That Super Show

Neil Benson & Sarah Penn
  • 5.0 (7)
  • BUSINESS NEWS
  • UPDATED FORTNIGHTLY

That Super Show brings you the latest news, insights and industry interviews to help Australian superannuation professionals improve retirement outcomes for Australians. Hosted by Sarah Penn, CEO of Mayflower Consulting, and Neil Benson, CEO of Superware.

  1. 21 APR

    Super Advertising Bans to Employees, Advisor Education Reforms, and the Unintended Consequences of the Performance Test

    #24. On this episode of That Super Show, co-hosts Neil Benson and Sarah Penn break down the Treasury’s proposed ban on super fund advertising during onboarding, the shakeup in advisor education requirements, and dig into why APRA and the ATO are getting twitchy about payday super implementation (spoiler: small business, we see you…). Plus, are performance tests quietly killing investment innovation in Australia? RESOURCES Superannuation advertising ban consultation launches - employers can only display employee's stapled fund, employer's default fund, or a MySuper product from another fund. Bill has passed both houses, now Treasury is consulting on the regulations to support it.Education reform for financial advisers - Consult hub - Treasury has launched consultation paper regarding new class of financial advisors as part of DBFO T2.Payday Super Readiness | APRA - ATO and APRA have published a letter to RSEs to brace themselves and buckle up! APRA has concerns about some funds' readiness for Payday Super.‘Parliamentary Friends’ launch sharpens focus on super - Super ReviewSuperannuation performance test is stuck in red tape and could be creating a stagnant economy - performance test doesn't encourage outperformance, it discourages underperformance. As a result, money flows into indices, not into innovation. That Super Show Visit That Super Show website and become a newsletter subscriberFollow That Super Show on LinkedInFollow That Super Show on YouTubeEmail That Super Show Sarah Penn, Chief Executive at Mayflower Consulting Connect with Sarah on LinkedInFollow Mayflower Consulting on LinkedInVisit Mayflower Consulting's website Neil Benson, Chief Product Officer at ChandlerCX Connect with Neil on LinkedInFollow ChandlerCX on LinkedInVisit ChandlerCX website Mentioned in this episode: Mayflower Consulting  This episode is brought to you by Mayflower Consulting. If your product team is capable, stretched, and the important structural work keeps getting pushed, that's where we come in. We embed with your team, get the work done, and leave you more capable. Mayflower Consulting

    27 min

  2. 15 APR

    Insurance Gaps, Member Service, and International Investment Trends Impacting Super Funds

    #23 Welcome to That Super Show, your inside look at Australia’s superannuation industry. Neil Benson and Sarah Penn dive into the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping super—from industry roadshows in the US to advances in AI, and the evolving insurance landscape. They discuss why Australian funds are looking globally for investments, the efficiency and value of industry trips, and how regulation is impacting innovation. The episode also tackles important issues like the insurance gap for young blue-collar workers and the sharp rise in complaints within the sector, highlighting leadership changes and reflecting on the balance between investment returns and member services. Grab your coffee, settle in, and join Neil and Sarah for another engaging and honest conversation about what’s working, what’s changing, and what needs improving in superannuation. ARTICLES ASFA warns super insurance reforms have left thousands uncovered - Super ReviewAustralian superannuation sector plans to woo US investors, companies and Trump officials in Washington galaBuilding a Stronger and Fairer Super System Act 2026 – Draft Regulations'We've let our members down': Watson | Financial StandardAFCA receives record number of complaints in 2025 calendar year That Super Show Visit That Super Show website and become a newsletter subscriberFollow That Super Show on LinkedInFollow That Super Show on YouTubeEmail That Super Show Sarah Penn, Chief Executive at Mayflower Consulting Connect with Sarah on LinkedInFollow Mayflower Consulting on LinkedInVisit Mayflower Consulting's website Neil Benson, Chief Product Officer at ChandlerCX Connect with Neil on LinkedInFollow ChandlerCX on LinkedInVisit ChandlerCX website Mentioned in this episode: Mayflower Consulting  This episode is brought to you by Mayflower Consulting. If your product team is capable, stretched, and the important structural work keeps getting pushed, that's where we come in. We embed with your team, get the work done, and leave you more capable. Mayflower Consulting

