The corporate regulator has fined Retail Employees superannuation Pty Ltd (Rest) $37,560 after alleging the industry fund misled more than 2,000 members by telling them they had active insurance cover that they had previously cancelled, opted out of, lost or never held.
ASIC said that between June 2024 and January 2025 Rest sent annual statements and emails stating affected members held death, total and permanent disability and/or income protection insurance. The regulator alleges the communications implied Rest could switch on cover and deduct premiums from members’ super accounts when it had no right to do so.
Rest paid two infringement notices on 22 September 2025. Paying an infringement notice does not amount to an admission of liability.
ASIC has made improving member services in superannuation an enforcement priority for 2025, with better retirement outcomes and member services a strategic focus for 2024/25. The watchdog said it wants trustees to maintain systems that prevent administrative mistakes that chip away at savings, and to move quickly to correct errors to avoid misleading members.
Rest is the trustee of Rest Super, an industry fund with more than two million member accounts.
Under section 12GX of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, ASIC can issue an infringement notice where it reasonably believes an infringement notice provision has been breached. The regulator says infringement notices are a proportionate and swift response intended to deter similar conduct by trustees. ASIC has published its reasons in the notices on its infringement notices register: https://www.asic.gov.au/online-services/search-asic-registers/other-registers/infringement-notices-register/
The episode comes against the backdrop of the Protecting Your Superannuation and Putting Members’ Interests First reforms, which from 2019–2020 limited default insurance to prevent unnecessary erosion of balances. In general, members under 25, those with balances below $6,000, or those with accounts that have been inactive for 16 months are not provided default cover unless they opt in. Members can also choose to cancel insurance held through super.
Rest has been contacted for comment.
