More than one in three ask AI about super
Australians are increasingly asking artificial intelligence (AI) tools about their super and retirement, and new research suggests they are doing it because affordable help from anywhere else is out of reach.
Research by RepTrak, commissioned by the Super Members Council, found 35% of Australians have already used AI for super and retirement information and a further 32% would consider it. Among those already using it, the most common purposes are early research, asking specific questions and comparing super funds.
The stereotype does not hold. Among retail fund members, 54% have already used AI this way, compared with 41% of members of profit-to-member funds. And the heaviest users are not the youngest Australians but middle-aged full-time workers with families and balances above $100,000, the people with the most at stake. Those aged 65 and over, retirees and people with less than $100,000 in super are the least likely to have tried it and the most likely to rule it out.
Australians are more sceptical than the usage figures suggest. Concerns about privacy and security run at 71%, and 69% say they would rather speak to a person than use AI for financial information.
Trust in accuracy is lower still. Only 22% trust or strongly trust the accuracy of AI-generated super and retirement information. Another 28% somewhat trust it, and 29% distrust it.
That has not stopped people acting on it: 24% say they are likely or very likely to act on information from an AI tool, and a further 28% are somewhat likely. Retail fund members report both higher trust and greater willingness to act than members of profit-to-member funds.
Most people do check what they are told. Contacting the super fund directly is the most common step at 45%, ahead of government websites such as Moneysmart and Services Australia at 39% and a financial adviser or accountant at 37%. Online tools and calculators, and friends or family, follow close behind. But 7% would not verify AI-generated information anywhere at all.
Super Members Council chief executive Misha Schubert said people are not looking to hand the decision to a machine.
“They want trusted sources of information, strong consumer safeguards and access to human support and reassurance when making financial decisions that will affect their future,” she said.
Schubert used the findings to press the government to legislate the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms, first promised more than three years ago.
“Australians shouldn’t have their advice options limited to only expensive full-service comprehensive financial advice on the one hand or the Wild West of unregulated AI tools on the other, with nothing in between to serve the needs of ‘the missing middle’,” she said.
The RepTrak survey covered 500 Australians in May 2026, weighted to the general population by age and gender.
AustralianSuper announces online advice and fee rise
Australia’s largest super fund will start offering personalised advice through its member portal, in what would be one of the largest advice offerings in the country.
AustralianSuper will roll out the service in stages from later this year, covering investment options, contributions and retirement health checks. Members who want more than the online journey can choose to speak with a qualified adviser by phone or video from early 2027, with complex cases referred to a comprehensive advice adviser. The technology is being built with Ignition Advice.
The advice will be provided by a separate legal entity, AustralianSuper Advice Pty Ltd. Michelle Levy, who chaired the Quality of Advice Review, has been appointed an independent director.
“Financial advice that takes into account someone’s personal circumstances can make a big difference to their retirement outcomes. That advice should be accessible and simple to understand and follow,” Levy said.
About 1.6 million Australians used the fund’s existing online education, tools and calculators in the last calendar year.
The fund also announced fee changes in July. From 31 October, or 1 November for Choice Income and transition to retirement accounts, a member with $250,000 in accumulation faces an increase of up to $1.83 per week, about $95 per year. For a member with $500,000 it is up to about $310 per year, and the increase is capped there, so a member with $1 million pays no more than one with $500,000. It comes from a higher asset-based administration fee, a lift in the cap on that fee from $350 to $600 per year, and the removal of an administration fee tax benefit for accumulation and transition to retirement accounts, which the fund has not quantified. Partly offsetting it, the investment fee on the Balanced option fell from 0.57% to 0.53%.
Half of adults never seek retirement information
If the AI numbers suggest people are looking for answers, research from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) suggests just as many are not looking at all.
Only half of Australians aged over 18 have consulted any source of information about retirement. That share rises with age, but only somewhat, which means many people approaching retirement are making decisions with little or no guidance. The research also found that 66% of respondents said they know “nothing”, “not much” or only “a little” about super.
ASFA economic specialist Andrew Craston said the problem is not trust. Across every age group, the most trusted sources are professional advice services and advisers provided by super funds. The least trusted, consistently, is social media, yet people aged 18–34 are 11 times more likely than those over 65 to use it for retirement information.
The barrier is supply and cost. The number of licensed financial advisers is around 40% lower than it was a decade ago, while the number of Australians with a super account is around 20% higher. Compared with ASFA’s 2024 survey, use of formal information sources has fallen and use of informal sources such as friends, family and media articles has risen.
Craston argued the value of advice is greatest for the people least likely to get it. For a 30-year-old on average wages, an extra quarter of a percentage point in annual investment returns is worth around $40,000 more at retirement. For a 50-year-old, the same difference is worth about $7,000.
