The Roy Morgan Single Source survey for the 12 months to August, based on interviews with 50,000 consumers, showed employers still play a major role, accounting for 60 per cent of the market.

Roy Morgan said the default fund option provided by employers is still the most common choice for consumers.

Intermediaries, like financial advisers, only account for 32 per cent when it comes to superannuation products.

Employees being put into default superannuation accounts is often at the heart of savings-drains, like Australians holding multiple superannuation funds.

The Productivity Commission found that one-third of all accounts, 10 million in total, are rather duplicate accounts unintentionally held by members. Such accounts, the report explained, erode the balances of members by $2.6 billion a year through unnecessary fees and insurance.

Alongside this, rivalry between funds across both the default and choice segments was found to be lacking, with product proliferation and a range of underperforming funds limiting competition for consumers and resulting in at least 1.6 million accounts in default options potentially losing half of their balance by retirement.

Proposed changes

Under the changes proposed by the commission, those new to the workforce would be able to elect their own super product from a “best in show” shortlist of funds developed by an independent expert panel.

Once allocated to the default fund of their choice, the member will remain with the same fund for life unless they choose to change.

So far, this proposal has had a mixed reaction from the superannuation market, which you can read more about here.