balances containing the falsified signatures of a deceased adviser.

‘Many of the clear gaps in oversight are deeply concerning and difficult to justify. Trustees should not expose their members’ retirement savings to unacceptable risks in the pursuit of volume growth.

‘In this age of rapidly evolving technology and data-driven intelligence, it is extraordinary to see some trustees not carrying out any checks in a month despite a 75% adverse finding rate, and others being comfortable with limited, almost entirely manual indicators to monitor potential harm,’ Commissioner Constant said.

ASIC’s review identified the following areas requiring immediate attention from trustees:

• Persistent gaps in advice fee controls, which in some cases have regressed over the past two years. One trustee proposed a fee cap of $30,000 — well beyond caps identified in ASIC Report 781 Review of superannuation trustee practices: Protecting members from harmful advice charges (REP 781).
• Limited checks of advice documents with half of the trustees reporting they did not conduct any checks for at least one of the months in ASIC’s review period.
• Insufficient focus on understanding the advice licensees’ business models, including whether they use lead generators or other third‑party referral sources.
• Inadequate monitoring of key risk indicators, such as member churn, patterns in fees, holding limits and unusual fund flows.

Amid continued growth in demand for platform funds, Commissioner Constant said it had never been more important for platform trustees to take the necessary steps to uphold confidence.

‘In the 10 years to June 2025, superannuation platforms have experienced extraordinary growth, with a more than three-fold increase in member benefits, from $123 billion to $396 billion, compared to the sector which more than doubled. Over the same period, advice fees charged from superannuation platforms have increased four-fold to $2.3 billion.

‘We acknowledge that much of this growth has been driven by the segment’s innovative retirement options, and by Australians looking for more control over their superannuation investments. But this only underscores the importance of prudent trustee oversight that monitors for harmful risks to retirement savings. Trustees are accountable to their members for this and their members deserve to have confidence in their stewardship.

‘Despite being well aware of the dangers of poor oversight — from the Royal Commission’s exposure of fees for no service to the egregious conduct exposed in the Shield and First Guardian failings — some trustees failed to establish basic protections, like looking into an advice licensee’s business model before they are onboarded. This is a clear breach of trust,’ Commissioner Constant said.

ASIC REP 833 includes a list of calls to action across key focus areas (see Table 1) for all trustees to consider.

‘All superannuation trustees should immediately review and consider areas for improvement before risks translate to serious harms for Australians and their hard-earned retirement savings,’ Commissioner Constant added.

‘Scrutinising fees that appear designed to bypass controls, and other processes to identify unusual activity such as high‑risk superannuation switching from lead generators, are among actions trustee can take to protect their members.

‘Where trustees have concerns about potential misconduct, they should immediately report it to ASIC for further investigation.’

ASIC has shared information about features associated with some lead generation services in financial advice and superannuation that may expose consumers to a risk of significant losses.

Commissioner Constant added that where appropriate, ASIC would consider enforcement action, noting ASIC’s separate actions against Equity Trustees Superannuation Limited concerning the Shield Master Fund (25-176MR) and the First Guardian Master Fund (26-101MR), as well as actions against Diversa Trustees Limited (25-296MR), Macquarie Investment Management Limited (26-053MR), and Netwealth (25-307MR).

‘Where we identify significant non-compliance, we will not hesitate to exercise our regulatory powers, including enforcement action,’ she said.

Background

ASIC reviewed a sample of six platform trustees (and a corresponding fund) representing $305 billion in member benefits and 977,000 member accounts as at December 2025.

ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) have been concerned about gaps in trustees’ oversight of advisers, advice licensees and investments that are made available to members.

These issues concern all participants in the superannuation sector. However, recent high‑profile cases of misconduct involving the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund have exposed particular weaknesses in parts of the platforms segment.

ASIC has launched civil penalty proceedings against Equity Trustees (25-176MR) and Diversa Trustees (25-296MR) for alleged failures relating to their oversight of the Shield and First Guardian investments, respectively.

ASIC launched a second case against Equity Trustees last month, alleging failures in care, skill and diligence concerning the decision to allow members to invest in the First Guardian (26-101MR).

