Yesterday we shared a post on LinkedIn - nothing unusual in that. What was different to our usual posts was the opening line – “When 22-year-old Molly Wilkes took her own life after relentless emotional, sexual, physical and financial abuse at her husband’s hands, he inherited her super”.

We decided to share this article about Molly’s mother’s fight for justice because super is yet another way perpetrators abuse their victims - through schemes like Early Release and in instances like Molly's. Accessing super when leaving a violent relationship is likely to be an election issue - a kneejerk reaction at a time when gendered violence in this country can only be described as a crisis - however it has never been more important for our industry to take a leading role.

As one of our members said in response to the post “This is clearly an issue that is widely unknown. Our country is in the grip of a domestic violence epidemic and every lever to support any perpetrator needs to be locked... especially when it comes to finance. This post is confronting but I'm just so glad it has been published. Thank you for sharing”. 

At both our National Road Show and as part of our upcoming Women in Super Conference (Friday 11 October 2024), we will provide the industry with access to the experts and challenge everyone to consider customer vulnerability in product design and distribution. As Dana said – we must explore ‘every lever’. Women’s lives literally depend on it.