The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) are calling on superannuation trustees to boost efforts to track and measure the impact of their strategies to improve retirement outcomes for members.
A recent pulse check has shown that while trustees have made good progress, some significant gaps remain a year after a joint APRA and ASIC thematic review identified a lack of urgency by trustees in embracing the intent of the Retirement Income Covenant.
Key observations from 48 survey responses, representing all trustees invited to participate, include:
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While approximately three quarters of trustees indicated that measuring retirement outcomes was a priority, only incremental progress had been made to measure and track retirement income strategies. Just eight trustees said tracking the effectiveness of retirement-focused assistance to members was a priority.
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Many trustees were taking steps to better understand the retirement needs of their members and had endeavoured to promote the availability and access to retirement-focused information for members. However, only one in five planned improvements identified by trustees were expected to be completed by mid-2024.
The responses from trustees pointed to several challenges in implementing the covenant, including uncertainty around the financial advice framework, privacy, security, and cost concerns on collecting more member data, and a lack of member engagement and financial capability.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said, “Trustees have a pivotal role to play in improving retirement outcomes for their members, with approximately 3m Australians expected to join the 6m already eligible to access their superannuation savings over the coming decade.
"Pleasingly, trustee responses to the survey indicate they are pushing ahead with work to refine their strategy implementation. However, we expect trustees to assess gaps and identify opportunities to accelerate progress in closing these gaps.”