ASIC is seeking compensation for members for losses resulting from the alleged failures by Equity Trustees and Diversa, as well as declarations and civil penalties.

In March 2026, the Federal Court declared Macquarie Investment Management Limited (MIML) contravened the Corporations Act by failing to place the Shield on a watch list for heightened monitoring (26-053MR). MIML paid approximately $321 million to affected members in September 2025.

Last December, Netwealth also agreed to pay over $100 million in compensation to more than 1,000 Australians who invested their superannuation in the First Guardian and has admitted it contravened the Corporations Act (25-307MR).

Downloads

• Report 833 Safeguarding super: How well are platform trustees monitoring risks to retirement savings? (REP 833)

More information

• Report 781 Review of superannuation trustee practices: Protecting members from harmful advice charges (REP 781)
• Lead generation and how it works (Moneysmart)
• 26-029MR ASIC commences new review of advice licensees that use lead generation services
• Exposing high-pressure cold calling tactics and social media click-bait leading to superannuation switching

The post ASIC calls platform trustees to account over persistent failures to safeguard super savings appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Simone Constant

Ongoing weaknesses in the death benefit claims handling practices of straggling superannuation trustees risk undermining confidence in the industry’s readiness to service Australia’s ageing population.

While many trustees have made positive inroads, ASIC’s progress review, Report 831 Delivering on death benefits: Have super trustees stepped up? (REP 831), suggests others have failed to implement basic process improvements in response to recommendations handed down in ASIC Report 806 Taking ownership of death benefits: How trustees can deliver outcomes Australians deserve (REP 806).

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said while it was pleasing to see many trustees take appropriate steps to address the claims handling failures identified by ASIC, the pace of improvement and an overall increase in claims volumes suggested not all trustees are well placed to meet future service pressures from Australia’s ageing population.

‘There are some promising findings in this report, including a 53% reduction in internal complaints about death benefit delays from early 2024 to late 2025,’ said Commissioner Constant.

‘However, with claims volumes increasing by 10% in the 12 months to October 2025 and with that growth expected to continue in the context of Australia’s ageing population, it’s clear that more work needs to be done if all trustees are to meet member expectations.

‘We’re particularly concerned that some trustees have not actioned basic process improvements and continue exposing grieving beneficiaries to harm at times of heightened emotional and financial distress.’

ASIC’s latest review of the reported progress of 45 superannuation trustees highlighted the following areas where trustees should take action:

• Measuring end-to-end claim times and holding themselves to account by setting performance targets that align to positive claimant outcomes.
• Being responsible for their own risk appetite and customer impact in the processing of low-value and low-risk claims, especially the practice of claims staking.
• Treating their members and claimants as customers, helping with proactive communications about the most important steps like making a valid binding death benefit nomination. This is of heightened importance where there are language and communication barriers.
• Enhancing support for First Nations members and claimants, including updating identification and other practices that produce sub-optimal outcomes.

‘There is no excuse for delays in delivering better outcomes for death benefit claimants. Super trustees have now had over two years to respond to concerns that we began raising back in 2024 with our publication on improving superannuation member services in May 2024 and a direct letter to CEOs on assessing practices for handling death benefit claims in November 2024,’ Commissioner Constant added.

‘Trustees that have made positive steps in the right direction should sustain this momentum and ensure they are equipped to manage future service pressures.

‘For trustees that have failed to take effective action, our progress review should serve as a wake-up call ahead of the Commonwealth Government’s proposed introduction of mandatory member services standards.’

Commissioner Constant said ASIC will continue to monitor trustee progress in improving death benefit claims handling practices and will hold trustees to account for member service failures.

‘Fund members have a right to expect claims will be handled efficiently, honestly and fairly — this is an obligation for trustees under law. ASIC will consider the full range of regulatory tools at our disposal, including enforcement action, if trustees fail in this crucial obligation.  We have done it before and if we need to, we will do it again.  This is a mission critical area for trust Australians place in their superannuation system,’ she said

The next phase of ASIC’s multi-year member services review is also underway. ASIC is testing how well superannuation trustees use member complaints data to identify and address systemic issues and to improve service delivery.

‘A surge in complaints relating to death benefits was a catalyst for our review of claims handling. In the same way, trustees should use complaints data as an early warning system to detect and mitigate risks to members,’ Commissioner Constant said.

