The chair of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT), Jocelyn Furlan, has urged superannuation funds not to wait until a matter is actually referred to the tribunal before seeking to find ways of resolving issues.
Furlan has used the SCT’s latest quarterly newsletter to urge superannuation funds to attempt to resolve disputes with members before they are actually escalated to the SCT.
She noted that in the last financial year the SCT had conducted 424 conciliation conferences and that for the first six months of the current financial year it had experienced an 89 per cent increase, conducting 359 conferences.
“The Tribunal considers conciliation is the most cost-effective and efficient way of resolving complaints and is under a statutory obligation to try and resolve complaints within its jurisdiction by conciliation,” Furlan said.
However she said that in some cases fund trustees and insurers were not “still not adequately prepared for the conciliation conference and an increasing number of conciliation conferences have to be adjourned in order for the trustee or insurer representative to obtain further instructions and/or seek approval from the business area before making an offer to resolve the complaint”.
Furlan said that trustees and insurers needed to ensure that their representatives had the authority to resolve the complaint.
SuperRatings has shared the top 10 balanced options of the last financial year.
Rest Super remains “fully committed” to equities, even as it anticipates higher market volatility than experienced in previous decades.
Australian superannuation funds have again generated strong returns for FY25, with the median growth fund returning 10.5 per cent for the year, according to Chant West.
The US remains a standout destination for innovation and commercialisation, according to MLC Asset Management chief investment officer Dan Farmer.