CEO Update July 2024

By Kate Farrar, Chief Executive Officer, Brighter Super

1 July 2024

This month marks a defining moment for Brighter Super, as we start the new financial year with a single operating system, a harmonised product suite and enhanced service delivery, along with the ability to engage with external financial advisers and a strong focus on Queensland.

It’s been a remarkable four-year journey for the fund and its members, starting in April 2020. At that time, superannuation regulation was rapidly changing and we knew we needed to grow quickly to compete and prosper.

At the same time, we didn’t want to lose our personal approach, as this is what sets us apart from the large industry funds. Our focus has always been on maintaining personal member interactions because we know that’s what members appreciate.

You love face-to-face engagement. You love personalised service and advice. And you are eager to learn more about growing and protecting your super investment.

With this in mind, in April 2020 we presented the initial ‘sustainably Queensland’ partnership strategy to the LGIAsuper Board. The idea was to bring together like-minded funds in terms of personal service, member demographics and access to advice, to create a sustainable, boutique-at-scale, Queensland-based super fund.

By August 2020, LGIAsuper had a shortlist of potential partners and the top two on the list were Suncorp Super and Energy Super. By September, we had started a memorandum of understanding with Energy Super and in December we put forward a competitive offer to acquire Suncorp Super.

In March 2021, we won our bid to acquire Suncorp Super and then on 1 July, Energy Super formally merged with LGIAsuper. A year later, on 1 April 2022, we took on Suncorp Super in an industry-first acquisition of a retail fund by an industry fund.

We understand this journey has had its moments for some Brighter Super members, but the future is looking bright now that we are one consolidated fund with a genuine commitment to delivering value through enhanced services, strong returns and low fees.

Some of the fantastic outcomes for Brighter Super members include:

• In November 2021 we reduced fees by up to 28%.
• In April 2022 we delivered the first face-to-face general advice to Optimiser members.
• In August 2022 we delivered the first personal super advice to Optimiser members.
• In September 2022 we introduced the Retirement Reward for members opening a Brighter Super Pension account.
• In December 2022 we were awarded Money Magazine’s ‘Best-Value MySuper Product’ for 2023.
• In February 2023 we introduced the Retirement Health Check.
• In May 2023 we reduced fees by nearly 70% for Optimiser MySuper members and enabled full access to external financial advisers.
• In December 2023 we ranked in the top three industry funds in Australia with the lowest MySuper fees¹.
• In March 2024 we were a major sponsor of Beef2024 event in Rockhampton and announced David Koch as retirement advocate.
• In May 2024 we formally announced our Queensland Investment Strategy and reduced administration fees for some Optimiser members by up to almost 70%.

In this newsletter update, I am pleased to share some additional changes to our products and services.

Please make sure you also read our article on the latest legislative changes to superannuation, which came into effect on 1 July 2024. These include an increase in the superannuation guarantee (SG) contribution rate from 11% p.a. to 11.5% p.a.

Boosting our Queensland investments by $500 million

In May I was proud to announce our Queensland Investment Strategy, with Brighter Super to invest an additional $500 million in Queensland assets over the next five years.

Brighter Super already has $1 billion invested in Queensland assets, across diverse industries such as transport, agriculture, hospitality, retail, commercial and industrial property.

Our strategy involves supporting our members where they live and work by investing a further $500 million in Queensland assets that support job creation and economic growth, while delivering strong returns for members.

Given more than 70% of Brighter Super’s 230,000² members live in Queensland, it makes sense for us to invest in the state to help drive sustainable growth and create lasting, positive impacts for our members and communities.

Brighter Super is currently selecting fund manager partners for the Queensland Investment Strategy, which will acquire assets via both listed equities and direct infrastructure investment. Proposed investments will need to satisfy a rigorous selection process to ensure they are in members’ best financial interests, diversify the Brighter Super portfolio, and drive economic growth in south-east and regional Queensland.

Supporting Queensland agriculture

In May this year I was delighted to attend Beef2024 in Rockhampton, a beef industry event that aims to showcase innovation, foster trade, and encourage collaboration within the sector.

Brighter Super was a major sponsor of Beef2024, highlighting our long-standing commitment to regional Queensland and sustainable development.

The sponsorship reinforces our investment in the Central Queensland Livestock Exchange in Rockhampton, which helps facilitate trade by linking Queensland beef producers with wider markets. The exchange is one of Brighter Super’s long-held Queensland investments and sees the movement of several hundred thousand head of stock each year.

It was a pleasure to meet many of our members at Beef2024 and learn more about your life and work on the land.

Introducing Retire Easy Pension

On 31 May 2024, Brighter Super launched Retire Easy Pension, the first stage of our new Retirement Income Strategy that is designed to help more members live comfortably in retirement.

The Retire Easy Pension strategy is based on a ‘bucket’ approach, which involves dividing your money into three buckets – with the first allowing for two years' worth of regular income payments, and the second and third buckets invested in assets that will continue to grow over the medium and long term.

Retire Easy Pension is an opt-in arrangement, which current or new members can choose, featuring pre-selected investment and payment options for your Pension account that automatically update over time.

The default arrangement will continue to be our existing account strategy, which is more suited to members who want the flexibility to choose and manage their own investment and payment options.

Learn more about Retire Easy Pension.

Welcome ‘Kochie’

If you’ve attended one of our seminars or online webinars recently, you may have had the pleasure of meeting our retirement advocate, David ‘Kochie’ Koch. We enlisted Kochie in March to champion retirement education and engagement by hosting events, delivering content, and regularly meeting with members to share his financial wisdom about planning for the future.

As well as being a much-loved national icon, Kochie has outstanding credentials in finance and personal wealth journalism, and is a passionate advocate for financial literacy and advice. By bringing Kochie’s expertise to the Brighter Super team, we want to create educational experiences and events that make financial information easy and fun to digest.

You can expect to see a bit more of David over the coming months – at events, on our website, and in newsletter articles like this one on Money habits that will change your life and this timely topic, Top tips for tax time.

Read more about Kochie and our upcoming events.