ASIC has issued two infringement notices totalling $37,560 to superannuation trustee Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd (Rest) for alleged false or misleading representations made after Rest inadvertently activated insurance cover for more than 2,000 members.
From June 2024 to January 2025, Rest issued annual statements and emails to affected members indicating that they held active death, total and permanent disability and/or income protection insurance in the fund. However, each of the affected members had previously cancelled, chosen not to receive, lost or otherwise not held insurance cover in the fund.
In sending both the annual statements and emails to each affected member, ASIC alleges that Rest made false or misleading representations that Rest had a right to activate insurance cover for the member and, as a result, deduct insurance premiums from the member's superannuation account, in circumstances where Rest had no such right.
Rest paid the infringement notices on 22 September 2025.
Addressing member services failures in the superannuation sector is an ASIC 2025 enforcement priority while better retirement outcomes and members services is a 2024/25 strategic priority.
ASIC seeks to enhance public confidence in the superannuation industry by encouraging Rest and other superannuation trustees to maintain adequate systems to prevent administrative errors that erode superannuation balances and to act quickly when they become aware of an error to avoid misleading members.
Background
Rest is the trustee of Rest Super, an industry superannuation fund with over 2 million member accounts.
Under section 12GX of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth), ASIC may give an infringement notice to a person if ASIC believes on reasonable grounds that the person has contravened an infringement notice provision.
Issuing infringement notices provides a proportionate and prompt regulatory response to the alleged contravention and is likely to deter superannuation trustees from engaging in similar conduct in the future.
Payment of an infringement notice is not an admission of liability.
The specific reasons for ASIC's concerns are set out in the two infringement notices which have been published on the infringement notices register.
For consumers who have questions about insurance in superannuation, ASIC's Moneysmart website has independent information regarding how insurance works within super and when insurance will be provided.
The Protecting Your Superannuation (PYS) and Putting Members Interests First (PMIF) reforms introduced in 2019 and 2020 respectively are designed to protect Australians' superannuation savings from erosion by unnecessary fees and insurance costs. As part of these reforms, in some circumstances superannuation fund members will not be provided with default insurance cover, or their insurance cover will be cancelled, and they can only receive insurance cover where they have elected, in writing, to take out or maintain cover. For example, where the member:
- has an account that is inactive (ie they have not made a contribution or rollover to their account for 16 months)
- has an account balance under $6,000, or
- is under the age of 25.
Members can also elect not to receive, or to cancel, their insurance cover held through their superannuation account.
