Superannuation funds are ramping up investments in digital transformation, focusing on improving member experiences and addressing the growing demand for retirement guidance.
According to Aware Super’s Jo Brennan, the fund expects nearly 25,000 members to transition into retirement every year.
“Our focus, in response to that big shift, is honing in on how we are unmatched in helping our members across that full spectrum from simple engagements, education, intra-fund and simple advice, as well as more complex advice,” Brennan said, as part of a research paper released recently by JP Morgan.
State Super’s CEO John Livanas emphasised the need for continual innovation, saying: “We need to continually innovate and move forward – as remaining stagnant is not the right approach. I think regulation hasn’t yet caught up – we need to assist in bridging that gap. We need to better educate our directors and senior executives and then empower them to take the initiative with digital transformation.”
The pace of transformation has been accelerated by the widespread adoption of cloud technology, enabling advanced AI, as highlighted by HESTA’s COO Stephen Reilly.
“The idea of a self-contained financial institution is long gone,” Reilly said. “You have to get really good at optimising an integrated ecosystem of partners to provide the best products or services for your members to drive the best returns, the most efficiency, personalisation and relevancy of what it is you offer.”
Funds are also responding to member demands for more personalised services, including licensed digital advice for low- to middle-income earners.
“Innovation within the fund has progressed quickly in recent times,” said AustralianSuper’s Mike Backeberg, noting its innovation centre and hackathons have produced several successful initiatives now applied across the fund.
“We have an established innovation centre that provides colleagues with opportunities to bring forward thought leadership, new ideas and to solve problems.
“The fund has completed four hackathons and has multiple success stories which are now applied across AustralianSuper.”
Retirement income has been a major focus for the government, regulators, and funds in the last few years, with the Retirement Income Covenant (RIC) taking effect from 1 July 2022 and requiring funds to formulate a retirement income strategy for their members.
In 2023, Treasury also kicked off a consultation on the retirement phase of superannuation to ensure super delivers on its foundational promise of providing a dignified retirement for more Australians.
Moreover, just a couple of months ago, Jim Chalmers announced a new package of reforms aimed to “give retirees peace of mind, help them make their super go further and provide more support to navigate retirement”.
The reforms focus on four critical areas to strengthen retirement outcomes, namely enhancing independent guidance; improving quality and choice in retirement products; a new set of voluntary best practice principles for the industry; and increased transparency.