‘Unfortunately, despite complaint numbers and trends rising overall between 2020 and 2026, early findings indicate that five of the 10 trustees we are reviewing have not identified a single systemic issue from analysis of their complaints data over our review period. At least one trustee failed to analyse their complaints data at all. This is baffling, and frankly, unacceptable.’

Earlier this month, the Federal Court found Telstra Super (now known as Tetra Servicing Pty Ltd) breached its complaints handling obligations (26-091MR) after ASIC took action against the trustee for failures to respond to about one third of complaints received between 22 October 2021 and 13 January 2023 within the mandatory 45-day timeline.

Background

ASIC commenced a multi-year project in 2024, looking at industry practices and compliance with laws relating to trustee administration and contact centres.

ASIC focussed on death benefit claims handling practices in the first phase after a concerning uptick in reports of service failures relating to death benefit claims and a steep increase in death benefit complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

In March 2025, ASIC released REP 806, which outlined observations of both good and poor practices from our review of death benefit claims of 10 trustees over the 2-year period ending 31 March 2024. This followed an earlier Letter to CEOs of superannuation trustees sent in November 2024 highlighting the need for trustees to assess their death benefit claims handling practices and address deficiencies as a priority.

ASIC first raised concerns in an article published in May 2024, which identified broad failings from across a sweep of trustees in supporting members with basic communications and processes for fair and effective death benefits claims.

Following the release of REP 806, which included a list of 34 actions for all trustees to consider, ASIC issued compulsory notices on 45 superannuation trustees to review industry progress in uplifting death benefit claims handling.

ASIC asked trustees to respond to a series of questions exploring what action they took in the period between 20 November 2024 and 20 November 2025 (review period) to consider and respond to the findings outlined in ASIC’s publications. This included seeking details of further planned improvements. ASIC chose 20 November 2024 as the commencement of our review period as this was the date ASIC published its CEO letter, which put all trustees on notice regarding the need to improve their death benefit claims handling practices.

For the full list of trustees involved in ASIC’s latest review, please refer to appendix A in REP 000.

Last November, the Federal Court ordered Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund (Cbus) to pay a penalty of $23.5 million (25-286MR) after ASIC sued the trustee for unreasonable delays experienced by more than 7,000 Australians in handling death benefits and total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance claims.

In March 2025, we commenced civil penalty proceedings against AustralianSuper alleging delays in processing of death benefit claims: see Media Release (25-034MR) ASIC sues AustralianSuper alleging significant death benefit claims failures (12 March 2025).

ASIC’s focus on death benefit claims handling failures was the first focus of a multi-year member services review and followed a surge in member complaints.  As part of its ongoing work on member services, ASIC is assessing how well superannuation trustees use member complaints data to identify and address systemic issues to improve service delivery. Findings will be published later this year.

Downloads

REP 831 Delivering on death benefits: Have super trustees stepped up?

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Simone Constant

ASIC and APRA have jointly released the 2025 Retirement Income Covenant (RIC) Pulse Check report, which assesses the progress trustees have made in developing retirement income strategies for Australians approaching or in retirement.

The report highlights that despite RIC obligations being introduced over three years ago on 1 July 2022, the gap is widening between trustees actively promoting better retirement outcomes for their members and those that are not.

While some trustees have shown leadership by investing significant effort to meet the needs of their members transitioning to and in retirement, with some innovating and driving best practice, far too many have been content with making only incremental improvements.

ASIC and APRA again call on industry to lift its focus on improving retirement outcomes for their members. All trustees should take steps to meet better practices as outlined in the report.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said the over 1.5 million Australians already in retirement and the wave of 2.5 million entering retirement over the next decade, deserve better from their superannuation trustees.

‘Super trustees have had three years to develop meaningful retirement income strategies that meet the diverse needs of their members – and meet the law,’ she said.

‘Retirees collectively entrust almost $600 billion in savings to the stewardship of super trustees, who should uphold their confidence by focusing on retirement strategies that meet their customer needs. This will become ever more important as the waves of retirement continue and with two in five trustees expected to have more than half their members in retirement by 2045.’

