2025 Annual Members’ Meeting

Speaker 1: In the spirit of reconciliation, healing and truth telling, Aware Super acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet today and the many lands where Aware Super staff and members work and live. We recognise their past and continuing connection to country from desert to rainforest, from mountains to plains, from river to reef, and the protection of the coastline and ecosystems since time immemorial. We recognise the integral role of family and communities that have built and sustained the world's oldest living and continuing culture. We value our current and future Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members, partnerships and engagements with Aboriginal and Torres straight Islander communities and organisations. We pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present and emerging, and extend that respect to all First Nations people present today. 

Sally Collins: Welcome to the 2025 Annual Members Meeting for Aware Super. I'm Sally Collins, Aware's Chief Operating Officer, and I'm both honoured and excited to be your host for this evening. Wherever you're tuning in from, from around Australia or across the world, thank you so much for joining us. We're really looking forward to answering your questions and having some great conversations about super and retirement. We'll be dividing the meeting into three parts. First, we have a special session with our Chair, Christine McLoughlin. And our Chief Executive Officer, Deanne Stewart. And they're going to share an overview of Aware Super's overall achievements for its members over the 2024-25 financial year and some reflections on the year ahead. I'll be asking Christine and Deanne some of the many great questions that you've sent us ahead of our annual members meeting and your live questions as they come in. If there's something you'd like to ask any of our panellists during the meeting, please just click submit a question. On the top left-hand side of the screen. Following on from our Chair and CEO session, our Chief Investment Officer, Damian Graham, will show you how your superannuation has performed over the last year across a range of our funds. Then I'm looking forward to introducing you to our new CIO, Simon Warner. He'll be joined by a panel of experts from our Investments team. Together, they'll answer all of your questions about our investment performance, our approach to responsible ownership. ESG, markets, and anything else you'd like to know. Our third and final session will be hosted by retirement author and commentator, Bec Wilson. She'll be directing your questions to Aware's guidance, retirement, and member service experts. Now, while we can't offer personal guidance during the annual members meeting, if you do have a question that relates to your own super account, we're keeping our call centre open throughout the evening. Please just call 1300 650 873 to speak with someone from our team. Ok, so now we've outlined where we're going, let's get started. It's my absolute pleasure to introduce Aware Super’s Chair, Christine McLoughlin and Chief Executive Officer, Deanne Stewart. Firstly. Welcome Christine.

Christine McLoughlin: Thank you, Sally. It's terrific to be here. And hello and welcome to all of our members. And welcome, Deanne. 

Deanne Stewart: Oh, thank you Sally, and certainly a warm welcome to all of our members. And thank you so much for joining us today. 

Sally Collins: So Deanne, I'm going to start with you. Can you please tell us, how has Aware Super performed for our members over this year? 

Deanne Stewart: Well thanks Sally, certainly for the FY24-25 year the number one goal for us is to earn a really good return for our members. And I'm really pleased to say it's been a very strong year right across our investment portfolio. In particular, our flagship fund, the Future Saver High Net Worth, sorry, our Future Saver high growth fund, returned 11.9%. Now that's the third year in a row of consecutive year of double digit returns. And our retirement income, conservative balanced portfolio, earned 9.8 per cent. So really strong returns in both portfolios. And that's particularly strong considering the uncertainty in investment markets. And so when you think about what's happened over the course of the last year, whether it be the tariffs, high interest rates, Inflation. But then the portfolio has also benefited from really high quality, high diversified portfolio and themes like digital infrastructure and AI. So a really strong year all round. 

Sally Collins: That's great, and amazing results there. Congratulations, Deanne. Christine, you've been the chair of the board for just over a year now. Can you tell us a little bit about your focus and that of the board. 

