Financial counsellor Alan Gray goes the extra mile to assist some of his clients.

He travels from his Broome base to remote Aboriginal communities in WA's Dampier Peninsula.

Two of the communities he works in are more than 200 kilometres up a dirt road that can be cut off for months at a time in the wet season.

"Often its just impossible to get across the extent of the remoteness," he said.

"I've had super companies say to me in frustration 'well, just get your client to take their passport into the nearest bank branch' — and that's after I've explained that it's more than 200 kilometres to the nearest bank and they don't have a passport in the first place."

Distance is not the only challenge facing Mr Gray's clients.

Since 2006, rigorous identification requirements under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing legislation have created further roadblocks.

"Identification can be a problem or access to identification, consistency of acceptable identification between what the government wants, what the superannuation industry wants," said chair of Indigenous financial literacy organisation First Nations Foundation Ian Hamm.

Financial counsellor Alan Gray says some super funds aren't aware of Austrac flexible ID guidelines ( ABC News )

"A lot of my clients don't have a drivers license, they don't have any form of photo ID, because that's not relevant to the traditional lifestyle that they live in these remote locations," said Mr Gray.

Discrepancies in names or dates of birth on official documents can create issues even for those who do have identification.

"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been subject to a lot of government policies historically, including policies around the removal of children — so a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in regional and remote communities don't register births, deaths or marriages," Nathan Boyle from ASIC told the banking royal commission.

"They might have their traditional skin name, they might have a birth name, they might have an adoptive name and it is not uncommon to see people having identification documents in all three of those names."

Financial intelligence agency Austrac has issued flexible ID guidelines to overcome some of the access issues — including using a referee statement from a community leader or recognised elder, or a person's employer.

Superannuation funds like a 'fortress' for some clients

When Alan Gray tried to claim a total and permanent disability insurance payout from a major fund for one of his clients, they weren't even aware of the Austrac guidance.

It was only after sending them a flexible ID form used by another super fund that they eventually accepted a reference from the head of the local Aboriginal community organisation.

"The super funds act like this fortress, determined to hang on to the money that rightfully belongs to these Aboriginal people in remote communities," he said.

"Financial counsellors like me are pinging spears at the fortress walls, trying to find weaknesses where we can find a way in to get the super company to reluctantly relent and pay out on these claims."

Trevor Pearce worked in financial literacy with Ian Hamm but faced roadblocks after his wife's cancer diagnosis ( ABC News )

More than 3,000 kilometres away in Melbourne, Aboriginal man Trevor Pearce hasn't found the system any easier.

He worked as the head of the First Nations Foundation but resigned to care for his wife after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

He found out just how difficult the system can be when one of his wife's super funds refused to pay out, despite her other fund paying straight away.

The fund repeatedly questioned the suitability of medical certificates from her GP and oncologist.

Mr Pearce eventually relied on his contacts in the sector to approach the regulator, APRA, which said his wife met all the legal requirements.

"I shouldn't have had to do that, we were under enough stress, we were losing the centre of our universe and our family," he said.



The fund then paid out within 24 hours.

"It was embarrassing for me, because I worked in financial literacy, I should be able to navigate the system quite well — I didn't understand the blockage.

"I struggle — I live in an urban environment, I have a good education, I have a good job.

"If you're in remote Aboriginal Australia and English is your third or fourth language, how does someone like that cope?"

For total and permanent disability and terminal illness payouts, many super funds require two independent doctor's certificates.

Lyn Melcer from QSuper travelled to Far North Queensland and saw that the requirement can be impossible to meet in remote locations.

"In Lockhart River it was a flying doctor … so we had to work out other ways of trying to get people to fulfil the medical requirements we've set up," she said.

Lower rates of home ownership make finding lost super more important

Superannuation can be even more important for Indigenous Australians than others.

At the last census, around 40 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households owned their homes — still well below the 66 per cent home ownership rate among non-Indigenous Australians.

miFirst Nations Foundation has reunited Aboriginal people with more than $7 million in super ( ABC News )

The banking royal commission heard that for most Aboriginal people, super is their largest asset and only savings, but for those living remotely, they only have about a 2 per cent chance of navigating the system.

There are more than 6 million lost super accounts in Australia, worth around $18 billion.

First Nations Foundation is working with super funds to improve access for Indigenous Australians.

Through its Big Super Day Out outreach events, the foundation helped Aboriginal people find more than $7 million in superannuation. Some people were unaware they had any super at all.

From QSuper's Brisbane head office, Lyn Melcer thought the fund treated its clients fairly.

"QSuper's policies were like anyone else in the industry and the regulators really, which was treating our members equally," she said.

"When we went to remote communities, it became really clear to me that that assumption is on the basis that everybody starts equally."

During trips to Lockhart River in Far North Queensland and the APY Lands of South Australia as part of an ASIC outreach program, Ms Melcer saw the problems members were facing and the money they were missing out on.

"We're not talking about the account balances of the multi-million-dollars we often hear about in superannuation — we're talking about $2,000 account balances, $2,500 account balances," she said.

"So far we've reunited over $2 million in lost superannuation with members in remote communities in Far North Queensland, and that work continues."

Super under the microscope when royal commission resumes

QSuper will be questioned over its dealings with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customers when the royal commission resumes next week — one of the more than a dozen industry and retail funds that will be grilled as the inquiry examines superannuation.

Broome CIRCLE financial counsellor Alan Gray is hopeful the royal commission can have an impact if the government and the regulators implement its eventual recommendations.

"The royal commission has become a once-in-a-generation opportunity for some real institutional change," he said.

"The institutional bias I see against Aboriginal people in remote communities, it's so bad, that I really do feel like it's become like institutional racism."

First Nations Foundation's Ian Hamm sees economic engagement among Aboriginal Australians on the rise and says the super funds must get on board.

"Yes we have spiritual wealth, yes we have community wealth, but financial wealth is something we hope to build for the future, and use that as the main way we reduce disadvantage, so that my children have a different life to the ones of generations before them," he said.

"The superannuation industry should be saying to itself, 'we have an obligation to these people, how do we support them to increase their economic prosperity?'

"I think we are in fact at the beginning, I think this will take a long time to do and there will be pitfalls along the way, but we have to persevere."

You can see more on this story on The Business at 9:45pm (AEST) on ABC News Channel.