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Only eight of the 45 regulated super funds assessed earned the Epic Retirement Tick for 2026/27, up from six last year, as the assessment expanded to 20 criteria and the pass mark rose from 12 to 14.
Only eight of the 45 regulated super funds assessed have earned the Epic Retirement Tick for 2026/27, the second year the rating has been awarded.
Eight Funds Earn Epic Retirement Tick
The eight funds are AMP Super, Australian Retirement Trust - Super Savings, Aware Super, Brighter Super, Colonial First State - FirstChoice, Hostplus, UniSuper and Vision Super. Three funds are new to the list this year: AMP Super, Colonial First State - FirstChoice and Vision Super. It is the first time that retail funds have held a tick. The assessment was made harder this year.
It was expanded from 18 criteria to 20, and the pass mark was lifted from 12 to 14. Three criteria were dropped and five new ones were added, including cybersecurity and complaints handling. Expectations were also raised in areas like lifetime income products, advice, retirement education and the tools funds provide to help people work out how to spend their super.
In 2025, the first year, the assessment covered 18 criteria, including retirement investment products, income options, advice, education, calculators, digital services and how quickly someone answers the phone. Only six funds met the standard in that first year. For most of your working life, judging your super fund has been pretty straightforward.
You benchmark its performance over 10 years and you check that its fees over the same period are not outrageous, and from that you can tell almost everything you need to know. For the first half of your working life, you probably do not need to talk to your super fund very often. You need it to invest your money well and not charge you too much for doing it.
Super Funds Shift Toward Retirement Spending
Our super system has traditionally been much better at helping Australians accumulate money than it has been at helping them spend it on their retirements. But as you get closer to retirement, the job you need your super fund to do changes dramatically. Suddenly, good investment returns and low fees are not enough. You need your fund to help you work out how to turn that big pool of savings into an income you can actually live on.
You need to know how much you can safely draw down, and how the age pension might fit into your plans. You might want to consider whether your money should be invested in a product that offers you an income for life, and whether you should invest differently now that you are spending rather than saving.
When you go looking for help making those decisions, chances are you will start with the super fund you have been paying to invest your money all your working life. That raises a pretty important question: is your super fund actually any good at retirement? Regulators have known about the problem for years.
Retirement Income Covenant Drives Scrutiny
In 2022 they brought in legislation called the Retirement Income Covenant that required super funds to have a strategy for helping members who are approaching and living in retirement. In 2023 APRA and ASIC found there was still a lack of progress and insufficient urgency among funds for helping their members retire and spend their super.
By late 2025, regulators were saying that increasingly there is a gap opening up between funds that are genuinely investing in better retirement outcomes and those doing little more than complying with the rules. But how would ordinary people know the difference? Particularly when some funds spend big bucks on advertising that they do retirement, while others spend the money building seriously good retirement services, products and advice.
So last year a consumer-facing way to tell the difference was created: the Epic Retirement Tick, in partnership with one of the country's leading superannuation research teams, Chant West. The idea was simple. Give consumers a way to identify the super funds that were truly doing a good job of helping their members retire, and show the rest of the industry what they should be aiming for.
The criteria were made public, each fund was shown exactly what it would be assessed against, and funds were invited to step up and deliver. The results show that even as the bar was raised, more funds passed. More importantly, across the board, more funds are doing more for their members. Public scrutiny, public discussion and maybe the fear of public shame seem to be working.
Retirement Bonuses And Calculators Improve
More funds have introduced retirement bonuses, handing back the tax they had preserved for members when they move into retirement, rather than retaining that value for the fund. More funds are offering excellent retirement calculators designed to guide people into retirement, and others for the period after retirement too. There is more education around the Age Pension.
Retirement education itself is improving, with funds moving away from walls of boring text towards videos and charts, webinars, courses and other tools that people might actually see, use and learn from. Advice is improving, particularly among the retail funds, both digital advice and over-the-phone advice. Call-centre waiting times have come down significantly. Complaints handling has improved too.
Funds are putting more effort into protecting their retirement accounts from cybercrime. When consumers can see what good retirement service looks like, they can start asking why their own fund is not doing it. And when funds can see exactly what their competitors are offering, being behind becomes a lot harder to ignore. If your fund got a tick, celebrate it.
Members Should Review Their Super Fund
Look at the retirement services, products and tools on offer and make good use of them. Be proud of its efforts to build its retirement proposition. If your super fund does not have a tick, do not panic. Super is a long-term investment and this is not a reason to rush out and switch funds.
It is, however, an excellent reason to start asking your fund hard questions. Ask it why it did not get the Tick. They all know what the criteria are.
theage 
smh:Your super fund should be great at helping you retire. Only eight out of 45 stack up 
brisbanetimes:Your super fund should be great at helping you retire. Only eight out of 45 stack upThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Superannuation Funds Retirement Income Chant West Retirement Income Covenant Super Funds Retirement Services
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