Retirement market review 2023

Following on from Plan for Life's (PFL) initial review of published RIC strategies Retirement Market Review 2022 (2022 Review), PFL conducted a subsequent review based on the position at 31 December 2023.

As was the case previously, there is a large degree of variation amongst the RSEs, with some of the strategies minimal-comprising less than a page while others are more expansive-taking up to three pages, while in a few cases, longer summaries have been released.

To inform the market and provide transparency of progress to date, PFL again undertook independent analysis and benchmarking that examines each RIS and scores seven underlying factors. The seven benchmarking factors were developed from criteria set out in the Australian Government's Retirement Income Covenant Position Paper, 19 July 2021 and Implementation of the Retirement Covenant, 7 March 2022.

This whitepaper examines 57 RSE licensees' strategies representing over 100 superannuation funds, including virtually the entire Australian retirement market covered by the RIC.

Note: MySuper funds and SMSFs are not required to comply with the Covenant.

In much of retail superannuation and partly in public sector superannuation, there are funds with one common trustee and hence one RIS, which is why the number of funds is much larger than the number of strategies. Superannuation funds that provide defined benefits as well as having accumulation segments were covered in the review, but four dedicated defined benefit funds were not included.