Super industry may have to build MyPension product

The Government may not ultimately deliver a MyPension product and it may fall to the superannuation industry to do so, according to the former chairman of the Cooper Review, Jeremy Cooper.

Addressing the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australian (ASFA) conference in Brisbane, Cooper pointed to the relative success of MySuper in the accumulation phase, but suggested that it was not guaranteed that the Government would deliver on the environment necessary for the establishment of a default post-retirement product.

Introducing former Obama Government adviser and founder and director of the Program on Behavioural Economics and Public Policy, Professor Cass Sunstein, Cooper pointed to the manner in which the development of MySuper had acted as a "nudge" towards having Australians better engage in their super.

For his part, Sunstein pointed to the degree to which "nudges" could be utilised to drive public policy outcomes, and the fact that requiring people to opt-out very often proved more effective than having them opt-in in terms of default participation.