Retail mega funds continue to control the market for pension accounts with Insignia, Colonial First State and AMP again showing the highest number of pension accounts, according to KPMG’s Super Insights 2025 report. But both AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust saw growth in pension accounts and assets over FY24, while Insignia and CFS have seen their share contract.
Linda Elkins, KPMG national sector leader for wealth and asset management, thinks that can be partly explained by an “incumbency” effect; members tend to stick with the fund their money is already in.
“We’re seeing some of the large industry funds make significant gains in retirement because of their strong incumbent position in accumulation,” Elkins tells Retirement Magazine.
“At the same time, if you look at the retail platforms, the likes of HUB24 and Netwealth in particular, as well as Colonial First State, AMP, Insignia and Macquarie all getting really strong flows in the retirement phase. You’ve got those two different sets of competitors.”
“Funds are working very hard on retirement offers and it will be competitive as well, but at the moment I would say that we’re seeing ‘I trust my super fund, I like my super fund and I’m staying with them in retirement’.”
But funds still need to do the work – and are doing the work, Elkins says – on understanding their member cohorts and how to deliver the optimum outcomes for those cohorts.
“Then the next challenge, once you understand that, is how you get members into those solutions,” Elkins says.
“On the retail side, we see that’s been the role of advisers. The real challenge on that industry fund side is that there are more retirees in these funds – so how are funds going to develop those products and services and assist the members into those solutions.
“I do see the work and effort going in, and feel that we’re going to have successful retail funds and advice and successful industry funds as this plays out for those that can do the transformation required.”
That transformation also means considering the broader ecosystem of benefits that members in the retirement stage can access, including Centrelink, and how they work in conjunction with super.
“And then you’ve got capabilities like payments; people who are still contributing and receiving a pension, making a capital withdrawal, which is a very different service proposition to an accumulating member that’s contributing and maybe rolling over.
“That goes to issues of operational resilience as well; the recent cyberattack was aimed at members in the retirement stage that were able to make withdrawals, and funds need to think about financial crime and cyber-risk, as well consider how to dela with “vulnerable customer issues” like elder abuse and cognitive decline.
“The difficulty is that the outcomes for each member – the risks of getting it wrong are really important,” Elkins says.
“A super fund, even if they have great data, only has a view of that person’s superannuation account with them. They don’t have the view of the whole situation, including the spouse.
“I think there are some really big challenges. And in relation to things like longevity products, people do need advice and support to understand them and think about how they fit into a portfolio. There is that complexity around the need for a level of personalisation… What are the impacts of making decisions at a cohort level, which is a very fair thing to do. What are the outliers, what are the frictions?”