    27 min

  3. 9 APR

    Measuring retirement outcomes with Anthony Saliba

    #22. Co-hosts Sarah Penn and Neil Benson chat with Anthony Saliba, Partner at Deloitte Actuarial Consulting. We cover: Retirement income measurement challenge: Determining if retirement income solutions are working is complex, especially with new best practice principles released by Treasury.Best practice principles explained: Treasury’s principles aim to guide trustees in supporting retirees, but are non-binding and allow for flexibility and market-driven solutions.Principles-based vs. prescriptive rules: The industry favours a principles-based approach; there is ongoing discussion about whether these guidelines will eventually become enforceable standards.Realities for smaller funds: Some super funds may decide to exit members into specialist retirement funds rather than investing heavily in retirement offerings for a small retiree base.Complexity for members: Switching from accumulation to retirement products and navigating financial advice, age pension eligibility, and new lifetime income products creates challenges, especially for those without access to personal advice.Emphasis on member confidence: Leading funds invest in digital tools and education to improve member confidence and provide support beyond traditional advice models.Measuring outcomes: Funds should use objective, evidence-based data to evaluate retirement strategies and avoid “marking their own homework.”Personalisation and cohorts: True hyper-personalisation is aspirational; most funds cohort members by life stage and balance, with some moving toward more nuanced demographic analysis.Data access limitations: Lack of access to data like home ownership and marital status hampers more tailored solutions; innovative tools to gather member data can help bridge this gap.Regulatory barriers to engagement: Strict personal advice laws prevent funds from using member data for targeted communications and are seen as a roadblock to better member engagement.Drawdown patterns: Most retirees draw the minimum required, sometimes due to uncertainty or default settings; there are calls to encourage greater, more sustainable drawdowns early in retirement.Missed opportunities: Members often pay unnecessary tax or miss out on age pension entitlements simply by not taking key actions (like moving to drawdown phase or promptly applying for the pension).Annuities and product innovation: Lifetime income products can help manage longevity risk but suffer from low uptake; the industry is seeing product innovation and working toward better “solution” messaging.Asset-rich, income-poor issue: The system facilitates cases where people use super to increase home equity and then qualify for age pension; potential for equity release products and need for policy refinement.Key takeaway for trustees: Always use an evidence-based, objective approach when measuring outcomes and designing solutions, and clearly communicate trade-offs to help members make informed decisions. ANTHONY SALIBA Follow Anthony on LinkedInFollow Deloitte on LinkedIn That Super Show Visit That Super Show website and become a newsletter subscriberFollow That Super Show on LinkedInFollow That Super Show on YouTubeEmail That Super Show Sarah Penn, Chief Executive at Mayflower Consulting Connect with Sarah on LinkedInFollow Mayflower Consulting on LinkedInVisit Mayflower Consulting's website Neil Benson, Chief Product Officer at ChandlerCX Connect with Neil on LinkedInFollow ChandlerCX on LinkedInVisit ChandlerCX website Mentioned in this episode: Mayflower Consulting This episode is brought to you by Mayflower Consulting. We work with product teams across super funds, fund managers, and platforms to move faster. Faster PDS updates, faster decisions, and less friction. If governance is slowing you down, we can fix that. Mayflower Consulting

    43 min

  4. 23 MAR

    Competitive Flows and Adviser Influence: Dissecting Australia’s Super Landscape with David Bell

    #21. Co-hosts Sarah Penn and Neil Benson host David Bell, Executive Director at Conexus Institute. We cover: Industry growth: Superannuation assets grew by 12% last year, mostly from strong investment returns. Four funds are now “mega funds” with over $200 billion AUM.Mergers and consolidation: Fund mergers continue to shape the sector. Aware’s merger with TelstraSuper tipped it into mega fund status.Flow dynamics: Natural flows (member contributions) are steady, but competitive flows are increasingly advisor-led with platforms gaining pace.Advisor-driven switching: More than half of asset switches are now influenced by advisers, with platforms offering efficiency and adviser-friendly features.Marketing spend: Funds increased marketing by 10%, but there's little evidence it’s driving competitive inflows. Most spend is defensive—trying to stem outflows.Retirement focus: Demographics highlight 40% of assets held by members 55+. Funds are investing in retirement products and guidance, but competitive barriers remain for retaining members approaching retirement.SMSF trends: SMSFs are seeing net growth and most are established without a formal adviser. But there’s also a flow back as members tire of administration.Future landscape: The sector is heading for more mega funds and continued consolidation. Launching new funds is possible, but achieving scale remains a decades-long effort.Key takeaway: Sector priorities are shifting towards retirement, adviser functionality, and efficiency—but core flows, consolidation, and operational differentiation remain fundamental for fund leaders. Bonus: Blame marketing? Absolutely! That Super Show Visit That Super Show website and become a newsletter subscriberFollow That Super Show on LinkedInFollow That Super Show on YouTubeEmail That Super Show Sarah Penn, Chief Executive at Mayflower Consulting Connect with Sarah on LinkedInFollow Mayflower Consulting on LinkedInVisit Mayflower Consulting's website Neil Benson, Chief Product Officer at ChandlerCX Connect with Neil on LinkedInFollow ChandlerCX on LinkedInVisit ChandlerCX website Mentioned in this episode: Mayflower Consulting  This episode is brought to you by Mayflower Consulting. If your product team is capable, stretched, and the important structural work keeps getting pushed, that's where we come in. We embed with your team, get the work done, and leave you more capable. Mayflower Consulting

