It is likely there will be increased personalisation of superannuation funds as members demand the same type of service provided by their bank.
Speaking at the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA), Emily Wu, general manager for fund partnerships at MLC Life, said this reflected a wider trend in other sectors.
She said: “It is very clear there are varied views about personalisation and the extent of it. There is an untapped area of individual personalisation. The world is built on personalisation now with banking, social media and advertising and over time that is what our members will expect.
“To be able to offer that level of individual personalisation, we are going to need more data to provide that. Without that data, there will always be limitations.”
She added super funds already had data from members but this varied drastically between funds and there were ways that more could be obtained.
“Some sort of integration of ATO data with SuperStream data seems like a logical fit and a way of leveraging what we already have.
“There is definitely more we need to do, it does come back to empowering individuals to be more engaged because as time progresses, we will be more reliant on individuals to give us that data.”
Vanguard Super has reported strong returns across most of its investment options, attributed to a “low-cost, index-based approach”.
The fund has achieved double-digit returns amid market volatility, reinforcing the value of long-term investment strategies for its members.
Australian super funds notched a third consecutive year of strong returns, with the median balanced option delivering an estimated 10.1 per cent over the 2024-25 financial year, but an economist has warned that the rally may be harder to sustain as key risks gather pace.
AustralianSuper has reported a 9.52 per cent return for its Balanced super option for the 2024–25 financial year, as markets delivered another year of strong performance despite the complex investing environment.