{"id":47026,"date":"2019-10-30T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T01:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=47026"},"modified":"2019-11-05T20:24:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T10:24:14","slug":"asic-warns-trustees-on-communicating-reforms-to-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/10\/30\/asic-warns-trustees-on-communicating-reforms-to-members\/","title":{"rendered":"ASIC Warns Trustees on Communicating Reforms to Members"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ASIC has called on superannuation trustees to raise the standard of communication to fund members about the reforms impacting the insurance arrangements of members.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_46088\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46088\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2019\/08\/Danielle-Press-e1566907768772.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-46088\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2019\/08\/Danielle-Press-e1566907768772-250x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2019\/08\/Danielle-Press-e1566907768772-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2019\/08\/Danielle-Press-e1566907768772.jpg 417w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-46088\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ASIC Commissioner, Danielle Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The regulator issued a letter to the superannuation industry about the Putting Members\u2019 Interests First (PMIF) reforms and ongoing communications about insurance in superannuation, with the reforms due to take effect on 1 April 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The reforms involve the following changes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Insurance will be opt-in for members in a regulated superannuation fund with product balances below $6,000<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Insurance will be opt-in for new members under-25 years old<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As a result of the PMIF reforms, by 1 December 2019 superannuation trustees are required to write to members with a balance of less than $6,000. These members must be notified that their insurance cover may cease from 1 April 2020 unless they opt-in to continue this cover.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ASIC stated it expects trustees to help their members understand the impact of the reforms on them and make good decisions by:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Providing balanced and factual communications, that include appropriate context about the reforms<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Tailoring communications to the needs of their members<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A recent review by ASIC found that many superannuation trustees did not adequately communicate with members in a similar situation when they were about to be impacted by the Protecting Your Superannuation Package (PYSP) reforms and ASIC Commissioner, <strong>Danielle Press<\/strong>, says the superannuation industry must learn from this.<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;Communication with members about important matters&#8230;should not be dismissed as a \u2018mere exercise in compliance&#8217;.&#8221;<\/span><\/h6>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe PYSP communications reviewed by ASIC were not always balanced in providing members with all available options to them, including the reason why ceasing insurance might be appropriate,\u201d said Press. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cASIC expects trustees to follow ASIC\u2019s guidance, based on its initial review of the PYSP communications, in designing their communications from now on. Communication with members about important matters, such as their insurance, should not be dismissed as a \u2018mere exercise in compliance.\u2019 Trustees need to act to help their members understand what the reform means for the member.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ASIC intends to release further findings from its PYSP review work in early 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/download.asic.gov.au\/media\/5329160\/asic-letter-to-superannuation-trustees-29-oct-2019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> to read ASIC\u2019s letter.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASIC has called on superannuation trustees to raise the standard of communication to fund members about the reforms impacting the insurance arrangements of members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":47036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5622],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-47026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-compliance-regulation","category-superannuation","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}