Rest finds 43% unsure how to prepare
Most Australians will draw on both super and the Age Pension in retirement. New research commissioned by Rest suggests many have no idea how to make the two work together.
Of the Rest members surveyed, 43% said they don’t know what steps they need to take to prepare for life after work, while 61% backed greater integration between super funds and Centrelink to make claiming the Age Pension simpler.
The scale is significant. Government data shows 2.7 million Australians aged 65 and over rely on the Age Pension, around two-thirds on the full rate and one-third on a part pension. Almost one in three Age Pensioners delays applying by more than a year.
Members aged 46–66 were the most likely to describe the system as complex, which means confusion peaks exactly when people need clarity most. Rest chief executive Vicki Doyle said that points to something bigger than a knowledge gap.
“Superannuation and the Age Pension are meant to work together, but too often people are left trying to bridge the gap between them,” she said.
“If Australians find the retirement system hardest to navigate at the point they need it most, that’s not simply a consumer education issue, it’s a system design issue. People shouldn’t have to become experts in superannuation, the Age Pension and Centrelink just to plan for retirement.”
The survey of 1,423 Rest members found women were significantly more likely than men to feel unsure about how to prepare, and to find retirement products hard to understand. Renters were among the least prepared of any group, with almost two in three unclear about how to prepare for retirement, compared with around one in three homeowners.
Working more can leave pensioners worse off
Older Australians who take on extra work can end up financially penalised for it, and new research suggests confusion about the rules makes the problem worse.
Research by SuperEd, commissioned by the $105 billion industry fund HESTA, modelled a single Age Pensioner aged 67 or over with $200,000 in super. On those assumptions, someone earning $65,000 per year takes home $319 less annually than someone earning $60,000, because the extra income wipes out the remaining Age Pension and attracts tax.
That is the sharpest example of a broader pattern. Part-pensioners routinely face effective marginal tax rates of 66–77% on employment income, well above the rate applying to people earning more than $190,000. The main driver is the income test taper, which reduces the Age Pension by 50 cents for every dollar earned above the income-free threshold.
The research also found many older Australians don’t attempt extra work because they believe, incorrectly, that any paid work will strip them of the Age Pension entirely.
HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey said members tell the fund the sums simply don’t add up.
“Retirement is not one-size-fits-all and we hear from members who want to work more but who have done the maths and worked out it simply isn’t worth it,” she said.
HESTA wants employment income removed from the income test for people already assessed as eligible for the Age Pension.
Vanguard chart puts a number on waiting
Vanguard released its 2026 Index Chart on 17 August, tracking three decades of returns across the major asset classes from 1 July 1996 to 30 June 2026.
On Vanguard’s figures, $10,000 invested in Australian shares in July 1996 grew to $132,931 by June 2026, an average of 9.0% per year. The same $10,000 left in cash would be worth $32,459, or 4.0% per year. That is a gap of more than $100,000 over the period, and cash was the worst performing of the major asset classes.
US shares were the strongest, turning $10,000 into $218,544 at 10.8% per year, more than $85,000 ahead of Australian shares. International shares excluding Australia returned 8.6% per year to reach $117,612. Australian listed property returned 7.8% per year to reach $94,261, and Australian bonds 5.2% per year to reach $45,871.
Vanguard’s managing director for Asia Pacific, Daniel Shrimski, drew the parallel with super directly. Australians already accept that a super balance is built over decades, and he argued the same logic applies to money invested outside it.
“The Index Chart is a powerful reminder that building wealth is less about predicting what’s around the corner and more about investing with perspective, staying diversified and giving your investments time to grow,” he said. “Much like superannuation, investing works best when approached as a long-term journey.”
Vanguard’s separate Sitting on the Sidelines report found 25% of Australian non-investors believe investing is too risky or worry about losing money.
Two caveats matter. These are index returns before fees, costs and taxes, and you cannot invest directly in an index. They are also in nominal dollars, so inflation has not been taken out. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Prime Super and Aware Super explore merger
Prime Super and Aware Super have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to explore a successor fund transfer, under which Prime Super’s members would move into Aware Super.
Prime Super manages more than $9 billion. The combined fund would hold around $254 billion for more than 1.4 million members. Subject to the outcome of due diligence, the transfer is expected to complete towards the end of 2027.
Prime Super’s membership is concentrated in regional Australia, particularly in agriculture and health, and its chair Nigel Alexander said that is what the fund brings to the deal.
“Prime Super has built a proud legacy based on trusted relationships, personalised service and a deep connection to regional Australia,” he said.
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