Christine McLoughlin: Thanks, Sally. Well, it was certainly a privilege and an honour to be invited to chair the board of Aware and I can assure our members that I joined at a very committed group of directors, very much with the members' best interests at the focus of everything we do in the boardroom and across the business. And we continue to work on strengthening Aware's governance frameworks and our risk culture. To keep pace with the growth of the fund and also market complexities. At all times, thinking about how we can get the best possible returns from our members and keep funds safe. We must...we really think a lot about how we're going to meet the retirement needs of our members and grow your savings and, at the same time, keeping your money safe, as I mentioned. So that requires us making sure we have the right mix of directors, right mix of skills and experience around the board table. To ensure that we can do this to the best...best standards. And we take our responsibilities to our 1.2 million members very seriously. And collectively, your retirement savings in Aware super funds is $210 billion of superannuation savings. It's probably worth mentioning, Sally, that the super industry now looks after more than $4 trillion in Australian savings. That's actually bigger than the Australian economy. So, nationally, there's a huge need for retirement advice, but there's also issues that we need to ensure that we can get the supply of advisors so that we can help our members. We're pretty excited that AI might give us some great opportunities to help us meet this challenge as we move forward, and in that context, we're really building a very, very strong governance framework. Obviously, when we have such a significant amount of capital, regulators and government are rightly focused on governance, on service standards and quality of advice, and really to ensure that how we manage our funds is in serving the best interests of our members and always thinking about the needs of our member. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, that's great. A lot of issues there that the board are focusing on. Thank you, Christine. Now, Deanne, one of the things that Christine just talked about was that the regulators are really focused on member service standards. Can you tell us why that's the case? 

Deanne Stewart: Service standards has really come into the forefront this year and many of our members may have seen a lot of media around some of the poor service in the industry, whether it be in areas like insurance, pension payments or complaints handling. And so the regulators, quite rightly, have put a real spotlight on service standards and the government has also beginning to introduce service standards. We strongly support this. Because ultimately, as more and more of our members enter into retirement, that excellence in service becomes really paramount. So we're really proud of really getting... being at the forefront of this. We've invested really significantly in our service, in our technology to make sure that members get excellent service when they need it and how they need. And in fact, we've designed much of this with our members in mind. And so some of the things that we've certainly done over the last couple of years, digitising a lot of our service. So instead of having to fill out laborious paper forms and have much longer timeframes, we've digitised just about everything members want to do and a lot that is automated so that it's really simple, a couple of clicks. Things like joining the fund, joining in pension mode as well or in retirement mode, easy to do online. We've also extended that into areas like the help we provide online around age pension and then broader services, whether it be in health, whether it'd be things like mental health assist, or indeed at the moment we're piloting with a number of our members, things like digital wills. And so our aim there is to provide the very best service, but to continue to enhance that. And so member feedback is always welcome. 

Sally Collins: Sounds like some amazing things going on. Now, Deanne, we know that 700,000 Australians are expected to retire or partially retire over the next five years. How is Aware responding to retirees' changing needs? 

Deanne Stewart: Is certainly retirees we find have very different needs, particularly than those coming into the workforce or midway through their careers. And I'd also say we've seen changing patterns of what retirees want today versus when the super system was first created, as we know it, you know, more than three decades ago. And so when we talk to our members about what the three key things that are really important as they're entering into retirement and what their real needs are, The first is... Make it really personalised, don't have a one-size-fits-all, recognising that there's very different patterns in retirement today. So, some may extend their working careers, some may retire earlier, some may retired and then go back into part-time. They may have families, they may have homes. So, all of those different retirement needs. So, that's number one. The second element is really around, help me navigate retirement. The superannuation system is complex. And retiring is complex, and so how to provide that help. And the final element is recognising that while super may be the biggest nest egg many of our members have, their lives are broader than just their super. And so how we can help support them more broadly, whether it be their family, whether it things like government benefits and the age pension, or indeed areas like the world that I just mentioned, how we actually can assist members more broadly as they look to retire. 

Sally Collins: So, given that needs are changing and the complexity of the system, what sort of advice are our members seeking and how are they seeking? 

Deanne Stewart: It's certainly what we find with our members is navigating super... ..Navigating retirement or those getting close to retirement can feel quite daunting, and our job is there to help them have peace of mind and feel far more confident about it. When we look at the questions that members have and the advice of where they need, really, there is four key questions that come up again and again. How much do I need for retirement? How do I maximise my savings and government benefits as well. How do I know how much to spend each year when I'm in retirement? Because, essentially, my superannuation becomes my pay cheque. And then how do I make it last? And so those four questions are really at the heart of what's on members' minds, that we've designed our services around. But how members want to get that help really varies. Some feel more confident and they want to self-serve and just get bits, bite-size information. Whereas others really want to sit down and talk to a financial advisor about their need or their family's need. And so we've made sure that in terms of our advice and our help that we've got that breadth and depth to help our members. 

Sally Collins: Definitely. I don't think I could answer those questions for myself, as you were asking them, so I'm sure they're on members' minds. Can you give us some examples of the take-up of some of these different ways that we're helping our members? 

