A message from our CEO

Robbie Campo - 11 Dec 2023

Dear ESSSuper members

What a busy and eventful year 2023 has been. It's been great to get back to the fundamentals here at ESSSuper and to be able to focus on our primary priorities: helping our members to grow their super and be confident they'll enjoy a secure retirement.

It was wonderful to have so many of you join us both in person and online for our 2022-23 Annual Members' Meeting on 21 November 2023. It's always an honour to meet our members, who play such an important role in serving the Victorian community, and to hear your thoughts. If you're interested in learning more about the Annual Members' Meeting, we'll be sharing a video recording of the meeting and answers to all the questions asked at the event on our Annual Members' Meetings web page by 21 December 2023.

Many of you have told us you appreciate the opportunity to chat with experts face to face, so before this year's meeting we also held our first Member Hub. This event brought members together with our ESSSuper experts on different topics, including navigating retirement, understanding your insurance needs, and making the most of your defined benefit. The feedback from those who came down to the Hub has been great. If you weren't able to join us, there are still many ways you can talk to us at any time. You can make an appointment to talk to one of our Member Education Consultants face to face or online. You can sign up to attend one of our regular seminars and webinars on a range of topics. You can also contact us if you'd like one of our consultants to visit your workplace and talk to a group of ESSSuper members.

As we close out 2023, I'm happy to be able to share some the fund's achievements over recent months, which have helped us to contribute towards improved retirement outcomes for our members.

Firstly, as those of you with an Accumulation Plan account may know already, ESSSuper was named the top-performing Balanced superannuation fund for 2022-23 by SuperRatings.* Our Balanced Growth option returned an impressive 13.3% over the last financial year. We're incredibly proud to have achieved this outcome for our members, and of our investment performance across the board. If you'd like to learn more, this newsletter includes a quarterly investment update (July to September 2023) from Daniel Selioutine, our General Executive, Investments.

We've also made significant progress when it comes to fee reduction. At a time when some other funds are increasing fees, effective 1 July this year, we also reduced our administration fee and fee cap for Accumulation Plan and account-based Income Stream products, meaning some members will save up to $1,300 per year. We now have some of the lowest-cost, actively managed superannuation options in Australia.^†

We also have some major initiatives coming up in 2024 that will offer better experiences for our members, including:

• Releasing a new, user-friendly website. We've heard your feedback and we'll be implementing a site that includes more useful information and is significantly easier to use, where you'll be easily able to find what you're looking for.
   
• Launching a new investment option which will become our default for members with an ESSSuper Accumulation Plan or Income Stream account. This new investment option will be designed to provide members with a higher long-term return objective than our existing default, for comparable fees.
   
• Working on an innovative new retirement income solution that will give members the opportunity to manage their income during their retirement. We'll be sharing more about this development with you soon.

And finally, I'd like to wish you all a happy and safe festive season. Our office and Member Service Centre will be closing for a short break at 2:00pm on 22 December 2023. We'll be back at 8:00am on 2 January 2024, and we're already looking forward to making progress with the many exciting new initiatives lined up for the new year.

Kind regards
 

Robbie Campo
Chief Executive Officer

* Source: SuperRatings Balanced (60-76) Index. Returns shown are after fees and taxes. SuperRatings is a third-party superannuation research company providing data analysis, information and commentary to both the public and the superannuation industry. Refer to superratings.com.au for more information. Ratings are only one factor to be taken into account when choosing a super fund.

† Source: SuperRatings' SMART (Superannuation Market Analysis and Research Tool). Refer to lonsec.com.au/super-fund/research/smart

Emergency Services Superannuation Board (ABN 28 161 296 741), the Trustee of the Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme (ABN 85 894 637 037) (ESSSuper).

Investment returns cannot be guaranteed as investment markets can be volatile. As a consequence, returns can be positive or negative. Past investment performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Benefits in ESSSuper's Accumulation Plan, Income Streams and Beneficiary Account products are not guaranteed or underwritten by the Victorian Government or ESSSuper, and ESSSuper does not come under the jurisdiction of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. ESSSuper comes under the jurisdiction of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The information contained in this article is of a general nature only. It should not be considered as a substitute for reading ESSSuper's Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) that contains detailed information about ESSSuper products, services and features. Before making a decision about an ESSSuper product, you should consider the appropriateness of the product to your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. It may also be beneficial to seek professional advice from a licensed financial planner or adviser. An ESSSuper PDS is available at esssuper.com.au/pds or by calling 1300 650 161.