At the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia conference, Jane Hume, made the point that all those charged with protecting and growing retirement savings for Australians – in both the selection and MySuper sectors – should be keenly aware of the great responsibility it entails.

She asked why we didn’t see more fund mergers, implying that some fund trustees could be obstructing progress.

If the Assistant Minister for Superannuation has her way, we will be seeing more mergers like the Hostplus and Club Super merger, as well as the in-progress Sunsuper and Q-Super merger. If this trend continues, we would be entering a future where only 20-30 industry super funds exist.

Recent investigations into the financial services and retirement sectors of Australia have made it very clear where the strengths and weaknesses are. While the system worked well–especially among standard super products where over the decade to 2018 9.6 million or 85 percent of members earned above-benchmark returns–there were still 1.5 million who did not, and millions more in expensive and poor-performing super-products of choice. Then there are the millions of super accounts that charge excessive fees and premiums to holders.

The government has passed laws to address duplicate accounts and insurance, which is a start. But there is much more that can be done.