    45 min

  5. 2 MAR

    Navigating Death Benefit Claims: Modernising Estate Management in Superannuation

    #20. Sarah flies solo! And discusses death benefit claims and deceased estates with Ben Darlow and Sarah Poole from EstateXchange. We cover: The death benefit challenge: Processing death benefit claims is often complex, manual, and paper-heavy, despite the growing need for efficiency as $5.4 trillion in wealth transfers between generations.Executors’ reality: Families face interacting with up to 37 organisations after a death, making estate administration overwhelming and inefficient.Why processes haven’t modernised: Death claims processes have seen historic underinvestment, lack of regulation, and minimal focus compared to other fund interactions.Reframing the process: Super funds should consider their role as just one of many organisations grieving families deal with, adjusting expectations around paperwork and timelines accordingly.Triage and risk: Funds can streamline basic claims by adopting triage methods, applying more rigour only where needed, and embracing technology to reduce repetitive low-value tasks.Reporting pitfalls: Many organisations’ reporting paints an overly optimistic picture; meaningful reporting requires standardised data and clear lead/lag indicators, plus a culture that welcomes surfacing issues.Fraud as an emerging risk: As more processes move online, the risk of fraud in deceased estates is rising, with up to 9% of consumers encountering actual fraud and 17% experiencing near misses.Looking forward: The future may include digital vaults, seamless handover to executors, faster probate, and platforms that free up locked assets, helping families and the economy. Want to get in touch or learn more about EstateXchange? Sarah Poole - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-poole1/ Ben Darlow - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-darlow-1162862b4/ That Super Show is brought to you by Mayflower Consulting — helping fund managers, platforms and super funds build faster, smarter product teams. Find out more at mayflower.com.au. And if you're not already a subscriber, join 450+ finserv product professionals reading #SSFPP every week here.

    34 min

  6. 16 FEB

    Brand Recognition, Churn, and Retirement: What’s Really Moving the Superannuation Needle