APRA Deputy Chair Margaret Cole noted ‘ASIC and APRA are committed to holding superannuation trustees to account for improving the experience of members approaching and in retirement, in line with the objective of the RIC’.

ASIC and APRA will also be providing individual feedback to trustees.

Download

REP 826 Industry update: 2025 Pulse Check on retirement income covenant implementation

Background

On 1 July 2022, the retirement income covenant (covenant) under the Supervision Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act) commenced. These reforms were introduced to improve the retirement outcomes of individuals by placing specific obligations on trustees to consider the needs of beneficiaries (i.e. their members) in retirement.

The covenant requires trustees to develop a retirement income strategy for members who are retired or are approaching retirement. The strategy must address how their members will be assisted in achieving and balancing three objectives, maximising income, managing expected risks and flexible access to funds.

Since its introduction, ASIC and APRA have reviewed how trustees have responded to the covenant, and where available, shared examples of better practice and areas of focus, with the aim of uplifting industry practice.

ASIC recently published findings from a thematic review of retirement income communications and will continue to update ASIC’s Moneysmart content pages, tools and calculators, with actionable guidance for consumers on superannuation and retirement.

ASIC and APRA will continue to engage with Treasury in relation to Government’s retirement phase initiatives, including the proposed Best Practice Principles for Retirement Income Solutions and the Retirement Reporting Framework. In addition, APRA has committed to including retirement products in the 2026 Comprehensive Product Performance Package.

More information

• REP 766 Implementation of the retirement income covenant: Findings from the APRA and ASIC thematic review
• REP 784 Industry update: Pulse check on retirement income covenant implementation
• REP 818 From superficial to super engaged: Better practices for trustee retirement communications

The post Super trustees urged to accelerate progress on retirement support for members appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Simone Constant

ASIC is concerned that many Australians may not have the information they need to make confident and informed decisions about retirement after a review identified a lack of urgency in improving retirement communications among superannuation trustees collectively responsible for millions of members.

ASIC’s review, Report 818 From superficial to super engaged: Better practices for trustee retirement communications (REP 818), found some trustees offer one-size fits all retirement communications aimed primarily at pre-retirees, missing opportunities to engage with members throughout retirement and provide more meaningful support.

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said, ‘Over 1.5 million members are in the retirement phase now, collectively holding approximately $575 billion in superannuation assets, and more than 2.5 million Australians will enter retirement over the coming decade.

‘However, ASIC’s Moneysmart research suggests only one-third of Australians on the cusp of retirement are confident that they will be financially comfortable once they leave the workforce. It is important now more than ever for superannuation trustees to focus their attention on providing meaningful, and timely retirement communications to their members that can meet their needs.

‘Moreover, members entering retirement typically hold larger balances, require more tailored solutions and expect high-touch support. Trustees that can meet these needs stand to unlock powerful commercial outcomes: stronger member retention, deeper engagement, and scalable growth.’

ASIC’s review also found little evidence of trustees tailoring their messaging and delivery methods to meet the diverse needs and preferences of their member base, including those already in the retirement phase.

Commissioner Constant said despite the retirement income covenant (covenant) obligations commencing over three years ago on 1 July 2022, some trustees are yet to address gaps identified by ASIC and APRA (24-143MR).

‘The clear message we are sending to super trustees is a one size fits all communications approach won’t work for all member groups as it may not provide the quality of information customers need to make confident and informed decisions about retirement,’ she said.

‘Trustees have developed significantly fewer communications targeted at retired members. Most of these targeted communications were more relevant to members in the lead up to, or in early stages of retirement, which given the size of the retirement wave already breaking, is a real missed opportunity.

‘It was disappointing to see the retirement communications practices of participating trustees largely overlooked the specific needs of First Nations members, vulnerable members and culturally and linguistically diverse members. None of the trustees we reviewed developed specific retirement communications for vulnerable members.’

Commissioner Constant said effective data and research capabilities were critical in producing meaningful insights for driving strong member engagement, and removing barriers for vulnerable groups.

‘Some trustees demonstrated how individual retirement communications were tailored to some of these groups and others demonstrated innovative approaches to member engagement, like offering webinars, in-person seminars, TV programs, and radio and social media content,’ she said.

