POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
ASIC puts super trustees on notice
Superannuation trustees are on notice from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to improve their internal dispute resolution systems after a targeted review of trustee compliance.
This found some trustees had sub-standard arrangements for managing complaints.
ASIC selected 35 trustees for an initial review, followed by a more detailed review of a subset of 10 trustees. Each fund had at least 50,000 members and predominantly over $10 billion in assets as at 30 June 2021 while the chosen subset funds had approximately $361 billion in assets across 5.1 million member accounts.
Regarding timings, ASIC said a number of trustees failed to respond within the maximum timeframe of 45 days and failed to complainants informed. Too many written responses omitted mandatory content relating taking the matter to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and trustees’ internal reporting lacked sufficient details to identify deficiencies in complaints handling.
ASIC said there had also been a ‘missed opportunity’ for trustees to improve and detect issues with member complaints which could have improved their products and services, benefitting membership.
Danielle Press, ASIC commissioner, said: “Superannuation fund members have a right to make complaints to their fund and to expect their complaints to be handled fairly and in a timely manner. Yet, our review found trustees have fallen short.
“We saw examples of trustees’ failure to comply with fundamental obligations, which could lead to poor outcomes, such as consumers abandoning a complaint rather than seeing it through. While a few trustees did the right thing, in many cases there were serious deficiencies in trustees’ dispute resolution processes and how they monitored and responded to complaints.”
ASIC was writing to these trustees about issues specific to their compliance with RG 271 and they would be required to take prompt action to remedy the issues identified. The majority would need to report to ASIC on improvements made.
ASIC was also considering other regulatory action where more serious concerns were identified.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Laura Dew is editor at Super Review. Prior to joining SR, she spent five years working at Investment Week in the UK covering asset and wealth management.
Recommended for you
The super fund has significantly grown its membership following the inclusion of Zurich’s OneCare Super policyholders.
Super balances have continued to rise in August, with research showing Australian funds have maintained strong momentum, delivering steady gains for members.
Australian Retirement Trust and State Street Investment Management have entered a partnership to deliver global investment insights and practice strategies to Australian advisers.
CPA Australia is pressing the federal government to impose stricter rules on the naming and marketing of managed investment and superannuation products that claim to be “sustainable”, “ethical”, or “responsible”, warning that vague or untested claims are leaving investors exposed.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
76.97 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
76.46 3 y p.a(%)
3
UBS Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners UCITS ETF Dis USD
51.13 3 y p.a(%)
4
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
45.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
Select Baker steel Gold Institutional
43.78 3 y p.a(%)
