The challenge facing superannuation funds in providing meaningful guidance to members as they retire is immense.

It’s not helped by the complexity of the rules that govern retirement, nor by the fact that there increasingly seems to be no such thing as a typical retirement.

Research consistently shows that many people do not retire at the exact time of their choosing. We might imagine we can pick a date sometime in the future, work merrily away until that day, enjoy an absolute belter of a work farewell party, and then ride into then retirement sunset. But we should be so lucky.

CoreData’s Best Possible Retirement research, for example, consistently shows that things like retrenchment, ill-health and having to leave the workforce to care for a loved one are quite common spanners in the retirement works. So, if a reasonable proportion of us can’t even choose the timing of our retirement, it’s anyone’s guess how a super fund is meant to help each of its hundreds of thousands or even millions of members plan or prepare for the day they retire.