The statement said they had cover. More than 2,000 Rest members didn't.

A statement from your super fund can be wrong about your insurance. That is the plain lesson from September 2025, when the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued two infringement notices totalling $37,560 to Retail Employees Superannuation Pty Ltd (Rest), the trustee of the super fund Rest Super, after it told more than 2,000 members they held insurance cover they had previously cancelled, declined, lost or never held. (Source: ASIC media release 25-218MR, 29 September 2025.)

The amount is small. The lesson is not.

What happened

ASIC says Rest inadvertently activated insurance cover for more than 2,000 members. Between June 2024 and January 2025, Rest sent annual statements and emails telling those members they held active death, total and permanent disability (TPD) and/or income protection insurance through the fund. Each of them had previously cancelled, chosen not to receive, lost or otherwise never held that cover.

ASIC issued two infringement notices totalling $37,560. The regulator alleged Rest made false or misleading representations that it had the right to activate that cover and deduct premiums from members' accounts, when it had no such right, contrary to section 12GX of the ASIC Act. Rest paid the notices on 22 September 2025. ASIC notes that payment of an infringement notice is not an admission of liability. All of this is set out in ASIC media release 25-218MR.

Why such a small amount still matters

Rest is the trustee of Rest Super, an industry superannuation fund with over 2 million member accounts (ASIC media release 25-218MR). For a fund that size, $37,560 is not a significant amount. The problem underneath it is. When a statement is wrong about insurance, the error can cut two ways:

• Premiums may be deducted for cover that was cancelled, quietly reducing a balance month after month.
• A member may believe they are covered when they are not, and only find out when they, or their family, try to claim.

Both errors stay invisible until someone compares the paperwork with what the fund's records actually say. Most people never do, and that is not a failing. Until a case like this one, there was little reason to think you needed to.

A statement is a prompt, not proof

An annual statement or a fund email is a reasonable starting point. This case shows it may not be the final word. What matters at claim time is what the fund's records and the policy documents say, and the most direct way to see those is to ask the fund itself.

If you want to confirm what you hold, the fund can tell you:

• what cover is recorded against your account, whether death, TPD or income protection
• whether that cover is currently active
• whether premiums are being deducted from your balance
• which documents apply, including the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and insurance guide that set out the definitions and exclusions a claim would be assessed against

We have written a short phone script for exactly this call: what to ask your fund about the cover you hold. It usually takes about ten minutes.

Part of a wider pattern

This was not an isolated action. ASIC states in the same media release that addressing member services failures in the superannuation sector is one of its 2025 enforcement priorities. The Rest notices sit alongside the Federal Court's $23.5 million penalty against Cbus over delays in death and TPD claims (ASIC media release 25-286MR, 25 November 2025), and ASIC's Report 806 review of how major trustees handle death benefit claims. The signal to funds is consistent: the basics, including telling members what cover they hold, have to be right.

For anyone in the middle of a claim, or wondering whether they have cover at all, the practical takeaway is simpler. The system's own paperwork can be wrong, and the way through is to verify with the fund directly rather than relying on a single document.

This article reports on ASIC media release 25-218MR of 29 September 2025 and was first published on 6 October 2025.

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