SuperGuide news for August 2026

Government moves to tighten super consumer protections

The Albanese government announced a package of super and financial advice reforms on 19 August, aimed at the gaps exposed by the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund collapses.

Those collapses hit almost 12,000 people and around $1 billion in retirement savings. The government says the losses show how harm builds as consumers move between lead generators, advisers, trustees, investment products and compensation arrangements, with poor conduct at one point in the chain amplified further along it.

For fund members, the most direct change is a new obligation on trustees to set and enforce caps on how much can be deducted from member accounts in advice fees. Maximum civil penalties for core breaches of trustee obligations rise from 2,400 penalty units to 50,000, which at the current penalty unit value of $364 lifts the ceiling from about $874,000 to about $18.2 million. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) would gain power to direct a trustee to start a remediation process when an investment option fails and there is reason to suspect the trustee breached its obligations. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) would be able to set capital requirements for trustees offering higher-risk investment options.

The package also targets cold calling. Unlicensed real-time contact with consumers about their super would be banned, with exemptions for advocacy, education and employment communications, and the anti-hawking exemption for financial advisers would be limited to existing clients. Licensees would have to show they had done due diligence on any lead generation they rely on.

On advice, the government confirmed it will proceed with changes to intra-fund charging, targeted super prompts and statements of advice, and will introduce the New Class of Adviser regime, starting with APRA-regulated super and life insurance. Commissions, bonuses and volume-based payments would be prohibited for the new class, and the regime reviewed after three years. The broadest safe harbour step in the best interests duty would be removed, which the government says is the barrier to scaled advice.

Self-managed super fund (SMSF) trustees face several changes. Education would become mandatory before registration, funds would need a uniquely identifiable bank account and a written investment strategy from the outset, and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) would be able to block rollovers into a new SMSF while it investigates suspected fraud, financial abuse or misconduct. The SMSF supervisory levy rises from $259 to $295, its first increase since 2013.

Compensation Scheme of Last Resort payments would be limited to actual losses for claims lodged with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority after 30 June 2027, and SMSFs would be brought in as levy payers when a special levy is required.

The government says it will keep consulting with industry, consumer groups and regulators before legislating, so none of this is law yet.

More than one in three ask AI about super

Australians are increasingly asking artificial intelligence (AI) tools about their super and retirement, and new research suggests they are doing it because affordable help from anywhere else is out of reach.

Research by RepTrak, commissioned by the Super Members Council, found 35% of Australians have already used AI for super and retirement information and a further 32% would consider it. Among those already using it, the most common purposes are early research, asking specific questions and comparing super funds.

The stereotype does not hold. Among retail fund members, 54% have already used AI this way, compared with 41% of members of profit-to-member funds. And the heaviest users are not the youngest Australians but middle-aged full-time workers with families and balances above $100,000, the people with the most at stake. Those aged 65 and over, retirees and people with less than $100,000 in super are the least likely to have tried it and the most likely to rule it out.

Australians are more sceptical than the usage figures suggest. Concerns about privacy and security run at 71%, and 69% say they would rather speak to a person than use AI for financial information.

Trust in accuracy is lower still. Only 22% trust or strongly trust the accuracy of AI-generated super and retirement information. Another 28% somewhat trust it, and 29% distrust it.

That has not stopped people acting on it: 24% say they are likely or very likely to act on information from an AI tool, and a further 28% are somewhat likely. Retail fund members report both higher trust and greater willingness to act than members of profit-to-member funds.

Most people do check what they are told. Contacting the super fund directly is the most common step at 45%, ahead of government websites such as Moneysmart and Services Australia at 39% and a financial adviser or accountant at 37%. Online tools and calculators, and friends or family, follow close behind. But 7% would not verify AI-generated information anywhere at all.

Super Members Council chief executive Misha Schubert said people are not looking to hand the decision to a machine.

“They want trusted sources of information, strong consumer safeguards and access to human support and reassurance when making financial decisions that will affect their future,” she said.

Schubert used the findings to press the government to legislate the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms, first promised more than three years ago.

“Australians shouldn’t have their advice options limited to only expensive full-service comprehensive financial advice on the one hand or the Wild West of unregulated AI tools on the other, with nothing in between to serve the needs of ‘the missing middle’,” she said.

The RepTrak survey covered 500 Australians in May 2026, weighted to the general population by age and gender.

AustralianSuper announces online advice and fee rise

Australia’s largest super fund will start offering personalised advice through its member portal, in what would be one of the largest advice offerings in the country.

AustralianSuper will roll out the service in stages from later this year, covering investment options, contributions and retirement health checks. Members who want more than the online journey can choose to speak with a qualified adviser by phone or video from early 2027, with complex cases referred to a comprehensive advice adviser. The technology is being built with Ignition Advice.

The advice will be provided by a separate legal entity, AustralianSuper Advice Pty Ltd. Michelle Levy, who chaired the Quality of Advice Review, has been appointed an independent director.