Deanne Stewart: Certainly, and some of the things that we've done and continue to build on over this last year or two, one of them, and you'll hear from Loretta a bit later, I think, where we've created a Learn Hub and we've got more than 100 different videos so that members wanting bite-size information on different topics can go straight to them, get in their own time the information that they need. So that's certainly something that lots of our members are joining in and watching, over 100,000 members. Have gone on to that learn hub. The other one that we introduced a couple of years ago and we've seen huge traction with our members is the My Retirement Planner. So members can go on and plan their retirement and get help thinking about what that might be and it incorporates their family, their other assets, the age pension and think about what their goals are for retirement and how confident their current path is to getting there and steps they might take to help increase that confidence and peace of mind. And we've had over 130,000 of our members go on and use that tool. And then finally, we've just launched a new tool for members much closer to retirement or in retirement called My Retirement Manager. And that's all about, how do you set up an income for retirement that you feel that satisfies the type of lifestyle you and your family might want to have, but also gives you a sense of the sustainability of that as well. And that's just been launched the last couple of months and we've already had great take up of that as well. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, that sounds amazing. So lots of interaction with some really innovative new tools. Wonderful stuff. Thank you. Christine, another topic that's really top of mind for Australians at the moment is cyber security, and people are increasingly concerned about it. What's Aware doing to protect its members? 

Christine McLoughlin: Sally, I'm pleased you asked that question because, as a board, we are acutely aware of the threat of scams and frauds and we're continually updating our own security to respond to the new and emerging threats that we see coming through these cyber criminals who are incredibly sophisticated. Aware has a range of biometric and multi-factor authentication security processes in place and many of our members would know that they were protected when some of the other funds were targeted. Earlier in the year in April through our multi-factor authentication process, which sometimes you find cumbersome, but it's there to protect you. And obviously, we're working very closely through Diane and her team with industry, government and security organisations to make sure we stay ahead of the latest threats, because the scams, fraudsters, cybersecurity operators are using every technology they can, including artificial intelligence, to get smarter and smarter. At how they penetrate different vulnerabilities in a system. So we have a great technology team who are constantly scanning and ensuring we have the right mitigants in place. Just as a stat, Sally, Australia lost at least $2 billion to scams and fraud in 2024. So we're really trying to also encourage our members to work with us to make sure... That you change your passwords, that you don't use the same password as you use for your Superfund with other accounts, and that you really stay across changes and warnings when they come out. When you have people trying to cold-call you or hard-sell products or encourage you to do things quickly, just always have that question in your mind, is this something that Aware would do? And, you know, you can always pick up the phone and call our team to check. Rather than put things at risk. 

Sally Collins: That sounds like great advice and we do really encourage our members to do that. Christine, another really important topic is the merger that we've been reading about in the media with Telstra Super. Can you tell us how that's... 

Christine McLoughlin: Yes, Sally. And I think we've got a number of Telstra Super members who are actually joining us tonight on our annual meeting. So, welcome to you, and we're really excited that you'll be becoming members of the Aware Super Fund next year. Our board believes that this is really... ..This merger is going to be a win for both the members of Aware and of Telstra Super. Obviously, the increase in scale will help us keep our fees low. And also our cost to serve per member lower over time. And we're also excited, Sally, because the discussions between our two funds have been really productive, and there's going to be benefits to members of both Telstra Super and Aware that are beyond fees and costs as we look at leveraging the innovation that each of the two funds have had, not necessarily in the same area, so getting the best of both. So, the merger on completion will create a fund of $235 billion. With 1.3 million members. So that's going to be quite significant and will combine Aware and Telstra Super's complementary strengths, particularly around retirement and advice specialists. And obviously both funds have highly rated award-winning retirement products and member experience. So we're really excited about that. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, it's wonderful. It seems like a great match. Now, Deanne, you speak a lot about scale and the benefits of scale. Can you tell us a bit more? What do you mean? What are the benefits of scale for us and our members? 

