POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Government to fix ‘scattergun’ super fund regulation
The Albanese Government has announced plans to overhaul previous superannuation fund transparency requirements.
The changes would allow members to access clearer, more meaningful and more consistent information in regards to their super fund.
Assistant treasurer and minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, emphasised that Australians “deserve the highest standards of accountability”.
He added: “Decades of scattergun regulation has resulted in a dog’s breakfast of reporting requirements. It’s confusing for members and onerous for funds.”
The Government had pledged to implement legislation that would parallel the financial and accounting reporting obligations of super funds with the standards of public companies. This would involve the annual and publicly-available filing of financial reports with ASIC.
A ‘Super Transparency Report’ would be published annually as a single source of consistent and granular information. Members would then utilise this report to contrast the performance and expenditure of numerous funds.
Additionally, the reform of existing rules would enhance clarity, minimise duplication and ensure that every reporting stream services a clear purpose.
“We are cleaning up the mess so meaningful, detailed information is made available to members, easily and consistently,” Jones said.
Following regulation introduced by the previous government, super funds were now required to reveal the identity, value and weightings of their investments every six months.
Josh Frydenberg, former treasurer, commented in November 2021: “Reviews of the superannuation system have found that superannuation portfolio disclosure is unduly opaque, does not meet global best practice and that requiring the disclosure of portfolio holdings would provide greater transparency and allow members to understand where their superannuation is invested”.
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
Jasmine Siljic is a cadet journalist at Money Management and Super Review. Prior to joining MM and SR, she also worked across other Momentum Media brands as an intern. Jasmine previously completed an internship at Mamamia news. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications at Macquarie University.
Recommended for you
In its pre-election policy document, the FSC highlighted 15 priority reforms, with superannuation featuring prominently, urging both major parties to avoid changing super taxes without a comprehensive tax review.
The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
Super funds delivered a strong 2024 result, with the median growth fund returning 11.4 per cent, driven by strong international sharemarket performance, new data has shown.
Australian Ethical has seen FUM growth of 27 per cent in the financial year to date.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI Second Close
36.43 3 y p.a(%)
2
Spire Oaktree Opportunities XI First Close USD
35.08 3 y p.a(%)
3
DomaCom Lot 21 Chellaston Road Munno Para West SA 5115 Australia
31.72 3 y p.a(%)
4
Fidante Credit Suisse Global Private Equity
29.60 3 y p.a(%)
5
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
27.64 3 y p.a(%)
