The 14th Annual Post Retirement Australia 2026 Conference is the premier gathering of superannuation funds, policymakers, insurers, and financial services leaders focused on the next phase of Australia’s retirement system.
As Australia transitions from a system built on accumulation to one centred on retirement income and outcomes, the industry faces a critical moment. Retirees are living longer, markets are more volatile, and expectations around financial security, flexibility, and quality of life are rapidly evolving.
Event Schedule
Learn schedule, program and topics of the 14th annual - Post Retirement Australia 2026 Conference
Opening Remarks from Chair
FROM COVENANT TO ACCOUNTABILITY
• Changing retiree profiles
• A holistic view of retirees
• How funds can respond
RICHARD DUNN
Head of Product and Strategy, Consulting at Mercer
• Better retirement income strategies for members
• Increased use of data to improve retiree outcomes
• More innovative retirement income products
• Closer alignment with Covenant policy goals
MODERATOR:
ESTELLE LIU
AMP
PANELLISTS: TBC
10:20 — MORNING COFFEE
• Where implementation of the Best Practice Principles has progressed and where it hasn't
• The gap between trustee documentation and member-facing reality
• What "good" looks like in practice, beyond compliance checklists
• Lessons from early movers and what others can learn from them
• What APRA's Retirement Reporting Framework will require from funds, and by when
• Data and capability gaps funds need to close before 2027
• How reporting requirements are likely to shape product and service design
• Practical steps trustees should be taking now Status: Approaching
• The take-up problem: 30% take-up at HESTA, 45% system-wide despite mandatory super since 1992
• The cost of inertia: 1.8 million eligible Australians remained in accumulation as at June 2025, foregoing $2.5 billion in tax-free returns in FY2025
• The equity dimension: women and lower-balance members show materially lower take-up
• Policy options: default/opt-out mechanisms, targeted prompts, and where DBFO currently sits
MODERATOR:
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
12:30 — LUNCH
• Do available pathways adequately support all members
• The role for retirement "defaults"
• Where to now for DBFO reforms and trustee advice
• Directing members to a suitable pathway Status: Approaching (grounded in Conexus's recent industry survey)
DAVID BELL
Conexus Institute
• How funds are building member segmentation models. What data is actually available and what's still missing
• The link between segmentation and default design: defaulting members into the "right" pathway depends on knowing enough about them
• Account-Based Pensions vs lifetime income vs hybrid solutions, as a cohorting output, not a standalone product debate
• Where cohorting breaks down and members who don't fit clean categories, and the risk of getting it wrong
14:50 — AFTERNOON TEA
• What it took to design and launch ART's lifetime pension: from concept to member uptake
• Early results: who is choosing it, and why
• Operational and communication challenges encountered along the way What ART would do differently, and what other funds can learn from the experience
BRNIC VAN WYK
Australian Retirement Trust
• How ILLIS can benefit members
• Reasons to expect broader use of ILLIS by super funds
• Implications for Age Pension eligibility
• Policy considerations, including portability of lifetime income streams
MODERATOR:
GEOFF WARREN
Conexus Institute / ANU
PANELLISTS:
BEN HILLIER
AMP
Close Day 1
THE MEMBER REALITY
• What the UK's Pension Schemes Act 2026 actually changes for default retirement income
• The FCA's Targeted Support regime and whether it offers a model for Australia's advice gap
• Aviva's Flex First/Fix Later product as a case study in flexible default design
• What's directly transferable to Australia, and what isn't
• Why retirees draw down more conservatively than financial models suggest they should
• The psychological barriers — loss aversion, mental accounting, fear of running out
• What evidence-based interventions have actually shifted spending behaviour
• Implications for how funds communicate with members in retirement
• Why standard life expectancy figures understate planning horizons for advised clients — and what that means for how long retirement income needs to last
• How concessional Age Pension treatment of lifetime income products changes the retirement income equation, particularly early in retirement
• The "layering" approach: using guaranteed income to cover essential spending while managing remaining assets for growth and flexibility
• Which client circumstances see the greatest benefit from lifetime income products — and where the case is less clear-cut
RICHARD LECKEY
Optimum Pensions
MELANIE DUNN
Accurium
• Why standard longevity assumptions understate retirement horizons
• New Monash Centre for Financial Studies research (Comfort or Collapse) on how starting balance, portfolio mix and sequence of returns determine retirement income sustainability
• The sequencing risk finding: an early downturn can reduce ending balances by 20–25% compared with smoother return paths
• What this means for product design and member communication
PRESENTER:
AARON MINNEY
Challenger
12:00 — LUNCH
What funds are building in-house to fill the advice gap, and how far it can go
Where DBFO Tranche 2 was meant to help, and the practical consequences of its stall
The boundary between guidance and advice in practice — where funds are drawing the line
What members actually need versus what the current settings allow funds to provide
PANELLISTS:
DUNCAN MCPHERSON
Founder & Principal, Borromean Consulting
ASHTON JONES
Director, Customer Innovation at Insignia Financial
JUSTIN MAUGHAN
Head of Advice Propositions, Aware Super
• Why housing and aged care can't be separated from retirement income planning
• How home equity and aged care costs interact with super balances and the Age Pension
• What an aged care financing perspective adds to the retirement income conversation
• Practical frameworks for funds engaging with members on these issues
GEORGINA HEMMINGS
Actuaries Institute aged care working group
14:50 — AFTERNOON TEA
• The case for an early-warning framework to identify members at risk of retirement insecurity
• What indicators would feed into a Longevity Retirement Security Index
• How such a framework could be used by funds to intervene earlier
• Practical and data challenges in building and applying the index
• What's actually involved in implementing retirement-phase capability: data, systems, member servicing at scale
• Concrete lessons from funds who've built or are building this, what worked, what they'd do differently
• Where capability gaps remain across the industry
• What "ready" actually looks like, beyond strategy and intent
PANELLISTS: TBC
CLOSE DAY 2