Deanne Stewart: Scale certainly matters a huge amount in the superannuation industry. And a part of that is because as a super fund, you've certainly got a certain amount of fixed costs to run a super annulation fund. And so the more scale you have, the more those fixed costs can be spread across the member base. And ultimately what that means is that you're able to lower cost per member and reduce fees. So that's a real driver of scale. But scale gives you an opportunity to do other things as well. So a really good example of the scale and the size of Aware Super now is our ability to invest really significantly in some of the technology and the member experiences and advice and guidance that I spoke about earlier. And so that scale enables us to do more and offer far greater breadth and depth of help that we can offer our members. And then finally, from an investment perspective, that scale really enables the team to really scour the globe, to look for the very best investment opportunities for our members, but also do a number of those investments directly because of the size and scale of our investment team. And what that means is that we essentially cut out the middleman and that layer of fees that often gets charged. And so we're able once again to lower fees for our numbers on the investment side as well, as well as go after bigger and broader set of opportunities. 

Sally Collins: That's great. Are there any other specific examples of the benefits of scale that we've done recently for our members? 

Deanne Stewart: If you look at just over the last year, we've been able to reduce fees in our pension side, our retirement, by 25% on average, and that really is a benefit of the scale. But if you look some of the investments we've made in things like the retirement manager and the improvements we've make on the digital and technology front, a lot of that has come from the scale, and then on the investment side, we've be able to make some really significant investments. So, an example of that is... A 1.6 billion investment that we've made in the Melbourne Intermodal Terminal and the whole industrial park around Somerton. That's been a great investment for our members. But then more globally, we've taken a significant stake in octopus as examples of using our scale to really benefit our members 

Sally Collins: Mm-hmm, that's wonderful. Deanne, we've also seen a lot of negative media recently and over the last year about super funds and particularly service standards around insurance and death benefits. How has Aware performed in these areas? 

Deanne Stewart: I think Aware has certainly performed really strongly relative to many of our peers, but part of this is a real recognition that this is often one of the most difficult times for our members or their families to go through. So, this is something that we've put a huge amount of focus into over the last couple of years to really make sure we are there for our member and the families in such a vulnerable and tough period in time. So, a number of things that we have done have included things like, for example... Updating and making the forms and the guides as simple and as easy as possible and making as much of that online and as simple. So, that's one of the things. We've also just recently introduced teleclaims, for example, where members are able for more simple claims and lower-value claims to be able to speak to someone on the phone and essentially get the claim done there and then on the spot. We've always digitised as much of that claims experience and provided... A one-on-one case manager for members to be able to speak to someone and not feel that they have to tell their story to multiple people so that they have someone to speak to throughout the course of that. And then finally, what we've also done and a really critical element is we've digitised the binding non-lapsing nomination where you can nominate your beneficiary for your super fund that does make that process far faster as well. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, that must give people a lot of comfort, that whole range of things that they can do. Christine, is there anything else that I should know in feeling comforted that my superannuation will go to who I want it to go to after I pass away? It's one of the questions our members ask a lot. 

Christine McLoughlin: Well, I think it's a really important question to think about now. And, obviously, the great thing for Aware Super members is that you can actually make a binding nomination to your beneficiary very simply online now. It's a click-click process, which is fantastic. But you need to make it really clear who you want your superannuation to go to. It's probably one of your most significant assets. And it only takes a couple of minutes to basically... Say who you want to be your binding, non-lapsing beneficiary. And it's a great dinner party conversation when you ask people whether they've actually done this. The average member, I think, of our fund has around 180,000 in super. So, to pass that on properly is really important because it makes life much easier for your family and friends and certainly gives you peace of mind as well. So, I'd encourage you to jump onto the app, jump online and do that. After this meeting. Yeah, great. 

Sally Collins: Thanks. Thanks so much. Now, if you've just joined us, and thank you for that, we've got a number of members joining us now, and the questions are really coming in. So, we've had a number of questions on a particular topic, Deanne, and that is...and the members in particular who've asked this are Lee, Rodney, Jose, and they want to know about our brand promotion and why we do it. And I think the best way to sum that up is they've said, I've noticed a lot of Aware Super advertising recently. Why you're doing this and what's in it for me as a member. 

Deanne Stewart: It's a very good question. And what's in it for me, I'll certainly get to... We certainly believe that the advertising and marketing is really critical as it enables us to attract new members and really differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. We think we've got a really strong retirement proposition, and we want as many Australians to know about that and to join Aware. And a big part of that, as I was mentioning earlier, is because that scale and having more members in our fund... Really does enable core benefits for our members. So the what's in it for me, part of the question, is ultimately, as we do scale up with that advertising and marketing, it enables us to essentially lower costs, lower fees for members, but then also be able to invest in some of those great technologies and experiences, as well as really broaden what we're able to invest in on behalf of members.

