AustralianSuper to refund 100,000 members $70m in overpaid fees

Approximately $70 million of overpaid fees will be refunded to around 100,000 AustralianSuper members following a review conducted by the superannuation giant.

Impacted customers are expected to receive a refund of $650 on average following the company’s discovery that some members with multiple accounts did not have those accounts combined to ensure they weren’t slogged with extra fees.

AustralianSuper, which announced the refund action itself today, says that following the review it identified its processes ‘did not cover all instances of multiple member accounts’.

“This should not have happened, and we apologise unreservedly to members,” AustralianSuper says.

“The Fund is taking appropriate remediation actions and has self-reported the issue to the regulators.

“Around 100,000 impacted members and former members will be contacted in the coming months to inform them of this issue and confirm the actions we are taking in response.”

The superannuation group, which has close to 3 million members, says its aim is to return impacted members to the financial position they would be in now if not for the extra charges.

This may include refunding administration fees and insurance costs deducted from members’ secondary accounts, along with lost earnings on these amounts.

“In addition, we have strengthened our processes around managing multiple accounts for all members to help ensure instances where a member has more than one account are identified, and appropriate actions are taken in a timely way,” AustralianSuper says.

The firm adds that it does not have to increase administration fees to pay for the refund actions, with the cost of the remediation to be paid from its ‘Operational Risk Financial Reserve’.