“Financial advice that takes into account someone’s personal circumstances can make a big difference to their retirement outcomes. That advice should be accessible and simple to understand and follow,” Levy said.

About 1.6 million Australians used the fund’s existing online education, tools and calculators in the last calendar year.

The fund also announced fee changes in July. From 31 October, or 1 November for Choice Income and transition to retirement accounts, a member with $250,000 in accumulation faces an increase of up to $1.83 per week, about $95 per year. For a member with $500,000 it is up to about $310 per year, and the increase is capped there, so a member with $1 million pays no more than one with $500,000. It comes from a higher asset-based administration fee, a lift in the cap on that fee from $350 to $600 per year, and the removal of an administration fee tax benefit for accumulation and transition to retirement accounts, which the fund has not quantified. Partly offsetting it, the investment fee on the Balanced option fell from 0.57% to 0.53%.

Half of adults never seek retirement information

If the AI numbers suggest people are looking for answers, research from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) suggests just as many are not looking at all.

Only half of Australians aged over 18 have consulted any source of information about retirement. That share rises with age, but only somewhat, which means many people approaching retirement are making decisions with little or no guidance. The research also found that 66% of respondents said they know “nothing”, “not much” or only “a little” about super.

ASFA economic specialist Andrew Craston said the problem is not trust. Across every age group, the most trusted sources are professional advice services and advisers provided by super funds. The least trusted, consistently, is social media, yet people aged 18–34 are 11 times more likely than those over 65 to use it for retirement information.

The barrier is supply and cost. The number of licensed financial advisers is around 40% lower than it was a decade ago, while the number of Australians with a super account is around 20% higher. Compared with ASFA’s 2024 survey, use of formal information sources has fallen and use of informal sources such as friends, family and media articles has risen.

Craston argued the value of advice is greatest for the people least likely to get it. For a 30-year-old on average wages, an extra quarter of a percentage point in annual investment returns is worth around $40,000 more at retirement. For a 50-year-old, the same difference is worth about $7,000.

Deeming rates rise again from 20 September

More than 5.3 million Australians on income support will receive higher payments from 20 September, but retirees with financial assets will also have more of their income deemed.

The government announced the changes on 20 August. The maximum Age Pension rate rises by $36.80 to $1,237.70 a fortnight for a single person, and by $55.60 to $1,866.00 for a couple combined. JobSeeker for a single recipient without children rises by $16.20 to $833.70, and Commonwealth Rent Assistance increases for nearly one million renters. Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said about $4 billion in extra support will start flowing from that date.

At the same time, the government accepted an Australian Government Actuary recommendation to lift deeming rates. From 20 September the lower rate rises from 1.25% to 1.75% and the upper rate from 3.25% to 3.75%. The thresholds do not change, so the lower rate still applies to the first $66,800 of financial assets for a single person and the first $110,600 for a couple combined, with the upper rate on anything above that.

That is the third increase in 12 months. Deeming rates sat at 0.25% and 2.25% from 2020 until September 2025, then rose to 0.75% and 2.75%, then to 1.25% and 3.25% in March. The lower rate is now seven times what it was a year ago.

Deeming matters because Centrelink assesses income from financial assets using these rates rather than what those assets actually earn. Both rates have risen by the same half a percentage point, so the extra deemed income works out at 0.5% of a person’s financial assets. Someone with $200,000 would be deemed to earn $1,000 more per year, and someone with $500,000 about $2,500 more.

For a pensioner assessed under the income test, every dollar of income above the income-free area reduces the pension by 50 cents, so those examples translate to roughly $500 and $1,250 less Age Pension per year. Pensioners whose payment is set by the assets test rather than the income test are not affected.

Rest finds 43% unsure how to prepare

Most Australians will draw on both super and the Age Pension in retirement. New research commissioned by Rest suggests many have no idea how to make the two work together.

Of the Rest members surveyed, 43% said they don’t know what steps they need to take to prepare for life after work, while 61% backed greater integration between super funds and Centrelink to make claiming the Age Pension simpler.

The scale is significant. Government data shows 2.7 million Australians aged 65 and over rely on the Age Pension, around two-thirds on the full rate and one-third on a part pension. Almost one in three Age Pensioners delays applying by more than a year.

Members aged 46–66 were the most likely to describe the system as complex, which means confusion peaks exactly when people need clarity most. Rest chief executive Vicki Doyle said that points to something bigger than a knowledge gap.

“Superannuation and the Age Pension are meant to work together, but too often people are left trying to bridge the gap between them,” she said.

“If Australians find the retirement system hardest to navigate at the point they need it most, that’s not simply a consumer education issue, it’s a system design issue. People shouldn’t have to become experts in superannuation, the Age Pension and Centrelink just to plan for retirement.”

The survey of 1,423 Rest members found women were significantly more likely than men to feel unsure about how to prepare, and to find retirement products hard to understand. Renters were among the least prepared of any group, with almost two in three unclear about how to prepare for retirement, compared with around one in three homeowners.

Working more can leave pensioners worse off