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. Thank you. Now, one for you, Christine. This question's just come in from one of our members, Christopher, and it relates to the recent collapses of Shield and First Guardian. And when people, so where we have seen some people lose some or even all of their superannuation, he asks, what are the safeguards that are in place to prevent superannuation fund collapse? 

Christine McLoughlin: Well, you can be confident, Christopher, that we do as much as we possibly can to ensure that you're not exposed to this type of risk as a member of Aware Super. As an industry fund, we're very different due to our structure, our governance and our diversified investment strategy. And the losses you've read about were mostly in relation to individuals in super-rap platforms and self-managed super funds who invested in higher-risk managed investment schemes. So, your super is in the hands of experts, we've got a 150-strong team of investment professionals, and you'll hear from some of them later today, who carefully manage risk to generate long-term returns. And obviously, as a licenced superfund, Aware is regulated by APRA, and we must operate under the financial accountability regime, which means we must meet very strict governance standards to safeguard our members' money. But those cases raise a really important practical point, which, as I mentioned earlier is just be really wary about investment offers and schemes that promise high returns. If you get cold calls or you're asked to click on social media ads when you're using comparison websites, or you are getting high pressure selling tactics, saying you have to move really quickly or you'll miss out on this offer, just take a pause. The bottom line is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. 

Sally Collins: I think that's very good advice, Christine, thank you. Now, a leadership question for you, Deanne. And this comes from one of our members, Kerry, which is, you've recently announced the appointment of a new CIO, Chief Investment Officer, and we're going to meet him soon. What will this mean in terms of how my money is invested? Thank you. 

Deanne Stewart: And yes, certainly, I might start by really recognising the retirement of our Chief Investment Officer, Damian Graham, who's been with us and overseen the investments over the last 12 years and done an incredible job and built a really strong team of investment professionals and a really long track record. And so I'm really pleased that he is then able to pass the baton over to our new CIO, Simon Warner, who you'll hear from shortly who's been with the team for a number of years, but also has had significant investment, not just here in Australia, but globally and with other large asset management houses as well. And the really important thing there is to make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible, knowing how critical this role is, but also that strong investment track record, the strong investment strategy remains, and we're able to have that very smooth transition.

Sally Collins: Yeah that sounds great, thank you. Now a final question here from one of our members for Deanne which is, and I think this is a question that lots of people would ask, I'm a few years off retirement I don't know what to do. Help. 

Deanne Stewart: Well, I would say, don't worry, you are not alone. I hear this from so many of our members and it is so natural. Certainly, what I would is, we're here to help. We're here help you, we are here to give you that guidance, that advice, so please do get in contact with us. But also, know, you're not alone, in fact, my aunt, just a couple of months ago, my aunt and uncle, who live in central New South Wales, they were both farmers. Finally finished their farming, sold up their farm, and then she was like, ‘oh, help, I don't know what to do, I'm just retiring, what do I do?’ And so I was able to get her in contact with one of our financial advisors and really just give her that confidence of being able to really plan her retirement, actually take benefit of the downsides of contribution as they were selling the farm and actually just have that peace of mind. So please do know you're not alone and we're here to help. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, and as you say, there's lots of different ways that we can help you and give you advice. Terrific. 

Deanne Stewart: Correct. 

Sally Collins: Thank you. So, thank you to our members for all the questions. We're almost at the end of this session. Deanne, we'll need to move to the investment panel shortly. But before we do, is there anything else that you'd like to say to our long-standing members or new members who've just joined us just in wrapping up from tonight? 

Deanne Stewart: Well, maybe just a couple of things then in wrapping up. Firstly, I'd say please do know you're in really good hands and as a profit for member fund, we are here to genuinely help you and let you sleep easy at night. If you think about the funds that's had a very strong track record, but also, and what we don't do, what we do do for awards, Aware Super this year has been recognised by ChantWest as... The best fund for retirement, the best funding in investments, the best in member services and the best funds in advice. And that is something we're incredibly proud of, has taken years of work, but something that we do want members to know so that you do feel that peace of mind and sleep easy. The second thing, as I just mentioned a moment ago, is do know we're here to help. We have a really significant team of advisors. We have lot of tools and help here to provide you... Superannuation is complex and we're here to help you navigate that. And finally, if you don't mind, I might indulge for one moment is just to say a huge thank you to the whole team at Aware Super. We have a team that feels so passionate about helping our members, whether they're on the front line, they're in the investment team or behind the scenes, there's a real spirit of wanting to be a force for good, wanting to help our members have their very best retirement. And the team's done an incredible job this year. So I'd like to acknowledge that as well. 

