Despite issues with members services and insurance claims handling across the industry, the leaders of super funds took home millions in pay.
The latest iteration of Investment Magazine’s Salary Survey, compiled by the sister publication of Professional Planner, uncovered and collated the remuneration of the country’s asset owners.
While many of these funds have continued to deliver strong returns for members in accumulation, a storm has been brewing over the ability of funds to deliver member outcomes in retirement, as well as services like insurance claims handling.
The data, which covers the 2023-2024 financial year, follows a period where numerous scandals have been uncovered in the sector, from lagging member services to conflicts of interest with criminally-implicated unions.
Aware Super’s Deanne Stewart was the highest-paid CEO in the super industry in FY24 with more than $1.9 million, topping Hostplus’ David Elia, last year’s leader.
Cbus CEO Kristian Fok made $1.6 million in fourth place, coming behind AustralianSuper’s Paul Schroder who earned $1.7 million – both suffering numerous controversies the following financial year.
The highest remunerated CIOs were the $143 billion UniSuper’s John Pearce ($1.9 million total remuneration), the $183 billion Aware Super’s Damian Graham ($1.8 million), $242 billion Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation’s Alison Tarditi ($1.6 million), $119 billion Hostplus’s Sam Sicilia ($1.4 million).
The CIO of the country’s largest super fund, the $360 billion AustralianSuper’s Mark Delaney, took home $1.3 million.
Former Federal Treasurer and Cbus chair Wayne Swan was the fourth highest paid chair, but it was a retail fund that topped the list followed by AustralianSuper and UniSuper.
Colonial First State’s Gregory Cooper was remunerated $352,048, followed by AustralianSuper’s Don Russell ($337,233) and UniSuper’s Mark Armour ($278,406).
Swan’s tenure as chair, which begun at the start of 2022, had come under scrutiny last year as Cbus dealt with issues over the connections to the troubled CFMEU union, qualifications of its union-linked directors, as well as failing on member services.
Expect CEO pay and bonuses of the profit-to-member funds to come under further scrutiny as member services lag.
Ahead of the three-year anniversary of the Retirement Income Covenant, funds are grappling with fulfilling their obligation to give members a retirement income strategy.
Analysis from The Conexus Institute* found that while some advancements have been made, they have been sporadic with some super funds leading the way while others fall behind.
After being sued by ASIC in 2023, AustralianSuper was ordered by the Federal Court to pay a $27 million penalty earlier this year after it was found to have failed to prevent duplicate member accounts, leaving it in breach of superannuation laws for almost nine years.
AustralianSuper was also criticised by the regulator for taking up to four years to process death benefit claims for members.
The government moved at the start of the year to introduce new mandatory and enforceable industry standards for member services.
Furthermore, ASIC’s report into super fund claims handling showed how ill-prepared funds had been.
AustralianSuper, along with industry fund peers Australian Retirement Trust, Rest and Hostplus, and retail counterpart Insignia Financial, also suffered cyber breaches with a handful of AustralianSuper’s members losing money.
*The Conexus Institute is a not-for-profit think-tank philanthropically funded by Conexus Financial, publisher of Professional Planner.
