Aware Super expands investment suite

Aware Super members in the accumulation phase will now have nine diversified investment options, including two socially conscious options and two indexed options.

Rolling out a new core high-growth actively managed option, a new high-growth socially conscious option, and a new high-growth indexed option, the super fund said the new options were based on deep market research and a thorough analysis of member feedback and global trends.

"We’re here to help our members save for, prepare for, and live their best possible retirement. Throughout that journey, we want to deliver that help in a way that’s completely aligned with their values, their retirement objectives, and their appetite for risk,” explained Steve Travis, Aware Super’s group executive, member growth.

“Our new investment options go hand in glove with that objective. We’ve taken a rigorous and carefully researched approach to provide our members with investment choices that fit their needs, expectations, and aspirations.”

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Around $340 million of super savings from 5,000 members had already been moved into the high-growth options, including a significant number of members under legacy brand VicSuper who received early access under a two-stage roll-out.

Presently, the fund’s members with MySuper Lifecycle could have their super invested in its core high-growth option until the age of 56, when risk in their portfolio is gradually and automatically reduced over the following decade, as they approach retirement age.

With the new high-growth options, Aware Super explained that members could have socially conscious or indexed options and still have the same exposure to growth assets — some 88 per cent of their portfolio — as members with the default offering.

It added that the new investment menu followed the fund’s digital transformation project that consolidated more than 1 million members from five legacy technology systems into a single administration and registry platform.

While the redesign was an exciting development, Aware Super’s default MySuper Lifecycle offering remained the fund’s core product, according to Travis. 

“It’s where we believe we’ll deliver the best returns for our members over the long term, investing prudently and responsibly across a wide range of asset classes, and we’ve no doubt it will remain the option of choice for the bulk of our 1.1 million members,” he said.

“Still, we live in the age of choice and many of our members want to exercise more control over aspects of their super while leaving the day-to-day management to us as their trusted investment professionals.”

He highlighted the new high-growth socially conscious option, which was in addition to the fund’s balanced socially conscious option, to allow members to invest their super entirely in a diversified socially conscious option without forgoing choice over their level of investment risk.

“Many of these members want a socially conscious option that’s not only aligned with their values but also with their risk appetite. Others want the lowest-cost option available while also having choice around risk. Our new investment menu provides all this flexibility for our members and we know it will prove incredibly popular,” Travis added. 

Aware Super added that members in the pension phase would also have nine diversified investment options, compared to five previously, by offering a conservative socially conscious option alongside its conservative balanced socially conscious option. 

Members in the pension phase could also choose a new conservative indexed option or conservative balanced indexed option.

The launch of the fund’s investment menu marked the formal integration of VicSuper with Aware Super, which was formed in 2020 by the merger of VicSuper and First State Super, with WA Super joining soon after.