Sally Collins: Thanks, Deanne. I have to agree with you that we do have a wonderful, very passionate member focus team. So thank you. Christine, any final thoughts from you? 

Christine McLoughlin: Well, thanks, Sally and Deanne. I've actually really enjoyed the conversation tonight. I'm actually excited to be about to hear from our investment team as well and our other experts. But I would really like to take the opportunity to thank my fellow board directors for their diligence and commitment to our members. I'm really here representing all of the board today. And I'd particularly like to thank our outgoing board members because we have a few that are retiring or have retired, so... Angela Nigro retired in August and has been replaced by Lloyd Williams. Pip Kourou left in October 2025, and Lisa Fitzpatrick has filled her place. And Patricia Faulkner will be retiring from the board at the end of the year after over nine years of service. And the outgoing directors really have helped shape what A is today and have left us with quite a high bar to maintain as a board going forward. And I'd also like to thank our members for your trust and ongoing support because that really motivates us every day to really strive for that excellence and hold the management team to account. You, our members, really, you drive our determination to help you plan and enjoy the best possible retirement. Your confidence in Aware Super inspires us to continue raising the bar for performance. Service and innovation in everything we do. And thank you very much for joining this meeting because it's fabulous to have an opportunity to hear some of your questions and share our insights. 

Sally Collins: Thank you, Christine, and thank you, Deanne. It's certainly been an interesting year in super and a very positive one for Aware super members. I'll return shortly to introduce our Chief Investment Officer Damian Graham, who will provide an overview of Aware's investment performance for the 2024-25 financial year. This will be followed by an opportunity for you to ask questions of our investment panel, including our incoming CIO, Simon Warner. 

Loretta Ross: Hi, I'm Loretta, and I'm the Head of Education here at Aware Super. You've told us that super can be really tricky to understand. We get it. So my job is to make sure you've got the right knowledge to grow your super and plan for life after work. Recently, we launched our Learn Hub on the Aware Super website, featuring over 100 flexible learning options, from videos to articles to interactive quizzes and more, covering the super topics that matter most to you. Whether you want to learn about growing your super, understanding investments, or planning for your best possible retirement, our Learn Hub has something for everyone. For many years we've run webinars and in-person seminars. But recently we've expanded the range of topics and in partnership with special guest experts, our events aim to be engaging, informative and interactive. So whether you prefer to learn at your own pace or come along to an event and have your questions answered, we have a learning option that will suit you. And it's always at no extra cost. Over 130,000 people visited our Learn Hub in its first year and more than 23,000 people attended either a webinar or a seminar. I love that we've helped that many people and we're only just getting started. Visit aware.com.au to register for an event or dive into our Learn Hub. Our education is here to make super simple. Now that's super helpful. 

Sally Collins: Coming up, we'll be joined by a panel of our investments experts to answer your questions about how we're investing your savings. But first, I'd like to introduce our Chief Investment Officer, Damian Graham. Damian has led the investment team for 12 years and has built an outstanding investment capability at Aware. Over to you, Damian. 

