The corporate watchdog is calling on superannuation funds to overhaul the way they deal with death benefit claims. It follows an ASIC review of ten major superfunds. It found excessive delays and poor customer service are leaving people worse of at some of the most vulnerable times of their lives.
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00:00Cathy Clark didn't think that when her brother Craig passed away, she would face more grief,
00:08but her brother's superannuation fund, Australian Super, took months to pay out Craig's death
00:14benefit.
00:15There was a lot of tears and frustration just based on the length of time, it wasn't even
00:22about the money.
00:23The fund took so long to process the claim that it eventually offered Cathy compensation
00:29of just $28.99 to be divided between three people.
00:35I felt insulted.
00:37I would have preferred just an apology.
00:39Australian Super would not comment on Miss Clark's case, but said in a statement that
00:45it has now brought claims processing in-house and has seen a significant reduction in claims
00:51processing times.
00:52While Australian Super and CBUS were left out of ASIC's scathing report into the way
00:58funds manage death benefit claims, it is taking legal action against these funds over their
01:03handling of death benefit and disability claims, and it's flagged it could take more funds
01:09to court.
01:10Grieving Australians should not have to suffer stress, and in some cases financial hardship,
01:16because of their failures.
01:18ASIC's report covers 10 funds responsible for about 38% of the APRA-regulated market.
01:25It found there was a big difference in claims closed within 90 days between the slowest
01:30and fastest funds.
01:32Of the claims ASIC reviewed, 78% had delays caused by processing issues within the trustee's
01:39control.
01:40We've really worked very hard on improving processes and responding better to what the
01:46public rightfully expect of their super fund.
01:48A promise that may be too little, too late for people like Cathy.