ENGAGE 2026: Member Engagement, Growth and Outcomes Across the Member Lifecycle is a leading two-day superannuation conference taking place on 27-28 October 2026. in Melbourne. The event brings together senior industry leaders to explore how super funds can better understand, engage, and support members—from their first contribution through to retirement income. It focuses on redefining engagement beyond activity, shifting towards measurable outcomes, financial wellbeing, and long-term member value.
Across keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, and interactive roundtables, ENGAGE 2026 will address critical challenges including member segmentation, personalisation, retention, retirement engagement, regulatory expectations, and the growing role of digital tools and AI in delivering scalable, meaningful member experiences.
PANEL SPONSORRegistration and Morning Coffee
Opening Remarks from the Chair Stephen Huppert
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
UNDERSTANDING MEMBERS, BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AND DRIVING ENGAGEMENT
• What do we really want for members, and how are we measuring it?
• If not engagement, then what?
• Spotlight on spending: Why do members struggle to spend what they have?
• Getting members unstuck: Where to start
PHILIP COURTENAY
Founder, Humans and Money
• Why generic communications are no longer adequate — and what regulators now expect instead
• How leading funds are using data to identify life stage, vulnerability, retirement proximity and engagement level
• Translating member understanding into communications that are timely, relevant and trusted
• The practical barriers to genuine segmentation — data capability, governance and organisational will
SARAH PENN
Founder & CEO, Mayflower Consulting
NEIL BENSON
Global Chief Product Officer, ChandlerCX
10:20-10:50 Morning Coffee & Networking
• Why profit-to-member funds are increasing marketing expenditure while losing competitive flows
to retail platforms spending less
• How digital-first platforms and adviser-focused businesses are building the capabilities that are shifting member switching behaviour
• What the data reveals about who is gaining ground and how — and what profit-to-member funds are missing
• What this means for how funds think about member engagement, digital investment and retention strategy
ALANA DEVITT
Research Consultant, CoreData
• Where the money is going: what outflows from profit-to-member funds show about early leavers, mature leavers and retirement withdrawals
• Why growing the retirement book means rising drawdowns, and why that makes engaging members during accumulation more urgent, with the data to prove it
• How members already use AI to answer their super questions and even choose a fund or adviser, drawing on proprietary data
• What a governed, trusted AI experience looks like for funds: lessons from AI-native advisory
practices at the high end of the market, and the strategic questions every fund should take away
ANTHONY CANEVA
Managing Director, Signal Advisory
AI is changing the way funds engage with members, requiring a shift from reactive service to proactive support. By anticipating needs, identifying life events and personalising interactions at scale, funds can create more meaningful experiences that strengthen trust, engagement and long-term outcomes.
MODERATOR:
GEORGE LIRAS
Executive Manager, Consulting in Delivery, IQ Group
PANEL MEMBERS:
SIOBHAN NELSON
Head of Partnerships, AIA
KATRINA WAGHORNE
Head of Member Service Transformation, HESTA
JUSTIN SADLER
Executive General Manager, Super Benefits Administration
12:35 Lunch and Networking
• A holistic view of the client — beyond the standard risk-tolerance questionnaire
• Suitability of recommendations — matching advice and guidance to the whole person, not just a risk score
• Personality risk — the behavioural and psychological factors that shape financial decisions
• Applied behavioural finance — turning the theory into something funds and advisers can actually use
PAUL RESNIK
Co-founder PlanPrompt
• What ASIC's findings mean in practice — and why acknowledging the challenge is no longer sufficient
• Designing communications and support for members with low financial literacy, CALD
backgrounds, financial hardship and limited digital access
• How funds are resourcing and prioritising inclusion — what it costs, what it returns and how it is governed
• Moving from one-size-fits-all to genuinely differentiated member support: what leading funds are doing differently
MODERATOR:
JENNIFER LE
Business Actuary,
AustralianSuper
PANELLISTS:
MIA LANDER
Strategic Advisory, KPMG Australia
LILY JIANG
Director of Advocacy, Super Consumers Australia
JOCELYN FURLAN
Chair, ANZ Staff Super
14:40 Afternoon Tea and Networking
• Why the most effective member communications arrive at the right moment, not on a broadcast schedule
• How funds are identifying the life events and transitions that prompt the highest-value
communications
• Using data and automation to enable personalisation at scale while maintaining privacy and trust
• The practical barriers to trigger-based engagement — and how leading funds are overcoming them
HOST:
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
PANELLISTS:
NADA SIRATKOV
Chief Experience Officer, State Super
• Why an insurance cover change may be life admin, but a claim is a life event, and why understanding members means understanding the moment, not just the persona.
• Engagement that counts: when to make it effortless, when to step in, and how to recognise the difference at the point of contact.
• Claims as the relationship's moment of truth: building trust with members and beneficiaries, some of whom you've never engaged before.
