Get to know your members

Superannuation funds really know their members nearing or already in retirement as the waves of baby boomers enter retirement nears, Rice Warner believes.

In an analysis, the actuarial research house forecasts that the industry fund sector will be major beneficiaries as its share of superannuation retirement assets will multiply more than seven times over the next 15 years from just 2.5 per cent to almost 19 per cent.

"There is a mammoth demographic change now taking place in superannuation as waves of baby boomers near or enter retirement," the analysis said.

"We expect the number of retirement members in all superannuation fund sectors to more than double to 4.5 million over this period and the value of superannuation retirement assets to rise from $631 billion (as at June 2015) to $1.4 trillion (in 2015 dollars).This year alone, 250,000 new retirees will join the retirement ranks with some $35 billion in benefits."

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Rice Warner said the accelerating pace of the shift from the accumulation to the retirement phase will undoubtedly take some fund trustees by surprise.

"Funds should make sure that the movement from the saving to the pension phase is as seamless as possible — particularly given that members are increasingly staying with the same fund into retirement," it said.

"Ideally, funds should know which members fall into which group and then have different retirement strategies for each group."