Industry superannuation fund REST has filed a breach report with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) stating it may have breached the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act over its handling of group insurance.
The superannuation fund made the admission after appearing before the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry with counsel assisting the commission, Mark Costello suggesting that it was open for the Commissioner, Kenneth Hayne, to find the fund may have engaged in misconduct.
Costello said the misconduct involved REST continuing to deduct insurance premiums when a person was no longer covered by insurance.
“[This] may constitute a failure to perform the trustee’s duties and exercise the trustee’s powers in the best interests of the beneficiaries as required by section 52C of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act,” he said.
The naming of REST with respect to misconduct came amid scathing assessments of the conduct of major life insurers including TAL, AMP Limited, Clearview and CommInsure.
The REST breach report to ASIC dealt with an uninentional breach of section of the SIS Act, which requires trustees to provide reasons for a decision in response to a complaint abut the proosed payment of a death benefit.
REST has pointed out that the matter was not raised during the Royal Commission proceedings.
