Finance
Retired Aussies facing sad $60,000 superannuation reality impacting millions: ‘Very real’
Australians now need a record amount of superannuation to afford a comfortable retirement, and one group is still lagging significantly behind. Women are approaching retirement with tens of thousands of dollars less in superannuation than men, but there are moves that can be made now to help close the gap.
By the age of 40 to 44, men have a median super balance of $108,344, compared to women with $79,445 – a gap of nearly $30,000. This gap peaks in the 55 to 59 age range, where men have $202,584 on average and women $140,662 – a difference of more than $60,000.
AustralianSuper deputy chief executive and chief member officer Rose Kerlin told Yahoo Finance while we’ve seen some improvements over time, the super gender gap is “still very real” and becomes the most obvious as women approached retirement.
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“A big part of the gap comes down to caregiving and disparities in pay. When women take time out of the workforce or move into part-time roles to care for children or family members, their super takes a hit, and that impact compounds year after year,” she said.
This gap is particularly worrying now that a single homeowner aged 67 needs a lump sum of $630,000, up from $595,000, to achieve a comfortable retirement. Couple homeowners need a balance of $730,000 in super, which is up from $690,000.
In contrast, the latest ATO data shows men at or approaching retirement at 60 to 64 have a median balance of $219,73, while women have $163,218.
The government has flagged reforms to help address the gap. Since July last year, superannuation has been paid on government parental leave payments.
From July next year, the Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset (LISTO) income threshold will increase from $37,000 to $45,000 to align with the top of the second income-tax bracket. The maximum LISTO payment will increase from $500 to $810.
While policy reform is important, Kerlin said there were also things women could do now to feel more on top of their super and more confident about where they’re headed.
“Small actions today can help build greater confidence and security for the years ahead,” she said.
One action could be making additional contributions, even small ones, whenever possible, as this could make a big difference over time.
AustralianSuper’s modelling found that someone who made after-tax contributions of $600 annually between the ages of 35 to 39 and met the eligibility criteria for the government’s co-contribution of $300 each year could retire with $9,000 more.
There are still thousands of Australians who have lost retirement savings in their superannuation accounts that likely don’t realise. The Australian securities regulator is urging people to double check their account to make sure you’re not impacted by the high-profile collapse of two investment funds.
Some 12,000 Aussies had their superannuation funds switched into Shield and First Guardian. But years later about 9,000 still haven’t made an official complaint with the financial ombudsman, with only about 3,000 seeking compensation so far.
“In our view that’s not enough,” ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland told Yahoo Finance.
“We suspect a lot of people are still unaware.”
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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has shared postcode data with Yahoo Finance, showing the suburbs with the worst loses stemming from the $1 billion disaster.
Of the top postcodes across the country, four are in Queensland – 4740 Mackay, 4350 Toowoomba, 4670 Bundaberg and 4209 Coomera Pimpama.
Four are in Victoria – 3029 Truganina, 3064 Craigieburn, 3030 Werribee/Hoppers Crossing and 3977 Cranbourne/Cranbourne East/Cranbourne North.
While two others are in Western Australia – 6112 Armadale and 6171 Baldivis.
“Queensland, Victoria and WA are over represented,” Kirkland said.
“But really what we’re trying to say with releasing this data is that there are people who are affected by this in every part of the country.”
The top postcodes for each Australian jurisdiction
|
NSW |
2259 |
Wyong · Tuggerah · Lake Munmorah. |
|
VIC |
3977 |
Cranbourne · Cranbourne North · Cranbourne East |
|
QLD |
4740 |
Mackay · North Mackay · West Mackay |
|
SA |
5114 |
Smithfield · Craigmore · Blakeview |
|
WA |
6112 |
Armadale · Piara Waters · Harrisdale |
|
TAS |
7250 |
Launceston · Riverside · Newstead |
|
NT |
0830 |
Palmerston City · Durack · Gray |
|
ACT |
2620 |
Queanbeyan · Googong · Karabar |
Aussies urged to reach out to their superannuation fund
Many people may still not realise they were invested in Shield and First Guardian, because the funds sat behind well-known platforms or financial advisers. So if you happen to be in one of these postcodes and have not looked at your super in a few years, it is really worth checking, he said.
“If they’re not sure weather they invested in Shield or First Guardian they should reach out to the superannuation fund and ask about that,” Kirkland urged.
To mark becoming a fully-fledged bank in the UK, the mega-fintech Revolut launched a TV advertising campaign featuring Irish comedian Graham Norton on a brown horse. As Norton explains cheekily at the end: “It’s a metaphor.” The advert, which is a parody of some of the advertising tropes historically used by legacy banks, is a fun watch, posing a simple but in fact consequential question – one that possibly keeps bank executives awake at night today: What is a bank?
It’s a clever provocation. In a few seconds, the ambitious digital startup turned financial services powerhouse challenges decades of accumulated assumptions about balance sheets, operating structures, and the very definition of financial intermediation. But do these hold water in 2026?
What will the banking leaders look like in five years?
Banking models, after all, were built for a different time, one defined by relatively stable geopolitics and smooth cross-border trade, fairly predictable regulations, centralized banking infrastructure, and long technology cycles. For decades, scale, capital strength, and regulatory privilege formed durable competitive moats. Banks sat at the center of client liquidity, orchestrating payments, lending, and risk with little serious threat to their primacy.
Today, those foundations are being relentlessly pounded and squeezed by a set of existential and overlapping forces that are galloping mercilessly forward. Economic statecraft is bumping up against revenue streams; intelligent automation and agentic AI are reshaping workflows, organizational structures, and decision-making. Open banking, enabled by regulations like the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in the EU and similar elsewhere, disintermediates certain key functions that banks used to control end-to-end.
Once more, the customer is king and queen – and banks must rebuild for heightened customer-centricity, looking to the likes of Netflix, Uber, and Apple for inspiration – while at the same time strengthening resilience and compliance with more complex regulations.
I by IMD’s new report, The Future of Banking: The structural forces reshaping global banking – and the strategic decisions leaders cannot defer, identifies six structural shifts that will determine whether banks will be able to operate successfully over the coming decades or lose momentum and market share. The report examines these shifts through the perspectives of IMD professors, the real-world experience of bank leaders, and executives of breakthrough technology innovators, positioning as strategic partners to help banks build new competitive advantage.
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