The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) jointly published the 2025 Retirement Income Covenant (RIC) Pulse Check report assessing how superannuation trustees are developing retirement income strategies for members approaching or in retirement. The report finds the gap is widening between trustees actively improving retirement outcomes and those making only incremental changes, and the regulators call on all trustees to lift performance against better practices outlined in the report. The RIC, which commenced on 1 July 2022 under the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, requires trustees to have a retirement income strategy that addresses how members will be assisted to balance maximising income, managing expected risks and having flexible access to funds. ASIC pointed to the scale of member impact, citing more than 1.5 million Australians already in retirement, a further 2.5 million expected to enter retirement over the next decade, and almost AUD 600 billion in retiree savings held within superannuation, with two in five trustees expected to have more than half their members in retirement by 2045. APRA and ASIC will provide individual feedback to trustees, continue engagement with Treasury on retirement-phase initiatives including proposed Best Practice Principles for Retirement Income Solutions and the Retirement Reporting Framework, and APRA plans to include retirement products in its 2026 Comprehensive Product Performance Package. ASIC will also continue to update its Moneysmart content pages, tools and calculators with consumer guidance on superannuation and retirement.

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