Stronger Super: a new dawn for trustee governance

Abstract

The question of what is adequate in terms of governance standards for trustees of superannuation funds has been the subject of considerable debate in the Australian superannuation industry for many years. For the purposes of this paper, trustee governance is taken to encompass the processes by which trustee companies, and their directors, are held to account. Further, trustee governance is viewed as a product of the rules, relationships, systems and processes within and by which authority is exercised and monitored by the trustee.

It is no surprise that the topic of trustee governance featured prominently in the findings of the recent Cooper Review and the Federal Government's subsequent response entitled "Stronger Super". A key feature of the proposed reforms is the creation of a new office of "trustee-director" which seeks to impose enhanced statutory duties for trustee-directors with additional duties for those who offer MySuper products.