Media Release

Consumers think super is pretty super but they want more – new ASFA research released

10 November 2016

Consumers think super is pretty super but they want more – new ASFA research released

New consumer research released by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) shows the majority of Australians want an increase in the super guarantee, people are increasingly consolidating their super accounts and nearly one third of those surveyed had no idea about proposed government changes to the taxation of superannuation.

ASFA CEO Dr Martin Fahy said the research, conducted for ASFA by Core Data and based on a survey of 1,000 Australians from a cross section of the community, showed more than half those surveyed supported super as a good way of saving for retirement.

“Australians are generally supportive of super but 50 per cent of people don’t know how much super they will need for retirement,” he said.

“Twenty-four per cent of those surveyed think superannuation is too complicated and 25 per cent want more information on super. The number of people with multiple super accounts reduced by half compared to a 2013 ASFA survey. This suggests industry campaigns to promote consolidation are working.

“For the first time we asked people about the ‘personality’ of superannuation and, pleasingly, found consumers ranked the industry as professional, secure, trustworthy and stable.

“This is a reassuring response for industry, with 65 per cent of those surveyed being happy with their fund and only five per cent seeking to change provider.

“However, we also found 70 per cent of consumers do not read product disclosure statements or are not aware of them. This means many are making product choices based on emotion or they are not making any decisions at all, relying on defaults.

“So engagement is fundamental for the industry – we need to do more to light the super fire, to promote people taking control of their super, so you can expect to see ASFA’s consumer campaigns continue. Reaching out to consumers is paramount.

“The super industry has to maintain relevance, build on the trust people have in the system and bring them along for the ride – with great retirement products and fantastic investment strategies that help build the economy and provide comfort and dignity in retirement for as many Australians as possible.”

Dr Fahy said a significant challenge was capturing young people’s attention.

“The survey found under 30s want better customer service from their super funds, as well as useful financial apps they can use to monitor and make decisions on their investments and to calculate and track their retirement needs and benefits from contributions,” he said. “They are also interested in having a low carbon footprint.

“Getting super fit for purpose for young Australians has to be a focus for the industry and this means connecting with young people so they see the relevance of super to them,” Dr Fahy concluded.

For further information, please contact:

Teresa Mullan, Media Manager, 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.

Carmen Beverley-Smith

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

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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

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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

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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.