Waiting on a death benefit from super? The corporate regulator found most delays sit with the fund

If a death benefit claim through super is dragging, it is probably not something you did. On 31 March 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the corporate regulator, released Report 806, "Taking ownership of death benefits: How trustees can deliver outcomes Australians deserve". It reviewed how 10 large superannuation trustees handled death benefit claims over the two years to 31 March 2024. It found excessive delays, poor customer service and weak processes, and it found that most of the delay sat inside the funds themselves.

This article was first published on 7 April 2025, shortly after the report came out.

The key numbers

The review covered 10 trustees that together hold 38% of all member benefits in funds regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the regulator that oversees super funds.

• The slowest fund closed around 8% of death benefit claims within 90 days. The fastest closed around 48%.
• 78% of the claim files reviewed had delays caused by processing issues within the trustee's own control.
• 27% of the claim files reviewed involved poor customer service, such as calls not returned or queries dismissed.

Source: ASIC Report 806, "Taking ownership of death benefits", and ASIC media release 25-049MR, 31 March 2025.

What ASIC found

None of the 10 trustees were monitoring their own end-to-end claims handling times. That is worth sitting with for a moment. The funds did not know how long their own claims took.

According to the report, 17% of the files reviewed involved claimants experiencing vulnerability, and around 30% of those were handled poorly. Members living in First Nations postcodes generally experienced greater delays than other members. Claims with a binding death benefit nomination were processed faster than claims with a non-binding nomination or none at all (ASIC Report 806).

One case study in the report follows the death of a First Nations man living in a remote community. His wife made the claim. She told the trustee several times that she was in financial distress, and she was having trouble with the forms and with the identification requirements. The trustee did not respond to her hardship concerns or help her understand the process, and took more than a year to offer her alternative identification options. It decided to pay her after more than 500 days, and when ASIC collected the claim file she still had not received the payment (ASIC Report 806, Case study 5).

What ASIC's leaders said

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said the problem was "leadership that doesn't have a grip" on the fund's data, systems and processes (ASIC media release 25-049MR).

ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said grieving Australians should not have to suffer further stress because trustees fail to approach claims in a timely, clear and respectful way (ASIC media release 25-049MR).

The 34 actions for the industry

The report sets out 34 actions for industry. They are listed in full in Table 1 of Report 806, grouped by focus area, and they sit under the four areas the report covers:

• governance and oversight
• policies and procedures
• communication and engagement
• support for First Nations claimants

The focus areas inside those groupings include setting and monitoring performance objectives, oversight of service providers, documenting processes and procedures, fit for purpose forms and claim packs, prioritising staffing and training, showing compassion, setting clear expectations, support for claimants experiencing vulnerability, effectively addressing complaints, and assisting members to make valid nominations (ASIC Report 806, Table 1).

What this means if you are waiting on a claim

The report confirms something many families already suspected. A death benefit claim may not move quickly on its own, even at a large fund, and the delay is usually not caused by anything the family did.

A few things from the report are worth knowing:

• A binding death benefit nomination tends to be processed faster than a non-binding one or none at all. If you are reviewing your own super, this is one setting worth checking.
• Records help. ASIC's file reviews turned on what was documented. Keeping a note of every call, form and date can matter if a claim stalls.
• There is an escalation path. A formal complaint to the fund comes first. If that does not resolve it, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), the free external dispute body, can look at a delayed claim.
• Funds have obligations to claimants experiencing vulnerability or financial hardship. It is reasonable to tell the fund if that describes your situation.

None of this is a verdict on any one claim. How a claim is assessed depends on the fund's rules and the policy. But the report makes clear that when a claim sits still for months, the cause is usually inside the fund, and there are doors to knock on.

If you want to talk any of this through, we'll explain which doors exist for your situation and, if you want, introduce you to a firm on our panel. It costs you nothing. You never pay us. Panel firms do.

Sources

• ASIC media release 25-049MR, "Super industry hit with long list of actions in landmark death benefit claims handling report", 31 March 2025.
• ASIC Report 806, "Taking ownership of death benefits: How trustees can deliver outcomes Australians deserve", published 31 March 2025.