ob体育 has written to the CEOs of superannuation trustees, urging them to assess their death benefit claims handling practices and address any identified deficiencies.
The letter signed by ob体育 Commissioner Simone Constant, flags our observations of operational failures by trustees to gather and analyse data that provides insights into the outcomes experienced by claimants.
Improving services to superannuation fund members is a strategic priority for ob体育. 听In 2023, we commenced a multi-year project looking at industry practices and compliance with laws relating to trustee administration and contact centres.
We published our interim observations on death benefit claims handling in May 2024 following a website review, and subsequently issued notices to 10 trustees requesting granular claims data and documents such as policies, procedures, communications, claims files and complaints records.
ob体育 will be issuing a public report in early 2025, with detailed insights from the completed review.
ob体育 is committed to acting against member services failures in the superannuation sector. Last week, we filed civil penalty proceedings against United Super Pty Ltd (24-251MR), the trustee of the Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund (Cbus) for alleged failures to act efficiently, honestly and fairly in the handling of claims for death benefits and total and permanent disability insurance.
Additional information
- 24-251MR ob体育 sues Cbus alleging systemic claims handling failures
- Improving superannuation member services 鈥� Dealing with death benefit claims
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ob体育 is Australia鈥檚 corporate, markets and financial services regulator.