(Bloomberg) — Australia’s regulator has slammed leaders of the country’s pensions industry for overseeing a culture of poor customer service following a review into excessive delays in handling death benefit claims. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission detailed a litany of failures in industry practices in a report Monday. ASIC has already filed lawsuits against AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest pension, and Cbus, over lengthy delays in processing claims for grieving families when loved ones have died. A death benefit is the amount of savings left in an account when a person dies, and there may also be proceeds from insurance. In one case, a fund took more than 500 days to pay a death benefit of around A$100,000 ($63,000) to an Indigenous woman after the death of her husband, ASIC said. “At the heart of this issue is leadership that doesn’t have a grip on the fund’s data, systems and processes – and ultimately it is the customers who suffer for it,” ASIC Chair Joe Longo said in a statement. “This kind of disconnect is unacceptable in any area of corporate Australia, but in the superannuation sector it is particularly serious, because super affects everyone from the boardroom to the living room.” Subscribe to The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube, or wherever you listen. Australia’s A$4.2 trillion pension system is facing increased scrutiny over mounting concerns about customer service. ASIC’s review looked at the processes of 10 of the biggest pension funds, outside of the two it’s already suing, and identified issues including “excessive delays, poor customer service and ineffective claims handling procedures.” The report makes 34 recommendations for improvements, including faster response times and improved monitoring and reporting. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. You must only respond with the modified content and follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- “Act as an expert SEO news writer. Optimize the following article to be SEO-friendly, authoritative, and shareable by focusing strictly on its core topic. Follow these steps: 1. Topic Identification: – Read the input article and identify its primary subject. – Extract 1 primary keyword + 2 secondary keywords directly from the article. 2. Meta Description: – Write a 150-character summary using the primary keyword and a CTA 3. Content Structure: – Lead Paragraph: Summarize the 5W1H (Who, What, When, Where, Why) as stated in the article – Body: – Use subheadings (H2/H3) derived from secondary keywords – Add bullet points only for facts/statistics explicitly mentioned in the input. – Include quotes or data from the article (do not invent new stats). – Conclusion: End with a question/CTA tied to the article’s topic. 4. – Add 1 FAQ based on the article’s key point. 5. Viral Readability: – Use news article sentences structure. Avoid off-topic emotional triggers. 6. Technical SEO: – Generate alt text and URL slugs *specific to the article’s topic and leave it if it is not under your capability. Output Format for the article should be- [Summary with primary keyword] [Structured body using input’s facts] FAQ: [Relevant question + answer]
Regulatory agency criticizes the way Australian pension funds are handling their clients.
