Through all the parts of TelstraSuper pulling together, we have maintained our Platinum SuperRatings rating for the fourteenth consecutive year, demonstrating the strong value and high level of services we continue to provide for TelstraSuper members. 

Fund for life

Our funds under management are now at over $22 billion, maintaining our size and scale, as well as our strong position as one of Australia’s leading profit-to-member super funds.

A key focus for the team over the year has been to support our members facing work changes as part of the Telstra 2022 project. Telstra’s T2022 strategy won’t directly affect the size of TelstraSuper. Once you’re a member of TelstraSuper, you can stay a member for life – regardless of where you work.  We find that many of our members choose to stay with us for life to make the most of our many benefits. From a new dedicated portal full of resources on the website to site visits and webinars, we’ve been working to ensure members affected by T2022 are confident with their finances and understand the options they have to stay with TelstraSuper.

Other key projects during the year have included implementing a raft of changes that have been made to the super system, including the Protecting Your Super package that sees changes to the way insurance in super works. We continued to run a large education program for affected members to ensure they can make informed decisions about their cover. 

Reviews into superannuation

With all the news about the financial services industry it’s important to realise that we always put  the focus on members first and foremost and we will continue to do so.   

In February we saw the final report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry released. 

The aim of the Royal Commission was to investigate misconduct in the financial services sector and bring to account behaviours which have been deemed unacceptable to prevailing community standards. This is aligned with our core value of putting members first and ahead of the interests of any other party. The report contained nine measures that directly concern super and presents a good opportunity to ensure that the system is delivering for all members. 

We also saw a number of proposals to change other aspects of super. This included proposals from the Productivity Commission about default super and Government proposals for changes to insurance, fees and governance. 

As a profit-to-member fund, we champion members’ best interests in everything we do so we will be watching carefully to ensure that any reform does not disadvantage our membership.  

I thank the TelstraSuper team on another successful year and look forward to continuing to help our members maximise their super outcomes in 2020.

On behalf of the Board and staff, I would like to wish you and your family a wonderful festive season and happy New Year.

Chris Davies