Australia’s 37th largest superannuation fund with $26.2 billion in assets and about 75,000 members, is the nation’s leader for member engagement, CoreData research shows.
Pension fund MyLifeMyPension, managed by Togethr trustees, ranks first for its authenticity, advocacy and consideration ahead of fellow small fund Australian Ethical Super and the nation’s largest fund AustralianSuper.
CoreData research shows small funds are outperforming on average better than their larger peers on every brand except awareness, in contrast to regulator APRA’s muscular approach for scale, encouraging mergers for small and underperforming funds.
Effectiveness, authenticity, advocacy and consideration placed funds with assets of $20 billion or less with an average brand score of 71 compared with large funds’ 66, the CoreData research showed.
Other metrics are important
CoreData global chief executive officer Andrew Inwood said measuring super funds solely on assets under management and value for money with lower fees was a curiosity.
“Using price as the determinant of success, it’s not a trade between price and user experience,’’ he said.
He said MyLifeMyPension showed growth of 12.8 per cent last financial year, 800 basis points above AustralianSuper’s balanced fund but it ranked well ahead of the mega fund in members’ emotive, equity and utility values such as social responsibility, authenticity and customer focus.
“It is a curiosity, to me, that price is the only driver rather than member satisfaction,’’ Inwood said.
What drives satisfaction?
While larger funds with more members had a challenge to move from a competitive, homogenous accumulator to a heterogenous provider of services to retirees, they could do this by putting members into identifiable groups and discovering what drives their satisfaction, Inwood said.
“It’s not a digital app or a chatbot but building systems allowing people to engage when they need it and focusing on member experience,’’ he said.
Other industries with strong customer service reputations such as airlines, banks and big technology platforms, would be good role models for retiree product infrastructure, he said.
“I want the best possible retirement outcomes for Australians and the reality is that’s not just about price,’’ Inwood said.
“There’s no industry in the world where the only integer is price. There has to be a competitive tension that allows people to access services that suit their needs at different times.’’
Small super funds were providing a model as the Retirement Income Covenant (RIC), which comes into force on July 1, required super trustees to develop a retirement income strategy for their members to improve financial outcomes, he said.
The top 10 super funds with branding scores 66 and above were:
MyLifeMyPension (75)
Australian Ethical Super (70)
AustralianSuper (69)
HESTA (68)
Cbus (68)
UniSuper (68)
Active Super (68)
MyLifeMySuper (67)
Equipsuper (66)
Telstra Super (66)