Damian Graham: Thank you all for joining us today at our Annual Members Meeting. I'm Damian and it's a privilege to speak with you about how we're investing your superannuation for your future. As your Chief Investment Officer for the last 12 years, I've been committed to ensuring your retirement savings are handled with diligence, foresight and care. Today I'd like to walk you through your results over the last financial year and an update on how we are investing your savings. Let's start with how your investments have performed. Over the past financial year, we delivered strong returns for members with our flagship high-growth option achieving almost 12%, which is above both long-term expected returns and the industry median. This is also the third consecutive year of double-digit returns for the members in this option. The out performance across a range of options, shown here, reflects our disciplined investment strategy, our diversified portfolio, and our commitment to seeking value for you in different market environments. In retirement, our default conservative balanced option return was almost 10% for the year, reflecting the more balanced portfolio favoured by our retirees. Importantly, we focus not just on short-term gains, but on sustainable risk-adjusted returns that will help you grow your savings over the long term. Over 10 years, this same option is ranked first on a risk- adjusted basis compared to similar funds, which put simply is a result after considering the level of risk taken to achieve the return. And over the past 15 years to 30 June, our high growth option has delivered an average yearly return of 9.9%, ranking us as the number one performer in the superannuation industry. This means more money in your account and greater security for your retirement. In terms of what contributed to performance this year, in the context of some market turbulence, our growth assets, Australian and international shares, for example, have performed well overall. Investments in global technology leaders like Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft contributed to this result. At the same time, our defensive assets have provided essential stability, particularly for our members nearing or in retirement. Our income investments, including high-quality Australian government bonds, help buffer losses when equity markets stumbled. Direct property and infrastructure have been another anchor to build resilience in your returns. To name a few, our assets include land registry businesses in New South Wales and Victoria, an airport precinct in Western Sydney, retirement villages across Australia, global data centres and fibre networks, and investments in renewable energy platforms. We continue to embed responsible ownership as a key part of our investment approach. Our commitment to responsible investment is about delivering strong financial outcomes through ESG integration in our processes. And by ESG, I mean environmental, social, and governance factors. Over the year, we continue to advocate for better governance and transparent climate risk reporting, amongst other factors with companies we invest in. We advanced our climate transition plan. Aiming for net zero emissions by 2050. By way of example, we escalated our stewardship activities voting against directors and remuneration plans at the AGMs of oil and gas companies and allocated close to $600 million to climate-related investments, including renewables. I mentioned some turbulence in markets earlier this calendar year, and it's actually been a great example of why we encourage our members to keep calm when we see periods of market volatility. In March and April, we saw falls in share markets on the back of uncertainty around tariff announcements out of the US. And we understand that seeing changes in your balance can be very unsettling. But fairly quickly, things rebounded. And you can see that markets were positive for the year overall and have continued to rise after 30 June. Now, because super is a long-term investment, it's important to consider the bigger picture, knowing that time is on your side so you can recover from short-term losses. And that's the case even in retirement. In fact, our research shows that if you switch to cash during a market downturn when you first retire, your income from super could be around 25% less than if you stayed invested in a conservative balanced option. And from previous market events, we know that for about a third of our members who do switch to cash, they miss the rebound when they eventually return to their strategy. Another thing to remember is that by investing in a diversified investment option, like most of our member do, You aren't just investing in shares. Your savings are spread across other investments like property, infrastructure, cash and bonds. So the falls in your balance aren't as big as you may see in the news from global share markets. It's really important not to panic and stay calm during times of uncertainty because changing from your long-term strategy can have a negative impact on your future. We now manage over $200 billion for almost 1.2 million members, leveraging our scale to reduce costs and access unique investment opportunities. Globally, we've built further diversification of the portfolio with our established London office, helping to secure access to high-quality investments overseas. Our recent investment in offshore battery storage business not only diversifies our portfolio geographically, but also aligns with our long-term return objectives and strategic investment in climate solutions. We've also established a property platform in the UK, sourcing attractive high quality offices with an initial focus on central London properties in prime locations. We're also seeing great opportunities locally, investing in built to rent residential properties, helping address the undersupply in housing. And we've continued our commitment to developing privately owned freight terminals to help ease supply chain constraints. We can also invest in early stage businesses that have good growth potential, like Harrison AI. An Australian health tech company that uses AI to help medical imaging diagnostics. These are just a few examples of how we're actively managing your savings, investing in different assets and locations to help deliver returns for your future. As Deanne mentioned, this is my final year as Chief Investment Officer. I want to sincerely thank you for your trust and support. It's been an honour and a privilege to lead a team trusted as the custodians of your retirement savings. Under Simon's leadership, the focus on managing your retirement savings with an ongoing commitment to transparency, prudent decision-making and innovative thinking will endure. Thank you and goodbye. 

Sally Collins: Thanks, Damian, for that very insightful overview. On behalf of all of us, we wish you the very best for your new role. Now, I'd like to introduce our incoming Chief Investment Officer, Simon Warner. He's been a key member of the investment leadership team as Aware's Head of Portfolio Management for the past two years. Welcome Simon, and congratulations on your appointment. 

Simon Warner: Thanks Sally, really appreciate it.

Sally Collins: Now, can you tell us a little bit about your background and why did you choose to join Aware?

Simon Warner: Yeah, well, I mean, like many of us, I think we choose to join Aware, partly because we're all such a great team and such high quality people, I think, working here, but very much the purpose of the organisation and that proximity that we get as investors to our members. Prior to working at Aware I've had about a 30 year career. I started off in London and then Singapore and I've worked in Australia in a number of institutions since about the year 2000. 

