Member services make bulk of super complaints

Education chief way to avoid disappointment

By Karin Derkley
Fri 30 Jul 2010

There is a risk that member services problems might be exacerbated by pressure on the industry as a result of the Cooper review.

Member service-related issues accounted for 64 per cent of complaints in the last financial year, according to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) chair Jocelyn Furlan.

While most of the complaints were preventable, there was a risk that member services problems might be exacerbated by pressure on the industry as a result of the Cooper review and its MySuper proposal, Furlan told an Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees forum in Melbourne yesterday.

"The first things to go out the window under that kind of pressure are compliance and responsiveness to member complaints," Furlan said.

However, she urged funds not to let things slip through the cracks.

"Instead, you should see the new circumstances as an opportunity to improve your services."

Complaints are a result of outcomes not meeting expectations and educating members was the chief way of avoiding disappointment over outcomes, Furlan said.

"Work out how members have come to have those expectations, and how those expectations have not been met. And see if there are ways you can better ensure their expectations more closely match what you are able to deliver," she said.

Of the member services complaints made to the SCT in the last financial year, 15 per cent were about account balances, 7.5 per cent were about general administration issues, 6.6 per cent were about failure to disclose and 6.3 per cent concerned failure to provide information.

Poorly written communications were a common source of complaints, Furlan said.

Too many letters and forms were still ambiguous or incomprehensible, leading not just to poor member service, but also to increased workloads for member services staff, she said.

The problem was easily avoidable, according to Furlan. 

"Avoid incomprehensible explanations and 'dummy test' the forms before you send them out on family members and friends," she said.

Insurance was another significant source of member complaints, particularly when funds changed insurance providers.

"Funds need to agree on a protocol with insurers, for instance, as to covering members who are 'not at work' on the day of change, and on who will accept liability for any disadvantage," Furlan said.

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