ASIC fires another shot at super fund service delivery

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has fired another shot over the bows of superannuation fund trustees over meeting member expectations around service delivery, including around retirement.

ASIC commissioner, Simone Constant said members need confidence in efficient and fair service delivery on the part of superannuation funds but, at the moment, some fund trustees were falling short.

Addressing the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) conference, Constant made clear that ASIC was closely scrutinising superannuation member services and that it was both a strategic and enforcement priority.

“Six million Australians are already at pension drawdown age, participating in their retirement. In the next 10 years, a further three million – 50% more – will hit that phase,” she said.

“So, with that weight of expectation and need of good service delivery coming, we need super fund trustees to step up right now and step in to making sure they put good outcomes for members at the heart of everything they do. Members need confidence in efficient and fair service delivery to support them participating in a full and confident retirement. Too often though, at the moment, trustees are falling short on consistently meeting the fair expectations of their members,” Constant said.

“In this regard, one of the areas we have in focus is the payment of death benefit claims – obviously a critical point of service delivery for members’ families. We recently shared some interim findings from the surveillance we have been doing and called on trustees to improve their arrangements for dealing with death benefit claims – to meet their promises, their commitments for their members. Stay tuned for more on this later this year.

“One of the other gaps between this talk and action that we’re seeing emerge is on, of course, environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

“As at December 2022, Australia’s responsible investment market was valued at $1.3 trillion in assets under management. That accounts for more than one-third of the total market for managed funds.

“Now, this represents a lot of ESG claims being made to investors – and, as our action on greenwashing shows, they don’t always hold up. Those making the claims cannot always say “we did what we said we’d do”, “we can live up to the promises we made” – nor can they say, “we can prove it”.