Annual Members’ Meeting: Our first year report to you

Our first Australian Retirement Trust Annual Members’ Meeting was held on 22 February 2023, just a few days before our one-year anniversary. Here’s what our leaders told our members.

The meeting was held in person and livestreamed online and members heard from Chair Andrew Fraser, Chief Executive Officer Bern Reilly, and Chief Investment Officer Ian Patrick about the operations of the super fund in 2021–22. Members were also given the opportunity to ask questions about the strategy and performance of the fund.

CEO Bern Reilly told members at the Annual Members’ Meeting that while the merger had established Australian Retirement Trust as one of Australia’s largest funds, with 200,000 new members to February this financial year, we recognise that continuing to grow is vital.

“We strongly believe all members ultimately benefit from the scale that comes with growth, as it drives efficiencies and spreads costs over a broader base,” Mr Reilly said.

Mr Reilly said some of the highlights from our first year included:

• We sent members more than 10 million direct communications, supported by awareness and education activities across our in-person and online seminars, newsletters, member contact centres, and digital and social media channels
• Our customer contact centres interacted with members across phone, live chat, email and face-to-face visits more than 1.3 million times
• And our team helped members through more than 30,000 general advice discussions.

Mr Reilly said looking to the future, our ambition is to empower our members to retire well with confidence – an ambition that guides our board, our executive and everyone in the team as we work each day to support all of our members to and through your retirement.

Australian Retirement Trust Chair Andrew Fraser said we are now a globally significant fund, which means you are members of a globally significant fund.

“But that does not, and will never, mean we aren’t committed to serving you as the individual. We are committed to using our scale to enhance the benefits for our members. We are proud of our heritage and of our origins, and as we look to the future, we are firmly anchored in our commitment to serving,” he said.

Our year in investing

Our Chief Investment Officer Ian Patrick told the Annual Members’ Meeting that the past year had been unusual.

“The seachange in investment markets was somewhat historic, including the unusual combination of negative returns from both shares and government and other bonds, which in turn led to negative returns for many superannuation investors,” Mr Patrick said.

He said it was not pleasing to have to report a negative return to members, but the resilience of our portfolios, and that we mitigated the worst outcomes from share and bond markets in 2022, was important to emphasise.

As Australian Retirement Trust, and our predecessor funds, we have sought to deliver well diversified portfolios for members to invest in, to mitigate the sometimes violent swings in share markets, Mr Patrick said.

He said it was important to understand that there is value in maintaining an investment strategy through time and not being influenced by shorter term market movements.

Benefits of our size and scale

Mr Patrick said the size of the pools of member savings and the global investment focus of both predecessor funds had been key to delivering strong investment returns over the years¹.

“The merger increases that scale and global access to investment opportunities. We have brought together two strong investment capabilities from the predecessor funds and I am encouraged by how those combined investment strengths have come together and been leveraged for all members,” he said.

Mr Patrick also spoke to members about:

• the 2022 upheaval in investment markets
• 2022 returns
• the outlook for investment markets
• our investment principles and the importance of sustainable investing in delivering long term investment outcomes.

Keep your goals on track

Make smart decisions with the help of a professional financial adviser.²

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1. Past performance is not a reliable indication of future performance.
2. Deciding what is best for you will depend on your personal circumstances and you may want to seek personal financial advice to get the most from your superannuation. You can find out more about financial advice options at qsuper.qld.gov.au/advice