The Australian Institute for Superannuation Trustees (AIST) and the Australian Centre for Financial Studies (ACFS) have launched a pilot study into the administration of super funds to get a better idea of how costs can be managed.

The organisations aim to conduct an industry wide survey of administration costs and gather information on which areas funds spend the most money on.

It will look at why costs differ between each fund and the peer group.

"We are of the opinion that funds should better benchmark their costs," AIST chief executive Fiona Reynolds said.

The survey will be conducted by Canadian research firm CEM Benchmarking and ACFS and could take place as early as June.

"We hope we will have the report ready towards the end of this calendar year," CEM vice president Bruce Hopkins said at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds on the Gold Coast earlier this week.

CEM already provides comprehensive benchmarking services for individual super funds, but the firm is now compiling a simplified version of its survey to create an industry wide picture of administration costs.

It looked at costs associated with in-house and outsourced administration, marketing and client services, financial planning, oversight and strategy and support services.

"We decided to start with administration costs, but we could consider looking at investment costs. But my experience is that Australia is already quite well serviced in this area at the moment," Hopkins said.

The pilot study that was launched at the conference gave trustees the opportunity to give feedback on the questionnaire and will help CEM adjust its methodology to the Australian market.

Some trustees and administration staff flagged concerns about the grouping, while others said that other costs were left out.

Hopkins said that although there was scope for improvement some concessions had to be made to reach a wider audience.

"We grouped [the questions] up as much as possible to get more responses," Hopkins said.