Chloe KennedyAustralia's superannuation regulator fired a pointed warning at six of the nation's largest platform trustees in 2026, revealing persistent failures to protect more than 977,000 members whose combined retirement savings exceed $300 billion. ASIC Report 833, "Safeguarding super: How well are platform trustees monitoring risks to retirement savings?", published by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, is the sharpest official assessment of platform trustee conduct in recent years — and it found the industry has barely moved since a prior review in 2024.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant described the regulator as "overwhelmingly disappointed" with the lack of progress and confirmed that enforcement action is now actively under consideration.
What ASIC Found: A Damning 15-Month Review
The review examined how platform trustees — the entities legally responsible for overseeing superannuation investment platforms — protect members from harmful advice, excessive fee deductions, and unsuitable investments. The findings were stark across several key areas.
Advice fee controls, one of the core safeguards designed to prevent money being siphoned from members' accounts, have in some cases regressed over the past two years. One trustee proposed a fee cap of $30,000 — well above limits previously identified as appropriate by ASIC. Half of the trustees reviewed did not conduct any checks of advice documents for at least one month during the review period. In one case, a trustee failed to act for 13 months after identifying suspicious activity from a financial adviser's representative.
The report also flagged concern about "cookie-cutter" advice models, where aggressive marketing drives members into complex, high-risk investments that are often unsuitable. According to ASIC, involvement of advisers, platforms, or research houses does not displace trustee responsibility. The legal duty to act in members' best financial interests cannot be outsourced.
The Stakes: $4.2 Trillion and Three Million Approaching Retirement
Superannuation held nearly $4.2 trillion in assets in Australia as of the end of 2024, according to ASIC's own regulatory briefings. In the next decade, almost three million Australians will become eligible to access their super, with more than $750 billion expected to shift from accumulation into retirement income — the largest generational wealth transfer in Australia's history.
The ASIC report arrives at a critical juncture. With so much capital in motion, inadequate trustee oversight carries real consequences for ordinary Australians:
- Excessive fees: Advice fees deducted without meaningful oversight quietly erode compounding returns over time
- Unsuitable investments: Members switched into high-risk or illiquid assets via advisory networks may not understand the risk they now carry
- Delayed claims: Poor IT infrastructure in some funds has caused weeks-long processing delays
- Fraud and scam exposure: A separate ASIC review of 47 super funds found most scored positively against fewer than 60% of anti-scam protection criteria — compared to over 80% for banks
What Trustees Are Legally Required to Do
Under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, platform trustees carry a covenanted duty to act in members' best financial interests. This covers independently monitoring investment menus, scrutinising advice fees before deduction, and maintaining robust systems to flag suspicious transactions.
ASIC's 2026 review makes clear that many are falling short across all three. The regulator has declined to publicly name the failing platforms for now, giving them time to rectify the problems. However, ASIC has made it plain that enforcement — including potential court proceedings — is on the table.
For context on how different this 2026 regulatory posture is from previous years, it is worth noting that Treasury's own review of the super performance test also proposed significant changes in 2026 to how funds are benchmarked for member outcomes — a sign that scrutiny across the entire system is tightening.
What This Means for Your Super — And What to Check Now
The ASIC report is not only a story about trustee failures. It is a prompt for members to take active control of their retirement savings, because the regulator cannot guarantee that trustees will self-correct.
If you have not reviewed your super recently, here are four things worth checking now:
1. Are advice fees being deducted from your account? If so, are you actually receiving advice — and is it documented? ASIC's review found deductions occurring in the absence of clear, verified advice relationships.
2. Were you switched into a different investment option without a clear explanation? If the move was driven by a generic recommendation rather than a personal financial plan, it may warrant review.
3. How does your fund handle fraud reporting? If there is no clear channel for reporting suspicious activity — or if the process is buried — that is now a documented red flag in ASIC's framework.
4. Do you hold multiple super accounts? Consolidating accounts with different funds reduces the number of fee structures eroding your balance — but it requires checking each fund's exit conditions first.
These are not questions most Australians think to ask unprompted. That structural blind spot is precisely what ASIC's 2026 review has brought into sharp focus.
When a Wealth Management Adviser Can Help
Understanding whether your superannuation is genuinely working for your retirement goals requires more than logging into your fund portal once a year. A licensed wealth management adviser can:
- Review your current investment options against your age, risk tolerance, and retirement timeline
- Audit advice fees being charged to your account and verify whether the underlying advice justifies them
- Assess your insurance coverage inside super — which many Australians hold without understanding the terms
- Model drawdown strategies as you approach the retirement phase, particularly important given the $750 billion wave of retirements approaching
With ASIC now signalling that platform trustees cannot be relied upon to monitor themselves, the burden of awareness falls more than ever on members. Proactive engagement with a qualified adviser is the clearest path to ensuring your super is managed the way the law requires — and the way you deserve.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Superannuation decisions involve individual circumstances. Please consult a licensed financial adviser before making changes to your super.
