AustralianSuper to refund $70 million after double charging thousands of customers

Around 100,000 Aussies are set to score a refund worth hundreds of dollars after it was revealed a major firm was double charging them.

Australia’s biggest superannuation fund will refund $70 million in fees and insurance costs to around 100,000 people, after it was revealed to be double charging them.

AustralianSuper started an internal investigation one year ago to find out whether customers had inadvertently created multiple accounts dating back as far as 2013.

The leading super fund said although it “regularly identifies and combines multiple accounts” to help members avoid paying extra fees, its processes missed some cases.

AustralianSuper revealed on Friday it had been inadvertently charging thousands of secondary accounts.

“Following our review, we identified that our processes did not cover all instances of multiple member accounts,” a statement posted by the fund read.

It means some members with multiple accounts were potentially paying double lots of fees and insurance.

“This should not have happened, and we apologise unreservedly to members. The Fund is taking appropriate remediation actions and has self-reported the issue to the regulators,” the statement continues.

It said around 100,000 past and present customers will now be refunded about $650 on average each in administration fees and insurance costs, as well as any lost earnings from the accounts. Affected members will be contacted in the coming months.
“AustralianSuper’s aim is to return these members to the financial position they would be in now if this hadn’t occurred,” the fund said.

Affected members will be notified soon.

The Australian Securities and Insurance Commission (ASIC) said in a statement on Friday it was “engaging with AustralianSuper in relation to the issues identified in its review”, ABC reports.

ASIC said it had conducted a separate review of super trustees’ policies and processes surrounding their legal duty to identify multiple accounts.

“The review originated in response to an analysis of data that identified a high proportion of members with multiple superannuation accounts and ASIC started engaging with trustees in early 2022,” the statement said, according to the ABC.

“ASIC has engaged closely with APRA on this review and intends to release public communication in the coming months which covers our overall observations on compliance with section 108A by superannuation trustees.

“ASIC will continue to monitor AustralianSuper‘s planned remediation for affected members and uplift to processes.”

Impacted AustralianSuper customers will be contacted in the coming months.

AustralianSuper is a non-specialist fund that manages the nest eggs of more than three million Australians – about one in eight working Aussies – or almost $290 billion in retirement savings

Advocacy group Super Consumers Australia deputy director Rosie Thomas said the revelation by AustralianSuper is “alarming” and called for a review of this issue for all super funds.

“Paying extra fees and insurance premiums for more than one account really adds up,” Ms Thomas said in a statement.

“The Productivity Commission found having unnecessary multiple accounts can leave someone over $50,000 worse off in retirement.

“It‘s important we fix this problem across the super system, and getting funds to sort out intra-fund consolidation is the first step.”

News.com.au contacted AustralianSuper for comment.

Originally published as AustralianSuper to refund $70 million after double charging thousands of customers