For many Australians, superannuation doesn’t occupy their routine thoughts until they hit their 40s.
By that time, people who have been working for most of their lives may have built up hundreds of thousands of dollars in super, and start to think more closely about whether the amount they have accumulated will help support a comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
For much of the past decade, retail funds have been the biggest winners in attracting billions of Australians’ super.
But in recent years, there’s been a shift of retirement savings out of the major players into self-managed super funds (SMSFs).
In the past decade alone, Australia’s total superannuation assets have more than doubled to about $4.4 trillion in funds under management, including more than $3 trillion in funds overseen by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
There is now more than $1 trillion in self-managed superannuation funds, which means a big chunk of money isn’t regulated by APRA, leaving the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) as the only investment watchdog to protect those consumers.
It’s the rate of the shift into SMSFs and less-regulated managed investment schemes that has regulators worried.
The dangers of shifting super were highlighted after the recent collapses of the First Guardian and Shield managed investment schemes.
About 11,000 investors pumped more than $1 billion of their retirement savings into these two funds alone, and many are still fighting to recover their money.
Regulators are concerned about superannuation money being put at risk. (ABC News: Alistair Kroie)
The lucrative business of super advice
This super switching trend has been aided by financial advisers, who have realised that homing in on people’s super as they near retirement can be a lucrative business.
In recent years, “lead generators” — otherwise known as telemarketers — have made the initial contact with investors, often through social media ads enticing them to find their lost super or do a super savings check.
They then use hard-sell tactics to convince them to move their superannuation savings out of APRA-regulated super funds and into managed investment schemes, which do not face the same level of scrutiny.
That’s the point the financial adviser then enters. They take the consumer through the process of switching their super, often into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in the case of some First Guardian and Shield investors, more than $1 million.
ASIC has taken legal action against a raft of financial advisers involved, alleging they didn’t act in the member’s interests.
But it also says too many Australians’ retirement savings are being wiped out because the platforms that house those investments aren’t doing their due diligence.
And it’s these super platforms that are now more closely under the regulator’s radar.
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How super trustees play a part in housing retirement savings
ASIC’s focus has turned to the role that superannuation platforms play when people switch their super.
The platforms, which have been around for decades, house people’s super investments.
They allow financial advisers to invest on behalf of their clients in options that can grow their retirement savings, such as shares, hybrids, bonds, and managed funds.
As ASIC points out, as of December 2025, super platforms were responsible for $424 billion in superannuation member benefits.
While that’s still just 14 per cent of the total superannuation sector, it’s the rate of growth that’s attracted attention.
Super platform member benefits more than tripled between June 2015 and June 2025, from $123 billion to $396 billion, accelerating faster than the sector total in recent years, which more than doubled.
Advice fees charged from superannuation platforms increased even more, growing more than fourfold from $500 million to $2.3 billion.
The platforms are overseen by a superannuation trustee, which is an entity legally responsible for managing the fund.
ASIC reviewed how superannuation trustees monitor available data to safeguard members’ retirement savings.
It examined six platform trustees responsible for 72 per cent of platform trustee member benefits and found trustees are “still not doing enough” to protect members from harmful advice fee deductions and inappropriate investments.
The report said trustees oversaw $2.56 billion in advice fees from 720,000 advised members, with advice fee caps as high as $25,000 and one trustee considering a $30,000 cap.
ASIC’s report says the “recent high-profile cases of misconduct” involving Shield and First Guardian have “exposed particular weaknesses in parts of the platforms segment”.
“These concerns, together with the extraordinary growth in platform member benefits and advice fees charged from superannuation platform accounts over the past 10 years, were the key motivating factors for our review,” ASIC said in its report.
“In the most egregious examples, advisers may recommend investments that are unnecessarily high-risk, illiquid or complex.
“These models can lead to significant consumer harm, including losses to retirement savings.”
Superannuation trustees, including Equity Trustees, Macquarie, Netwealth and Diversa, gave the go-ahead for everyday Australians’ investments in the First Guardian and Shield schemes to be placed on their platforms.
While two super trustees including Macquarie and Netwealth have committed to paying compensation to investors following the collapses, many investors in First Guardian are still waiting to recover the retirement savings.
ASIC is also taking legal action against Equity Trustees for its alleged failures in both cases. Last year, it sued the super platform over Shied investments housed on its platforms, and last month, it also announced legal action against Equity Trustees over First Guardian investments housed on its platforms.
Equity Trustees says it will defend the legal action in both cases.
Why super trustees will need to better monitor super switching
Super trustees are being called to lift their game in protecting their members from high-risk super switching.
As ASIC noted in its review, the “fundamental role of a superannuation trustee is to safeguard members’ savings”.
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“As more Australians approach retirement and seek advice to support good retirement outcomes, trustees must urgently improve their monitoring, or risk undermining confidence in the sector,” it said.
Super platforms aren’t the only group that the government is now targeting as part of its recently announced crackdown.
Lead generators that lured people into the schemes, financial advisers that got them to sign the dotted line and research firms that recommended the investments have also attracted the regulator’s and government’s attention.
But as Super Consumers Australia chief executive Xavier O’Halloran says, platform trustees need to remember who they work for.
“It’s not the adviser bringing business through the door, it’s the person whose retirement savings are on the line,” he said.
