Value in Motion: $4.5 trillion in super savings. Now what?

Australia’s superannuation system is one of the most successful compulsory savings models in the world. With $4.5 trillion in assets today, it is on track to become the second-largest retirement savings pool globally by the 2030s¹. The industry has consolidated from 158 Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) regulated funds to 81 in just five years.²

But the system we have today is only part of the puzzle, and the demographic clock is ticking. 2.5 million Australians will retire over the next decade. The number of Australians who need complex financial advice is set to grow by 70 per cent.³ There are only around 15,000 financial advisers to help them make the biggest financial decisions of their lives.⁴ Many retirees today will die with most of their wealth unspent. Some are being cautious. Some want to leave money to family. Others simply find it easier to draw the minimum pension and leave the rest alone.

The common thread: people still don’t have the confidence to spend what they’ve saved.

Our Value in Motion research reveals a shift playing out across the economy: the organisations that thrive aren’t always the biggest, they’re the ones that make a difference in people’s lives. For superannuation, what matters to members is confidence in retirement, income security, and quality of life. Members want to retire at the right time and not work longer than they need to.

And the challenge starts with converting organisation size into value for members.

Over the past two decades, super funds have merged at a rapid pace. The promise was simple: bigger funds would mean lower costs per member, stronger investments, and better outcomes.

Some funds are delivering on that promise, but across the industry as a whole, the picture is more complicated.

Member and employer fees jumped 21 per cent in FY25, nearly double the rate of asset growth in the same period.⁵ The reasons go deeper than merger costs. Many funds underinvested in technology and operations for years. Now they’re spending heavily to catch up, building the platforms they need for the future. At the same time, they still carry costs from old systems and operating models that mergers have not yet fixed.

And size does not automatically mean scale. The gap between the most and least efficient funds remains wide, with operating expense ratios ranging from 0.1% to 0.4% among some of the largest funds. Understanding and closing that gap takes strong cost oversight – the controls, data, and reporting that let boards and regulators see exactly where money is going and whether it’s delivering value.

It also requires something more challenging: rethinking the strategic decisions that drive cost in the first place – fund structure, operating models, investment strategy, technology, and partner selection. Efficiency isn’t about spending less. It’s about smarter investment.

In June 2025, APRA wrote directly to RSE licensees, demanding proof that their funds’ spending serves members’ best financial interests.⁶ Funds will need to show that merger savings are reaching members and that spending decisions are defensible. For funds with strong cost governance, this is an opportunity to stand out. For others, the pressure to spend smarter will only intensify.

As scrutiny grows, funds will demand more transparency, operational resilience, and better controls from every partner in the value chain: administrators, custodians, insurers, and technology providers.

The challenge for super leaders is to turn size into genuine scale, and scale into value that members can see and trust.

Here’s what the cost and consolidation debate often misses: the biggest value gap in the superannuation system isn’t about costs. It’s about connection.

Our research shows that, while fees matter to members, customer experience matters more. Members disengage, or never engage at all, because it’s hard to get help with the decisions that matter most: when to retire; how to draw down savings; whether their insurance still fits; and how super, the pension, and their partner’s finances all work together.

Engagement and financial literacy remain low. One in four members cannot name their super fund.⁷ As they near retirement, members deal with their fund, accountant, adviser, bank, insurer, and Centrelink, each working independently, seeing only part of the picture.

The system needs to help them, but no single institution can do this alone. In a connected, digital ecosystem, those touchpoints could be joined into one clear experience:

• A proactive alert that their insurance cover no longer matches their life stage, delivered automatically, not waiting for them to ask.
• A tailored retirement income plan built through smooth coordination between fund, adviser, and insurer – giving the member one clear view of their whole financial picture and the confidence to actually spend what they’ve saved.

But when institutions share data and act on a member’s behalf, complex questions arise. Who is accountable? How is data protected? How can commercial interests be managed effectively to serve the needs of the member? The partnerships that get this right will build these safeguards in from the start – not bolt them on later.

Funds that place themselves at the centre of these ecosystems won’t just be more efficient. They’ll be more relevant.

The funds and platforms that have invested in adviser infrastructure and member experience are already winning flows. 1.2 million Australians switched super providers in FY25.⁸ Wealth platforms received $36 billion in net inflows.⁹ Often guided by their adviser, members are moving toward the providers that make financial guidance accessible, proactive, and personal.

The regulatory message is clear. The Retirement Income Covenant requires trustees to have a plan for helping members get the most from their retirement income, manage risk, and access their savings when they need to. But a plan on paper isn’t the same as a member who retires with confidence. Closing that gap takes real advice and genuine engagement, not just documentation alone.

Delivering guidance at scale—affordably, compliantly, and in a way that actually changes behaviour—takes new models, technology, and economics.

But it starts with an advice model that is tailored to your members, focused on retirement confidence, and trusted enough for members to act on it.

Getting the advice right is essential. But advice alone won’t be enough.

People are living longer in retirement. Needs are more complex, shaped by shifting health, housing, debt, family, and aged care realities. By 2062, withdrawals from super are expected to consistently exceed contributions.¹⁰ For a growing number of funds, the cash flow pressure is already here.

At the same time, Australia is facing the largest generation-to-generation wealth transfer in its history, and retirees have rising expectations around health, lifestyle, and quality of life that today’s products are not all designed to meet.

For funds willing to think beyond the present, this isn’t just a challenge—it’s an opportunity.

By investing alongside specialist operators and the government, funds can help build the very infrastructure retirees will actually need – quality aged care, affordable housing, clean energy. Some funds are already doing so. The result is dual value, competitive returns for members and a more liveable Australia for retirees.

For superannuation, value is moving clearly: from accumulation to decumulation. From products to relationships. From scale to relevance. From managing money to making a difference in people’s lives.

The funds that act on this with clarity and conviction will be best placed to lead the next era.

This is the first in a series of perspectives exploring the forces reshaping the super system, and the strategic choices that funds and their partners need to make.

Three shifts will frame everything that follows:

1. From saving to spending: giving members the confidence, tools, and advice to actually use what they’ve accumulated, not just protect it.
2. From apathy to engagement: meeting members where they are, reaching the disengaged majority with proactive, personal guidance rather than waiting for them to ask.
3. From isolation to ecosystem: connecting super with advice, insurance, aged care, health, and government services into one coherent experience that supports members across their whole retirement – backed by governance that earns trust from every party in the chain.

The building blocks are taking shape. The question is whether the industry will put them together with the urgency the moment demands.

We work with Australia’s leading superannuation funds and their service providers on the challenges at the heart of this piece: retirement strategy, advice model design, cost governance and assurance, ecosystem partnerships, and regulatory readiness – helping the industry turn scale into outcomes members can see and trust. If these questions resonate, or if you’re already working on the answers, we’d welcome the conversation.