The Australian superannuation system will not reach maturity until the mid-2030s, when those on the point of retirement will have enjoyed the benefits of compulsory superannuation savings for their full working lives. Until very recently, the focus in superannuation has been on the Accumulation phase, but with the maturing of the system and increased longevity...

Summary A secure retirement rests on three foundations: adequate income, affordable housing, and decent affordable health and aged care. Income alone is not enough. There is a serious imbalance in the Federal Government’s support for retirement, with an estimated $30 billion ‘spent’ each year on inefficient tax breaks for superannuation while health funding is being...

We combine survey data from retirement plan members with information from interviews with plan executives to get both perspectives on who accepts the default plan and default investment option and why. We use a natural experiment in default construction where a new regulatory framework required providers to have stipulated default settings in place by early...

Institutional investment in Australia is both highly innovative and complex. The regulatory focus – and associated literature – on institutional investment has been on the sell-side. Considerably less attention has been paid to the buy-side, that is to the institutional investors themselves. This research report outlines the structure of Australian superannuation funds and discusses the...

As part of its research for this paper, the Commission has developed a model - referred to as the Productivity Commission Retirement Model (PCRM) - to assess the effects of increasing the preservation age. Modelling supplementary papers are also available.