    #19. Co-hosts Neil Benson and Sarah Penn unpack the latest trends and news impacting the superannuation industry. We cover: Super brand recognition: Surprising results from a Conjointly brand tracker highlight low public awareness of major super brands, including only 57% recognition for AussieSuper and 49% for Hostplus, challenging industry assumptions.The complexity and cost of rebranding: Rebrands are frequent but often more about internal politics than member benefit, and establishing a new name remains a major challenge.The effectiveness of marketing: Despite significant marketing spend, switching rates and member engagement appear largely unchanged, raising questions about return on investment.Member churn and fund flows: Recent reports show industry fund outflows to adviser-led platforms are modest compared to overall inflows, with most money still coming in via default arrangements rather than active switching.Retention dilemmas: As members with larger balances approach retirement, funds struggle to retain them, particularly when financial advisers commonly recommend rolling over to retail platforms.Regulatory challenges and innovation barriers: Uncertainty around advice laws is inhibiting proactive member communications and innovation, especially in retirement products.Fraud and scam protection: ASIC urges funds to strengthen member communications to prevent fraud, but losses remain minor (at $22 million), and tougher controls could erode member experience.Confidence and legislative change: Frequent government tinkering causes member concern, yet most changes aim to improve fairness, and fears of losing all super are unfounded.New superannuation legislation: Discussion around the Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System bill, with support for balancing changes to both high and low-balance accounts.Industry news: Notable updates include Commonwealth Super’s major tech upgrade, HESTA CEO Debbie Blakey’s retirement, and the release of a new AFCA complaints guide.Personal achievement: Neil celebrates passing the RG 146 superannuation qualification after a challenging process. RESOURCES Super brand tracker confirms golden status of AustralianSuper | Financial Standard - Brand Tracker by Conjointly based on 1344 individuals. 57% recognised AustralianSuper, 49% Hostplus, 48% AMP, 47% Rest, 45% CBUS. Survey also ranked consideration, performance perception, and customer support.Superannuation customer churn hits First Super, NGS Super and Hostplus hardest. 6% churn on average, based on APRA data analysed by Elula. Lots of funds claiming the switches were inactive, low balance accounts being swept up by ATO. APRA has noticed that member accounts and flows into accounts outside the top 10 had declined.Industry super funds are losing business to retail wealth platforms such as HUB24 and Netwealth at an accelerating pace. Members seeking more holistic retirement advice. One analyst reckoned that a 10% uplift in advisor capacity could see $100B in flows to retail platforms to which my financial advisor responded, "I've got more chance of captaining the Australian Cricket Team & marrying Heidi Klum in the same year than a 10% increase in advisers resulting in $100bn of flows."Commonwealth Super Corp to consolidate legacy IT systems | Financial Standard. CSC to consolidate a number of systems. It manages several schemes and it sounds like they are bringing them all together. Mercer is the admin partner and Novigi is the data partner. Limited service period. Imagine they watched HESTA's experience closely.Super trustees told to up fraud protection game | Financial Standard ASIC compared super sector's fraud prevention to banks and found significant gaps, mostly in documentation and member communications. $22m in super-related scams in 2025.AFCA's new superannuation complaints guide (for funds and members)Treasury Laws Amendment (Building a Stronger and Fairer Super System) Bill 2026 – Parliament of Australia - second reading today. Boost to LISTO and changes to tax concessions on balances over $3m and 10. That Super Show Visit That Super Show website and become a newsletter subscriberFollow That Super Show on LinkedInFollow That Super Show on YouTubeEmail That Super Show Sarah Penn, Chief Executive at Mayflower Consulting Connect with Sarah on LinkedInFollow Mayflower Consulting on LinkedInVisit Mayflower Consulting's website Neil Benson, Chief Product Officer at ChandlerCX Connect with Neil on LinkedInFollow ChandlerCX on LinkedInVisit ChandlerCX website

    30 min

  7. 2 FEB

    ASIC’s 2026 Priorities: What Super Funds Need to Know

    #18. Co-hosts Sarah Penn and Neil Benson discuss ASIC’s 2026 priorities and what they mean for super funds. Private credit risks: ASIC flags concerns about retail exposure to private market credit products. Experience of fund managers and transparency are under the spotlight. Operational failures: Claims delays, cyber resilience, fraud and poor IT get a special mention - 'nuf said really! Aggressive product marketing: will be stopping. We hope. Audit and valuation standards: Poor quality sustainability reporting and inconsistent unlisted asset valuations—ASIC wants more evidence and comparability between funds. Plus a cooks tour of the ASIC priorities that are 'super adjacent'.

    30 min

  8. 19 JAN

    Adrian Gervasoni: Transforming Member Portals for Superannuation Success

    #17. Co-hosts Sarah Penn and Neil Benson chat with Adrian Gervasoni, Executive Manager Advice Services at Industry Fund Services. We cover a lot of ground, including: Member engagement challengesRethinking the member journeySuper as 'your future wage'Super portals try to present too much infoThe power of nudgesThe new class of advisers - what this means in practiseWhat we can learn from banks closing branches and moving customers onlineWebinars and events are fun but only reach a small number of peopleThe future of portals Want to hear more from Adrian? Follow him on LinkedIn. And have ideas for other guests we should interview? Drop us a line and let us know!

    45 min
See All (24)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

That Super Show brings you the latest news, insights and industry interviews to help Australian superannuation professionals improve retirement outcomes for Australians. Hosted by Sarah Penn, CEO of Mayflower Consulting, and Neil Benson, CEO of Superware.

Information

  • Creator
    Neil Benson & Sarah Penn
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Neil Benson & Sarah Penn
  • Show Website
    That Super Show

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