‘However, we saw little evidence of wider processes in place to identify vulnerable groups and adequately support them with tailored retirement communications.’

Commissioner Constant said it was concerning that one third of trustees did not have a formal process that considered member feedback.

‘Super trustees cannot understand member needs if they do not have processes in place for identifying specific challenges faced by diverse groups, particularly the most vulnerable among us,’ she said.

‘Ultimately, our review found that trustees with robust governance, strong data and research capabilities and effective benchmarking are delivering better communications, and in turn supporting better retirement outcomes for their customers.’

ASIC is urging trustees to carefully consider the calls to action and better practice case studies outlined in this report to identify and address blind spots in their retirement communications.

Calls to action for trustees include:

• focus on informing members about retirement, rather than prioritising product promotion and member retention
• develop retirement communications that are better tailored to member needs, using meaningful member groups and nudges
• better tailor retirement communications to the diverse needs and preferences of member groups approaching, and in retirement
• ensure retirement communications are accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse members and members with a disability
• adequately resource governance structures to execute the retirement income strategy and communications strategy, with appropriate oversight by executive and management-level staff, and
• strengthen oversight of external service providers that develop and deliver retirement communications to ensure the communications meet quality, compliance and strategic expectations.

ASIC is committed to working alongside APRA to hold superannuation trustees to account for compliance with their covenant obligations, including by publishing results from the latest joint Retirement ‘Pulse Check’ later this year.

ASIC’s Moneysmart has conducted extensive consumer research with the pre-retiree segment that found there was a need to demystify complex financial concepts, and provide practical, actionable guidance. That was particularly the case for First Nations, vulnerable and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Based on consumer feedback, Moneysmart has updated its content pages to assist First Nations communities with actionable guidance on retirement and insurance, and will continue to build out new content to meet consumer needs.

Downloads

• Report 818 From superficial to super engaged: Better practices for trustee retirement communications
• Report 784 Industry Update: Pulse check on retirement income covenant implementation

Background

This review represents the next phase of ASIC’s oversight of Australia’s retirement system, following the implementation of the retirement income covenant on 1 July 2022.

ASIC examined how various Registrable Superannuation Entity licensees (trustees) have been progressing with implementation of the retirement income covenant, with a focus on how the trustees are communicating to their members about retirement in the lead up to, and through retirement.

ASIC’s report provides detailed observations of good and poor practices from 12 participants since the covenant came into effect to 11 December 2024.

The trustees reviewed are collectively responsible for more than 9.3 million superannuation member accounts and $1.14 trillion in member assets. Collectively, they represent 45% per cent of APRA-regulated funds by member assets (see: Quarterly Fund-Level Statistics | APRA).

 Participating trustees included:

• Australian Meat Industry Superannuation Pty Ltd
• Aware Super Pty Ltd
• Brighter Super Trustee
• BT Funds Management Ltd
• Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation
• H.E.S.T. Australia Ltd
• Host-Plus Pty Limited
• Legal Super Pty Ltd
• Nulis Nominees (Australia) Limited
• Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Limited
• UniSuper Limited
• Vanguard Super Pty Ltd

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The open letter, signed by ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant, outlines our guidance for superannuation trustees in preventing, detecting and responding to scams and fraud activity.

Superannuation trustees have a key role to play in minimising the risk of scam and fraud risks to members, given they are the custodians of the second largest asset for many Australians.

With scammers employing increasingly sophisticated tactics to manipulate superannuation members, taking prompt and proactive steps to monitor and address scam activity is vital.

Superannuation trustees are the gatekeepers of their members’ money and cannot outsource their obligations to third parties when it comes to protecting their members from scams.

The Commissioner’s letter follows an ASIC review of 15 superannuation trustees which found none had an organisation-wide scams strategy in place.

ASIC’s review of the anti-scam practices of superannuation trustees forms part of our ongoing focus on disrupting investment scams in the broader financial services landscape.

In 2023, we published Report 761 Scam prevention, detection and response by the four major banks (REP 761) and in 2024, we published Report 790 Anti-scam practices of banks outside the four major banks (REP 790).

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Open letter to Superannuation Trustees (PDF 262 KB)

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