Account admin fees lowered for over 1.7 million members 

16 June 2022 

Over 1.7 million AustralianSuper members will have their administration fee reduced from September 2022¹. This is part of a wider package to lower costs to members by around $300 million this year. 

More than 1.7 million members with super and pension accounts will pay less in admin fees than they do now.

• Members with  less than $50,000 in their account will pay up to almost 60% less than they have been, starting from September 2022.
• Members with balances under $6000 have fees capped by the Protecting Your Super legislation which caps maximum fees charged at 3%².Under the new fee structure this means members with account balance between $1,978 and $6,000 will get a decrease in admin fee, and over half a million members with less than $1,978 in their account will see no change.
• Choice Income members will see an average decrease of 25% in their admin fees.   

This means nearly 2.3 million members will either see their admin fees decrease or stay the same.  

AustralianSuper Chief Executive Paul Schroder said the admin fee reduction was great news for members at a time when many Australians are facing increasing costs of living pressures. 

'AustralianSuper is focused on delivering low fees, as this, together with top long-term investment returns, helps members achieve their best financial position in retirement³.’ Mr Schroder said. 

Delivering savings of around $300 million for members 

The reduction in admin fees is part of a wider package to lower costs to members. Some key actions taken by the Fund in the last few years have delivered huge savings to members. These include:   

• lower admin fees
• reduced insurance costs  
• and in-housing most of the Fund’s investment team, rather than outsourcing the work.  

Collectively, these steps will deliver savings of around $300 million this year. In the last 8 years we’ve brought more investment management in-house to save on investment fees paid to external managers. This has delivered almost $1 billion in savings to members.  

 ‘As the largest super fund for members AustralianSuper continues to harness its size and scale to benefit members,’ says Mr Schroder. 

‘Size and scale matters because we can continue to use economies of scale to do more for members at lower cost.’

New admin fee structure

The new admin fee structure will be $1 a week plus 0.10% of a member’s balance. This variable part of the fee (0.10%) is  capped at $350 a year for members with super accounts. For Choice Income or Transition to Retirement account members, the variable part of the fee will be capped at $600 annually. It’s estimated that less than 5% of members will pay the maximum capped fees.  

Reduced insurance fees for many 

Over 1.13 million members will see the cost of their insurance decrease this year. This is around 99% of all insured members and represents a saving of almost $90 million for these members.  

Insurance is an important part of members’ financial safety net and AustralianSuper uses its size to negotiate discounted bulk insurance rates to offer affordable cover coupled with strong support for members who claim.  

Read more: Insurance cover through your super – what you need to know 

References

1. Comparison statements of the current administration fee with the new administration fee in this article are based on member balances as at 30 April 2022. 
2. Low-balance members who hold accounts with less than $6,000. These accounts fall under ‘Protecting Your Super’ legislation, which caps administration and investment fees to 3% of the account balance.