Super reforms: accounts to be stapled to members; best financial interests duty; other
The Government will provide $159.6 million to implement reforms to superannuation to improve outcomes for super fund members.
The Your Future, Your Super package, which will seek to reduce the number of duplicate accounts held by employees as a result of changes in employment and prevent new members joining underperforming funds, includes:
- YourSuper portal – the ATO will develop systems so that new employees will be able to select a superannuation product from a table of MySuper products through the YourSuper portal;
- stapled accounts – an existing superannuation account will be “stapled” to a member to avoid the creation of a new account when that person changes their employment. Future enhancements will enable payroll software developers to build systems to simplify the process of selecting a superannuation product for both employees and employers through automated provision of information to employers;
- MySuper benchmarking – from July 2021, APRA will conduct benchmarking tests on the net investment performance of MySuper products, with products that have underperformed over two consecutive annual tests prohibited from receiving new members until a further annual test that shows they are no longer underperforming. Non-MySuper accumulation products where the decisions of the trustee determine member outcomes will be added from 1 July 2022. The funding for this initiative will be met through an increase in levies on regulated financial institutions; and
- super trustees – best financial interests duty – to improve transparency and accountability of super funds, the Government will legislate to compel super trustees to also act in the best “financial” interests of their members.
The Treasurer said this package of reforms will help improve the $3 trillion superannuation system, and save members $17.9 billion over 10 years, by:
- having an individual’s super follow them – preventing the creation of unintended multiple superannuation accounts when employees change jobs. Instead, an individual’s super will follow them so that a new employer will pay their super contributions into the individual’s existing account;
- making it easier to choose a better fund – members will have access to a new interactive online YourSuper comparison tool which will encourage funds to compete harder for members’ savings. It will show a member’s current super accounts and prompt them to consider consolidating accounts if they have more than one;
- holding funds to account for underperformance – to protect members from poor outcomes and encourage funds to lower costs, the Government will require superannuation products to meet an annual objective performance test. Those that fail will be required to inform members by 1 October 2021. Persistently underperforming products will be prevented from taking on new members; and
- improving transparency and accountability – the Government will increase trustee accountability by strengthening their obligations to ensure trustees only act in the best financial interests of members. The Government will also require super funds to provide better information regarding how they manage and spend members’ money in advance of Annual Members’ Meetings.
All measures will commence by 1 July 2021.
Stapled accounts: how they will work
The first phase of the reforms is proposed to commence on 1 July 2021. Employers will no longer automatically create a new superannuation account in their chosen default fund for new employees when they do not decide on a super fund. Instead, employers will obtain information about the employee’s existing super fund from the ATO, if it is not provided by the employee. The employer will do this by logging onto ATO online services and entering the employee’s details. Once an account has been selected, the employer will pay super contributions into the employee’s account.
The second phase of the reforms will see the ATO provide a new service for employers. As of 1 July 2022, the ATO will enable digital software providers to give employers the option to automate the communications between the employer’s payroll system and the ATO system. Once this new service is adopted, it will remove the need for the employer to manually enter into their payroll system their employees’ superannuation fund details, reducing business administration costs.
Under both phases, if an employee does not have an existing super account (eg is new to the workforce) and does not make a decision regarding a fund, the employer will pay the employee’s super into their nominated default super fund.
Super trustees: best financial interests duty
The Government will legislate to compel super trustees to act in the best financial interests of their members. Consistent with the recommendation of the Productivity Commission to clarify what it means for a trustee to act in members’ best interests, the Government said it will put beyond doubt that trustees must act in the best financial interests of members. The measure seeks to remove ambiguity on how super trustees should be spending members’ money.
It will also give effect to the statement in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (MySuper Core Provisions) Act 2012 that “RSE [Registrable Superannuation Entity] licensees will have a heightened obligation to act in the best financial interests of members that accept the default option”.
In addition to strengthening the duty owed by trustees, the onus on demonstrating compliance with the new duty will be reversed so that trustees must establish that there was a reasonable basis to support their actions being consistent with members’ best financial interests.
To ensure that the best financial interests duty is complied with by super funds, these changes will be accompanied by anti-avoidance measures, to ensure payments from the super fund to a third party (including an interposed or a related entity) do not undermine the intent of the changes. No materiality threshold will apply to the new duty.
The penalty provisions introduced by the Government under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Improving Accountability and Member Outcomes in Superannuation Measures No 1) Act 2019 will apply for breaches of the new duty for both the trustee and individual directors.
Super Guarantee: no change to rate increase set for July 2021
The Budget did not announce any change to the timing of the next Super Guarantee (SG) rate increase. The SG rate is currently legislated to increase from 9.5% to 10% from 1 July 2021, and by 0.5% per year from 1 July 2022 until it reaches 12% from 1 July 2025.
Prior to the Budget, there was speculation as to whether the Government may consider delaying this legislated SG rate increase in the interest of promoting spending and jobs, at the expense of workers’ retirement savings. Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) modelling has previously suggested that an average income earner aged 30 today, and on a $70,000 salary would have $71,600 less when retiring at 67 if the SG stays at 9.5%.
While the Budget did not announce any change to the start date for the SG rate increase, the Government probably does not need to decide this policy issue until next year’s Federal Budget in May 2021, ahead of the 1 July 2021 legislated change date for the SG rate.