ASIC sues AustralianSuper over death benefits claims
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced it is suing AustralianSuper over delayed processing of death benefit claims.
The regulator said that it had initiated action in the Federal Court alleging that between 1 July 2019 and 18 October 2024, AustralianSuper failed to process death benefit claims efficiently, honestly and fairly when it took between four months and four years from the date the claim form was returned to assess at least 6,897 death benefit claims.
ASIC also alleges AustralianSuper failed to pay member’s benefits as soon as practicable after the member’s death in respect of at least 752 members. In one case, despite having all the information required to pay the benefit, it took AustralianSuper 1,140 days to make the payment; others took 438, 412 and 366 days.
In 254 cases, AustralianSuper took between 15 to 213 days to provide the claim form, according to ASIC’s allegations.
ASIC Deputy Chair, Sarah Court said, ‘At its heart, this matter is about protecting vulnerable Australians and their families.
‘It is vital that death benefit claims are processed in a timely manner. Delays are likely to cause further pain and anxiety to people who are already suffering from grief, making what is already a difficult time even harder.’
Is this part where they get a meaningless fine that comes from member reserves anyway?
We all know what happens now. ASIC hits them with a wet lettuce leaf, a minor fine is negotiated which the members pay anyway and not one single Australian Super executive or senior manager will lose their job. Death claims will continue to take years as all union funds see the money as theirs not the members.
Where is the 10 year or more look back ASIC ?
These delayed Death Benefit claims have a very long history at Industry Super Funds.
What about the conflicts of Interest of Life Insurance Commissions, now termed “Profit Sharing” and the Industry Funds incentivised to NOT process or pay Life Insurance claims.
As per the 2 comments below, we all know Regulatory Captured Corrupted ASIC will do next to nothing against their best buddies Industry Super Funds and the Union & Bikie bosses keep clipping the tickets of $$$$Trillions.
Mike, you may as well write the headline now. “Un-AustralianSuper settles out of court with ASIC” Un-AustralianSuper issued a deeply apologetic notice and agreed to pay a fine of an equivalent of $1.50 for most working Australians.
This ain’t new behaviour, it’s been going on for decades. Just why did it take these corrupt ASIC criminals three decades to act.. There is a reason 600,000 Australians get scammed a year and behaviour like this goes on for decades.. Too busy fine tuning those multiple websites, and going after sectors that don’t bribe them enough. Financial Advisers, the lowest hanging fruit that handed a Fee Disclosure Statement to a life long client on Monday because the Anniversary date falls on a Tuesday. Let’s not the forget those Advisers that had their lives ruined due to a spelling mistake in a “Defective” Fee Disclosure Statement.
We know why ASIC takes 3 decades to act and it’s because most ASIC staff are mysteriously working for AustralianSuper. Really goes to show how arrogant Australian Super has become when they forget to bribe the regulator.
What’s interesting is how AustralianSuper has recently chosen to redact their Executives Remuneration from their Annual Report. Members are paying for their fines in the millions, while the executives receive pay rises. Go figure…
In my opinion, Super Governance in Australia is utterly archaic and not suitable for purpose in the 21st Century.
Why do ASX listed companies (with considerably less FUM) have transparency and accountability placed upon them which is considerably higher than super funds?
Given super is $4,000,000,000,000.00 you would think that we as a society should have the highest standards regarding this.
Instead, what we get to listen to is a bunch of self-interested parties trying to defend their continuing involvement.
If we started super from scratch tomorrow, would we use the current Governance system?
No, we would not.
Time for a Royal Commission with the view to unpick these shortcomings and improve.
$4 trillion dollars says so.
Of course the regulator needs to focus on advisers because they are the despicable ones with no ethics. Not the Industry Super Funds!
Oh no it looks increasingly like the other way round! With questionable returns from unlisted investments, not paying legitimate claims, implied improper associations with Union’s and gangs’, parties at the members expense and paying excessive amounts to third parties to ‘promote the members interests’.
Anyhow they should be trusted to give members impartial advice and not those unethical advisers. What could possibly go wrong!
“Compare the pair” hah? “From little things, we’re keeping your money!”
Pffft….horrendous! Bet this doesn’t make the newspapers or media being a leftwing staple.
Two concurrent ASIC actions, one already resulting in a $27m fine, and who knows what the eventual (negotiated) fine will be for the latest fumble.
Maybe the CEO needs to spend a little more time tending flock and less on global keynotes and panels with the A-listers.