Media Release

Almost half the population don’t understand the insurance in their super fund: ASFA

17 September 2014

Almost half the population don’t understand the insurance in their super fund: ASFA

Following research that shows many Aussies do not understand insurance within their superannuation (super), the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) is urging all fund members to check the insurance they currently have within their super fund to make sure they have the right cover for their needs.

New research commissioned by ASFA found over 40 per cent of people have a poor understanding of the insurance within their super, with males about twice as likely to say they have a very good understanding about their insurance compared to females. Most concerning was the response from younger Australians, with 1 in 5 of Generation Y (those aged under 32) reporting no understanding at all, and around 50 per cent claiming they had no understanding or that their understanding was poor or very poor.

Around 40 per cent of survey respondents also said they do not know how to choose or change their level or type of cover, with almost half of all females surveyed unsure of how to do this.

Answers Female Male Gen Y 
(32 years old and below)
Gen X 
(33-47 years old)
Baby Boomers (48-67 years old) Pre-Boomers (aged 68 and above) Total
Question: How well do you understand the insurance options available to you through your super?
No understanding at all 12.0% 6.9% 21.6% 10.3% 5.7% 13.3% 9.0%
Very poor understanding 15.3% 9.6% 13.8% 11.1% 12.1% 10.0% 11.9%
Reasonably poor understanding 22.3% 19.0% 14.7% 23.5% 20.4% 18.3% 20.3%
Reasonably good understanding 43.6% 48.3% 41.4% 44.9% 47.8% 48.3% 46.4%
Very good understanding 6.7% 16.2% 8.6% 10.3% 14.0% 10.0% 12.3%
Question: Do you know how to change/choose your insurance options through your super fund?
Yes 53.2% 66.2% 54.3% 56.4% 64.1% 58.3% 60.9%
No 46.8% 33.8% 45.7% 43.6% 35.9% 41.7% 39.1%

ASFA CEO Ms Pauline Vamos says this may mean thousands of Australians may not have the best cover for their personal circumstances.

“Insurance provided through super plays an important role in helping to protect people from the financial shocks of unexpected events. However, many people remain in the dark about what type of cover they have and whether it’s a good fit for themselves and their family. This is why it’s so important to take the time to get to know your insurance cover, and ask the right questions to help you make a choice about what type and level of cover is right for you.”

ASFA has released a brief guide to insurance available through super. It includes helpful questions people may want to ask their superannuation fund or their financial adviser to assist them to determine the right insurance cover for them. It is available to download for free from the independent Super Guru website: www.superguru.com.au.

“While there’s no substitute for good advice, these questions are a good starting point to help you figure out what type and level of cover is right for you and your family.”

Ten questions to ask about your super fund insurance

  1. What types of insurance cover do I have at the moment?
  2. If I die, how much will my family get?
  3. If I die, who decides who will get my superannuation?
  4. Will I get a payment if:
    • I cannot work for a period of six months?
    • I am terminally ill?
    • I can never work again?
  5. If I get a payment, how much will I be paid and when?
  6. Can I increase my level of cover without having to be medically tested?
  7. What happens to my insurance if I leave the fund?
  8. What happens to my insurance if I change jobs?
  9. Who should I contact if I need to make a claim?
  10. What impact does paying for my insurance have on my final retirement balance?

To download a copy of the guide ‘Super insurance explained’ click here.

For more information about superannuation, visit Super Guru, an independent website that helps people understand and maximise their superannuation.

For further information, please contact:

Lisa Chikarovski: Manager – Consumer Strategy, Media and Public Affairs, 0451 949 300.

About ASFA

ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia’s superannuation industry. It is a not-for-profit, sector-neutral, and non-party political national organisation, which aims to advance effective retirement outcomes for members of funds through research, advocacy and the development of policy and industry best practice.

Derek Thompson

Via live link

Best Selling Author, Podcast Host of 'Plain English'

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Few speakers can match Derek Thompson‘s ability to synthesize mega-trends in society, labor, economics, technology, and politics. Put another way: Derek trawls the data sets and does the forecasting and deep reporting necessary to help us better understand how we live, how we vote, how we spend, and how we work.

In his paradigm-shifting #1 New York Times bestseller, Abundance (co-written with Ezra Klein), this award-winning journalist reveals how our policies and culture have pushed us into a world of scarcity (not enough housing, workers, or progress)—and offers a radical new path towards a world where housing is affordable, energy is plentiful, and innovation flourishes across industries.

He shares a compelling vision of a future where we have more than enough for everybody, and a practical, actionable roadmap for how to get there. It starts with taking more risks, building more expansively, and recognizing that we all have the power to create a world of abundance. “Everything’s utopian until it’s reality,” he says.

Carmen Beverley-Smith

Executive Director - Superannuation, Life & Private Health Insurance, APRA

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Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Carmen joined APRA in March 2023 and holds the role of Executive Director, Life and Private Health Insurance and Superannuation.  

She has had an esteemed career in financial services, spanning over 25 years. She has held diverse leadership roles at Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including across risk, transformation and change, product and portfolio development, and sales and service. 

Prior to joining APRA, she held the role of General Manager, Risk Transformation Delivery Integration at Westpac. This involved leading the group-wide implementation of a suite of solutions to uplift risk management capability and develop data, analytics and reporting. 

Carmen leads with a values-driven approach and a particular interest in developing and mentoring talent. 

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Accounting, is a certified Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Amy C. Edmondson

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organisational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Her prior books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organisational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities. 

Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages, and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organisational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.

 

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Born in Brindisi, Italy, Daniel was a young child when he moved with his family to Australia. He grew up in Canberra and completed his first degrees – arts and law – at the ANU. He then completed a Master of Economics (University of Sydney) and a PhD in economics from Yale.

He lectured at Monash University, was an economic adviser in the Gillard government and was a Victorian MP from 2014 to 2018. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer of Victoria, Daniel helped deliver major infrastructure projects and developed innovative financing structures for community projects.

In 2018 he was preselected for the new federal seat of Fraser and became its first MP at the 2019 election, re-elected in 2022 and 2025. From 2022 to 2025, Daniel was chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Economics Committee in which he chaired inquiries; economic dynamism, competition and business formation and insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.

In 2025, he became the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

In August 2022, Daniel published ‘Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia’, which aims to explore the ways in which an insurance approach can improve the effectiveness of government service delivery.