If you thought the issues around service standards and death benefit claims circling the superannuation sector were already bad enough, there is a nasty truth at the heart of it all: you are not paying enough fees on your account to begin with.

Successive policy reforms from Labor and Coalition governments have put super fees in the crosshairs. It started with Julia Gillard’s MySuper changes in 2012, and has continued through to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s annual performance test, which puts an outsized focus on fees.