Review: Super Fund ‘self report cards’ (Member Outcomes Assessments)

For the first time, the regulator APRA has required super funds to publish annual ‘member outcomes assessments’ on their websites. These self-assessments show the extent to which funds actually help their members save for retirement and how they compare to other funds. It is an important step to ensure funds justify how they are looking after their members’ best interests.

We decided to take a closer look at what funds are saying about themselves. We reviewed 42 member outcomes assessments, checking whether the reports were honest, clear, and published where their members will see them.

The research found:

• Documents were overwhelmingly hard to find on websites. (69%)
• Funds made up their own target investment return metric to satisfy their assessments. (69%)
• Every fund claimed they promoted their members’ best interests. (100%)
• Very few funds broke down how they worked in the best interests of cohorts within their membership (24%)
• Less than half (48%) identified at least one way to improve the quality of their products

Read more about our findings and recommendations in the report below.

Research paper – Review of member outcome assessments