Superannuation and Elder Abuse

Superannuation laws may unintentionally allow perpetrators of elder abuse to benefit after a victim’s death. A new government consultation paper aims to address this gap. This article explores the issue, the risks for families, and why reform is needed to prevent injustice in how superannuation death benefits are distributed.
Brian Herd is an elder mediatior and elder facilitator based in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast.

Our macro money managers and financial advisers to the Australian Government, The Treasury, doesn’t often venture into the subject of elder abuse.

That changed last Thursday when it issued a ‘Consultation Paper’ entitled, “Preventing family and domestic violence perpetrators receiving deceased victim-survivors’ superannuation benefits”.

The Paper is in response to the Government’s commitment to examine ways to prevent a perpetrator of family and domestic violence (including elder abuse) from receiving the superannuation death benefits of their victim after the victim dies and what loopholes need to be addressed.

A brief summary of the current situation:

  • When a person dies with superannuation left in their fund, those funds are then paid to persons nominated in a valid binding death benefit nomination made by the deceased and they must be, there is no choice.
  • Where no such nomination is in place, they are paid in accordance with a decision made by the Trustee of the fund in its discretion.
  • In either case, that can lead to payment to an abuse perpetrator who, in effect, can profit from their perfidy.

In many ways, superannuation is an outlier in addressing the consequences of a person’s abhorrent behaviour towards a deceased (usually a close family member).

In Australia, for example, in the separate area of the law of Wills, the law of ‘Forfeiture’ (inelegantly described in America as the “Slayer Rule”) prescribes that a person who causes the death of someone, shall lose any benefit they may have been given under that person’s Will.

Where, as is not uncommon, a person’s death benefit in their super fund may well exceed the value of the rest of their estate, there is a growing sense that this apparent anomaly, if not injustice, needs to be addressed.

Yet, while it is easy to espouse the admirable principle and good sense in addressing this issue, the real question is – How?

That is the purpose of the Consultation Paper.

For those interested, public submissions in response to the Paper close on 15 April 2026.

I’m interested.

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