The super funds paying millions in trustee remuneration

Some 16 super funds are paying over $1 million to its board of trustees, according to latest APRA data. 

Looking at annual super statistics from APRA as of 30 June 2023, it surveyed the total and average remuneration for the directors on the trustee board of RSE licensees.

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The highest remuneration was seen at AustralianSuper that was the only fund to pay more than $2 million. However, the $311 billion fund has 12 directors that brings the average remuneration per director down to $174,000 per annum.

This was followed by United Super that paid 14 directors some $1.8 million, a far smaller fund than AustralianSuper at just $86 billion. This was the only fund to have a board of this size, followed by HESTA that had 13.

HESTA also had the largest volume of female trustees at nine, representing 69 per cent, followed by Aware Super which had eight, a percentage of 72 per cent.

The $40 billion LGIAsuper Trustee, which is known as Brighter Super, paid 10 directors $1.5 million, bringing the average pay to $152,000. However, Brighter Super noted this is because it had 15 directors on the board earlier in the year as a result of the transitional arrangements around the merger between LGIAsuper and Energy Super and the acquisition of Suncorp Super, before dropping to 10 at the start of 2023.

The remaining funds listed paid between $1 million and $1.4 million in remuneration to their trustee boards. 

Source: APRA

Looking at which funds had the highest average remuneration, Diversa Trustees and Avanteos paid $209,000 and $208,000, respectively. However, both looked after multiple different RSEs with Diversa looking after 15 and Avanteos looking after seven. 

Breaking it down by size, AustralianSuper was the largest fund at $311 billion followed by Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation at $281 billion and Australian Retirement Trust at $264 billion.