AustralianSuper will be refunding $70 million to members after a review of its processes for managing multiple accounts found “not all” accounts were covered, meaning affected members have possibly been overcharged for insurance and other fees. 
 
“This should not have happened, and we apologise unreservedly to members,” the business says in a statement. 
 
“The Fund is taking appropriate remediation actions and has self-reported the issue to the regulators.” 
 
AustralianSuper says it regularly identifies and combines multiple accounts held by a single member to help those members avoid extra fees. 
 
“Following our review, we identified that our processes did not cover all instances of multiple member accounts,” it says. 
 
“AustralianSuper’s aim is to return these members to the financial position they would be in now if 
this hadn’t occurred. 
 
“This may include refunding administration fees and any insurance costs deducted from impacted members’ secondary account, along with lost earnings on these amounts.” 
 
AustralianSuper says around 100,000 impacted members and former members will be contacted in the coming months to inform them of the issue and “confirm the actions we are taking in response”. 
 
Super Consumers Australia has called on other super funds to review their processes and report the outcomes to the corporate and prudential regulators. 
 
“Where funds are not complying, we expect strong transparent action from the funds and regulators,” Deputy Director Rosie Thomas said. 
 
“A person often ends up with multiple accounts in the same fund if they’ve had a series of jobs in the same industry and were signed up for the same default fund more than once.” 
 
The lobby group says paying extra fees and insurance premiums for more than one account really adds up. 
 
“The laws to encourage super funds to get rid of multiple accounts within their own fund are a decade old,” Ms Thomas said. 
 
“We’ve never seen any public statement or actions from the regulators on this issue. It is alarming that such a major player is only discovering issues now.” 
 
Section 108A of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act was introduced in 2013 and requires super funds to annually identify people with multiple accounts and consider whether it is appropriate to merge the accounts. It can be enforced by the corporate and prudential regulators.