Today's announcement confirms targeted superannuation prompts are proceeding.
Most commentary on the prompts framework has focused on one thing: funds will be able to prompt a cohort about types of product in general, but not their own specific products.
The Generality Limit Applies to Products a Member Doesn't Hold
Digging a little deeper into the March 2025 exposure draft, the generality limit in s950A applies to products a member doesn't hold. Where the advice concerns an interest the member already has, the explanatory materials are explicit that a trustee can prompt about "the particular product that members have an interest in or the settings that relate to those interests."
Which raises an interesting question.
What Counts as an Existing Interest?
Some funds now offer accumulation-phase features tied to lifetime income products, designed to improve a member's means-test position when they later convert – also known as IRIS accumulation products. If a member has one of those options enabled, that looks like an existing interest. And if it is, can the fund prompt them about it specifically, rather than about lifetime income streams in general?
The Practical Constraint
Obviously this is still an exposure draft, and a prompt built around an Age Pension outcome would be hard to target properly, when funds rarely hold home ownership or partner data.
Curious whether others read s950A the same way.