“The pension fund is retaining a significant portion of our members with sizable balances on retirement (generally defined as $100,000 or more),” says Silk, “however members with balances less than $100,000 are generally inclined to use their benefit for short-term consumption such as holidays, home improvements, or a cash reserve to substitute the age pension”.

He adds that the retirement division review is also considering “how we can support those members with low balances in retirement – adequacy will also form a key focus of this review”. The retirement division must be self-funding, says Silk, as AustralianSuper embarked on the project on the provision that it would be “self-sufficient, including repayment of development costs within a reasonable time period. We’re on track with this objective and expect to recover development costs earlier than expected”.

Financial advice booms

The provision of limited financial advice has proved a winner for NGS Super, the $3.1 billion industry fund for the independent education and aligned sectors. More than 500 of its 82,000 members have met an embedded financial adviser since April last year and the helpline has received more than 1,000 calls since November, says Anthony Rodwell- Ball, CEO of NGS. The top three topics of these meetings are retirement planning, transition to retirement, and investments and returns. NGS’ members are “highly educated and inquisitive”, says Rodwell-Ball, so once they engage with their super “they have a thirst for high-quality information”.

“We knew that being able to offer an integrated interface to obtain high-quality, tailored information via a range of channels [was] the key to enhancing the member experience, thus increasing engagement,” he says. NGS engaged Mercer in May last year to analyse how the fund could cost-effectively expand services and “drive deeper engagement” with members, says Sandy McCarthy, Mercer’s outsourcing leader for Asia-Pacific. It’s been a “win-win”, says McCarthy, because members are receiving better service and the fund has more insight into the members’ needs.

Advice delivered rapidly

Rapid Advice Delivery software is now being used by seven industry super funds, including HESTA, and the administrator Superpartners to assemble intra-fund and limited advice for members. Retail funds are also talking with the software developer, Melbourne-based Provisio Technologies, says Provisio director Jye Tucker. Tucker, who’s had 15 years in software development for superannuation funds, says “this is the most interesting thing I’ve seen from a technology viewpoint for the industry. This is the first time that I’ve seen technology driving a big change in the industry – the last such technology-driver was the internet itself which allowed members to interact with their super online.”