A word from our CEO
May 10 2024
Robbie Campo - 26 Jun 2023
Dear ESSSuper members
It's been almost a year since I started as CEO of ESSSuper. I'm honoured to lead the ESSSuper team in serving the people who dedicate themselves to helping others. We're deeply grateful for all you do to protect our health and well-being, support our communities and keep Victorians safe.
ESSSuper is part of a strong community of members, employers and industry and government representatives, and I've spent a lot of time over the last twelve months working with these key stakeholders to better understand how we can meet the needs of our members and continue to improve the services and products we provide.
Members' views are, of course, also incredibly important to everyone at ESSSuper. I can assure you that we take all of your feedback very seriously, whether online, through surveys, complaints or given to team members directly. It's been wonderful to welcome members back to our offices to attend seminars and individual appointments, and to see our Member Education Consultants back on the road, engaging with members at their workplaces and events.
It was a great pleasure for me personally to meet with members at my first ESSSuper Annual Members' Meeting in February. This hybrid (i.e. online and in person) event was an excellent opportunity not just to talk to you about what's happening at ESSSuper, but also to listen to your feedback - positive and negative. We heard, for example, that some retired members were frustrated by a risk control which limited the timing of withdrawals from their account, and we've already implemented changes for Retirement Income Streams as a result. Our next meeting will be held later this year, and I hope you can join us. In the meantime, you can watch previous Annual Members' Meetings on our Annual Members' Meetings webpage.
I'd like to share some of the things the Fund is doing for members. Many of these were notified via significant event notices in May 2023, and are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of Super News.
The first relates to fees. We're committed to reducing fees wherever possible to minimise the impact on your retirement nest egg. Last year, we reduced investment fees for eight out of nine accumulation investment options, making them some of the lowest-cost, actively-managed options in Australia on a total fee basis.*† Now, because we've been working hard to realise efficiencies in our systems and processes, we're able to return additional cost savings to members in line with our 'profit–to-member' ethos. Effective 1 July, we're reducing the administration fee for Accumulation Plan and account-based Income Stream accounts from 0.25% to 0.20% and the annual fee cap from $2,120 to $750. That means some members may save over $1,300 per financial year. I'm also pleased to advise that we were able to rebate a portion of this year's administration fees, through the unit price, to all members with an Accumulation Plan, Beneficiary Account, and Income Stream account open on 31 May 2023.
There are some exciting changes planned in the investments space. We're renaming some of our investment options so that they're more comparable with the equivalent investment options of other super funds. These changes have no impact on the investment performance of each option or your actual ESSSuper account balance. The new names should make it easier to see how each investment option lines up with those of other funds from a target return and risk perspective.
We're also working to launch a new investment option which will become our new default for members with ESSSuper Accumulation Plan and Income Stream accounts. This will provide members who haven't chosen a preferred investment option with a higher return objective for comparable fees to our existing default.
I'm pleased to say that we've made significant progress in embedding the new platforms and administration arrangements over the past year. I realise that our systems changes caused members inconvenience and frustration for many months, and I'd like to apologise to you on behalf of everyone at ESSSuper. For the most part, our systems are now working as they should and we're starting to leverage this new technology to improve channels, tools and self-service capabilities for members. You've told us that our website is clunky and you find it difficult to locate the information you need. We're currently working on developing a new website that is significantly easier to navigate and provides a better overall experience. We're also looking to improve our mobile app.
I'm proud to say that our products continue to be recognised as some of the best in Australia. In 2023, SuperRatings† (an independent superannuation research company) rated ESSSuper's Accumulation Plan as platinum (in the top 25% of funds) for the 14th year in a row and our Income Streams as platinum for the 15th year running.
I'm also very pleased to report that investment performance has been strong over the past 12 months, with eight of nine options generating top-quartile returns to May 2023.#† This puts us in a good place to end the financial year on a high, provided markets continue to behave themselves in the last week of June.
I'd like to close by thanking you, our members, for the incredible work you do every day to protect and support our communities. I speak for the entire ESSSuper team when I say we are deeply committed to doing all we can to help you achieve the dignified and comfortable retirement you deserve. We are proud to serve you.
Kind regards
Robbie Campo
Chief Executive Officer