Balanced portfolio

The Balanced portfolio is designed to have a moderate level of volatility and risk, and to provide investors with a moderate level of income coupled with a high level of capital growth.

Objective

The Balanced portfolio’s objective is to achieve returns over the longer term by investing in growth assets that produce both income and growth. The objective is to exceed CPI by a margin of 3% pa over an investment timeframe of 4-6 years.

Volatility/risk

A risk of capital losses one year in five.

Investment strategy

This portfolio has a moderate bias toward growth assets , such as Australian and international shares and property, with a smaller allocation toward financial assets such as Australian and international fixed interest securities and cash.

Selection of funds will be such that the asset allocation benchmarks shown above are adhered to at all times. Movement from the benchmark will be determined within the allowable ranges indicated in brackets, subject to the investment climate prevailing at the time.

Investment performance

Period to 30 June 2008	Distribution returns	Growth returns	Total return
Six months	0.00%	-13.32%	-13.32%
One year	0.06%	-14.02%	-13.96%
Three years	6.53%	-1.61%	4.92%
Since inception	8.3%	-1.7%	6.6%

Distribution returns are made each six months and may include income and realised capital gains; Growth is the change in value of your unit price; Total returns is the total of Growth and Distribution returns. Returns shown are actual and are not annualised. Past investment performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Balanced portfolio inception date 1 March 2004.

Look up investment returns for all portfolios

Unit prices

Unit prices are calculated daily and incorporate all fees related to the portfolio and the underlying investment funds. To look up the most recent unit price for each investment option, please visit our InvestmentPlan unit price page .

Investment management

The Balanced portfolio uses the skills of a variety of investment managers to manage the various asset classes within the portfolio. Investments are placed proportionally into wholesale investments offered by these managers to achieve the asset allocations set out above.

Investment managers	Proportion of portfolio (%)	Weighted MER*
AMP Capital Global Property Securities Fund Class A	1.98%	0.013%
AXA Australian Equity Value Fund - Wholesale	8.04%	0.063%
AXA Global Equity Value Wholesale Fund	5.62%	0.056%
Barclays Hedged International Share Fund	4.37%	0.041%
Barclays International Funds - International Share Fund	1.52%	0.015%
Barclays Managed Investment Funds - Australian Share Fund	8.07%	0.064%
Challenger High Yield Fund IDPS	2.82%	0.021%
CSAM Australian Small Companies Fund	1.76%	0.022%
CSAM Cash Fund	5.20%	0.016%
Equity PIMCO Wholesale Global Bond Fund	7.53%	0.023%
Investors Mutual Future Leaders Fund	1.81%	0.018%
Liquidity	4.35%	0.000%
Perpetual Wholesale Concentrated Equity Fund	8.19%	0.090%
UBS Property Securities Fund	3.87%	0.033%
Vanguard Australian Fixed Interest Index Fund	5.91%	0.017%
Vanguard Australian Shares Index Fund	7.40%	0.025%
Vanguard Emerging Markets Shares Index Fund	3.44%	0.019%
Vanguard Index Property Securities Fund	1.96%	0.007%
Vanguard International Property Securities Index Fund	1.76%	0.007%
Vanguard International Shares Index Fund	4.31%	0.016%
Vanguard International Shares Index Fund (Hedged)	10.07%	0.036%
Total	100%	0.601%

* MER is the annual Investment Management Cost.
The actual Investment Cost has been calculated based on the composition of the portfolio as at 31 October 2007. Investment Costs may vary from time to time and current Investment Costs can be obtained at any time from Telstra Super Financial Planning. Changes are made on an ongoing basis on the advice of the Investment Committee to reflect market conditions. Whilst all new monies will be invested as shown in this section, residual holdings in other wholesale investment funds may remain. Funds with zero weighting may have had previous allocations.

TSFP