Setting expectations from first contact to outcome, backed by behavioural science, and why the trustee owns that relationship however many providers sit behind it.
GABRIELA PIRANA
Former Senior Manager - Insurance, HESTA
• Where are the biggest gaps between what your members need and what they currently receive?
• What are the real internal barriers — data, capability, legal risk appetite, budget,
organisational alignment?
• What would make the most difference in the next 12 months?
• Table reporting back: priority themes and shared challenges across the industry
FACILITATOR:
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
Day 1 Closing Remarks from the Chair
Networking Drinks
Registration and Morning Coffee
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
• What the KPMG Super insights 2026 report reveals about fund priorities, member outcomes and the gap between the two
• The retention challenge: which funds are losing members and why, and what engagement strategies are actually making a difference
• The retirement imperative: what the data says about how well — or poorly — funds are supporting members through the transition
• Where the industry needs to focus attention and investment to lift outcomes for retiring and retired members
BHARAD SWAMINATHAN
Director, Super Advisory at KPMG
• Why the 55–70 cohort requires a fundamentally different engagement model — and what that model looks like in practice
• How leading funds are identifying members approaching retirement and designing
communications for the critical transition points
• Moving beyond the pre-retirement seminar: what meaningful retirement engagement actually requires
• What ASIC and APRA now expect of funds in retirement engagement — and where most are still falling short
MODERATOR:
RICHARD DUNN
Head of Product and Strategy, Consulting at Mercer
PANEL MEMBERS:
SUSAN BELL
Research Director and primary consultant at Susan Bell Research
GARVIN TSO
Independent Consultant
ALISON POOLE
Principal, Senior Manager, Customer Insights | Customer & Growth, Mercer Super
10:20 – 10:50 Morning Coffee and Networking
• What AFCA's superannuation complaints data shows about where member servicing falls short, and what members are actually complaining about
• Two case studies, one good and one poor: what happened, and what it meant for the member and for the fund
• Why disputes often resolve within days of reaching AFCA, and what that says about how funds respond to complaints
• Where expectations are heading as government moves towards mandatory service standards for superannuation
PAUL WOODBURN
Lead Ombudsman Superannuation, AFCA
• Why "funds vs advisers" is the wrong frame — and what genuine collaboration could look like
• What DBFO Tranche 2's intra-fund advice changes mean for where the boundary sits — still in exposure draft
• The commercial and cultural barriers stopping collaboration at scale, on both sides
• What a coordinated fund-adviser journey delivers for members — and who's doing it well
MODERATOR:
HARRY CHEMAY
Co-Founder, Lumisara
PANELLISTS:
PETER HOGG
General Manager
Guidance & Advice
at Aware Super
SARAH FORMAN
Chief Retirement Officer
at Team Super
ADRIAN GERVASONI
Executive Manager
Advice Services at IFS
MARISA BROOME
Principal of Wealth Advice
(Sydney) and former Chair of the Financial Planning
Association of Australia (FAAA)
Adrian GervasoniExecutive Manager Advice Services
Sarah FormanChief Retirement officer, Team Super
Peter HoggGeneral Manager Guidance & Advice at Aware Super
Marisa BroomePrincipal of Wealth Advice (Sydney) and former Chair of the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FAAA)
Harry ChemaySuperannuation & Wealth Management Consultant, Credere Consulting Services
• How funds are using digital guidance tools and AI-assisted communications to support members who will never see a financial adviser
• What tools and approaches are genuinely shifting member behaviour and building retirement confidence — and what has failed to deliver
• How AI fits into the guidance model without crossing into personal advice territory
• The design principles that separate effective digital guidance from digital noise
DUNCAN MCPHERSON
Founder & Principal, Borromean Consulting
12:30 – 1:20 Lunch and Networking
• When members need a human voice — the moments where digital self-service falls short and human support is irreplaceable
• What scaled human guidance looks like in practice: contact centre models, hybrid advice, and the role of intra-fund advice
• How funds build the trust that converts a digital interaction into genuine member action
• What leading funds have learned about getting the human-digital balance right — and what they would do differently
HOST:
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
PANELLISTS:
GEORGIE OBST
General Manager Digital, HESTA
• What do you stop? Identifying the engagement activities that consume resources without improving member outcomes
• What do you start? The highest-priority initiatives based on everything heard across two days
• What do you scale? The approaches that are working and deserve greater investment and reach
• Table reporting back: commitments and priorities delegates are taking home
FACILITATOR:
STEPHEN HUPPERT
Independent Consultant & Advisor
• Real members in or approaching retirement share their experience of engaging with their superannuation fund
• What they understood, what confused them, and what they needed from their fund but didn't receive
• What finally prompted them to act — and what they wish had happened earlier
• A moderated conversation that challenges delegates to see the member experience from the outside in
MODERATOR:
SARAH PENN
Founder & CEO, Mayflower Consulting
15:50 CLOSING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR
AFTERNOON TEA WILL BE SERVED
