Super Consumers Australia welcomes ASIC action on ‘zombie’ accounts

Today’s announcement that ASIC is suing AustralianSuper for its failure to deal with costly multiple accounts is welcome news for Australians saving for a decent retirement.

“ASIC’s action is a clear message to the superannuation industry: if you fail to act in members’ best interests, the regulator will act. These zombie accounts have been a plague on people’s super. Multiple fees and insurance premiums eat away at people’s savings, leaving them poorer in retirement,” says Super Consumers Australia Policy Manager, Rebekah Sarkoezy.

“Paying extra fees and insurance premiums for more than one account adds up over a lifetime of saving. The Productivity Commission found people can be more than $50,000 worse off in retirement because of these multiple accounts.”

“Laws have been in place for a decade requiring super funds to proactively identify multiple accounts. It’s not good enough that Australia’s biggest fund didn’t have processes in place to identify and merge these accounts. We acknowledge AustralianSuper’s intention to finally repay impacted members, but as ASIC’s case highlights, it’s not good enough that it took the fund years after it had identified the problem to begin acting.”

“Today’s action is a caution to the rest of the super industry: put your members first. Move quickly when you identify a problem in your systems. If you don’t operate with care, skill, and diligence, you can expect regulatory action to be taken against you,” says Sarkoezy.