Sally Collins: Fantastic, thank you. Now, a number of members have submitted questions about the outlook for investment markets and future performance. And here's a pretty typical question, okay? What is Aware's future investment strategy and what do you see as the biggest opportunities in a changing world economy? 

Simon Warner: So I think a couple of elements to that. One is about the investment team. I think, as Damian said, I really take up the role with a really great team, a great capability. We've got lots of really interesting and diverse assets across the world, and we've got a really strong foundation upon which to build. Two of the things you'll hear us talking about in the future are an ongoing focus on internationalisation, so diversifying the assets that we have and investing more directly those assets overseas in order to keep costs down. But also, we're going to continue to use as much technology and information as we can as a team to really inform our decisions, to make the best possible decisions on behalf of members. 

Sally Collins: Great, now before we move on to the rest of our questions, I'd like to introduce the rest of the investment panel. So, we have Liza MacDonald, who's the head of responsible investments. Welcome, Liza. 

Liza MacDonald: Hi, Sally. 

Sally Collins: And a warm welcome to Michael Clavin, who's Head of Income and Markets. 

Michael Clavin: Thank you, Sally. 

Sally Collins: Now Liza, before we learn more about the questions that have been put to us, can you please explain your role as head of responsible investment? What do you look after at Aware? 

Liza MacDonald: Yeah, thanks, Sally. I and my team have the privilege of working with the rest of the investment team. And our remit and a lot of the work that we do focuses on how we integrate environmental, social and governance factors into our investment decision-making process. So ESG, as Damian mentioned in his speech, so very much across all the asset classes, how we appoint managers and how we, when we're doing those deals, we're looking at the risks but also the opportunities that come from ESG. We also look after stewardship, and so our stewardship activities are around voting and engaging in the listed companies that we own. We've also advocate on behalf of ESG issues and do research. And then we also look after our exclusion framework and our socially conscious options and the criteria the screening criteria that is for those options. I think one of the biggest elements and is certainly front of mind for us is also our climate strategy and how the Fund is responding to the risks of climate and also the opportunities that exist there as well. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. Thank you. You're about to get a few questions, Liza, on many of those topics. But first, Mike, tell us a little bit about your role and your team as Head of Income and Markets. 

Michael Clavin: So thanks, Sally. I run a team called Income and Markets at Aware. And what we are is a team of about 25 investment professionals. And we develop and implement the strategies of some of our defensive asset classes, cash, fixed income, and credit. We also run the markets business, which is our central trading and exposure management function. 

Sally Collins: Fantastic, thank you. Now Simon, a question for you. We've spoken about the future investment strategy, but taking a different perspective, one of our members is concerned about the current and prospective threats to the world economy. And so they've said, can you shed light on how the fund's investment strategy is ensuring security for our members' savings? 

Simon Warner: Yes, it's at the forefront of our mind all the time. As Damian spoke about in his video there, diversification and diversified funds is really at the heart of what we really believe in. We believe in a breadth of investments, investing across a wide range of geographies and into a wide arrange of assets, giving a level of security and stability to the underlying assets. The returns that we've seen in the last few years have been very strong. Indeed, they're a bit stronger than we would expect long-term averages to be. So I wouldn't be surprised to see those numbers moderate a little bit in the short to medium term. But we're still going to anchor ourselves on this idea of diversification. If you don't make an active choice at Aware, you are in what we call a life-cycle product, which moves the mix of defensive and more pro-growth assets in your portfolio. It evolves it over time as you move towards your retirement. 

Sally Collins: That's great. Thank you. I guess an extension of that, and something that our members would really like to understand from the external environment, is what does this mean for our members, Mike? If you could just elaborate on what strategies do we have in place that your team implement that help to safeguard their savings. 

Michael Clavin: Yeah, it's a great question. I think, you know, as Deanne pointed out before, our number one goal is to grow our retirement savings for our members. But how we do that is different, depending on where the member is on their journey towards retirement. So for our younger members, as Simon talked about, part of our life cycle for our default members is we invest those members into the high-growth option. Now, that high-growth option is invested primarily. In assets like shares, both domestic Australian equities or international shares. As those members get closer to the retirement, and we de-risk some of those assets. And that's where the defensive assets that I manage come into play. Those assets are designed to buffer some of the volatility you'll see in the high growth options. They're also designed to be counter, act as a counterweight to equity foals. So, for example, when we have equity movement, when equity markets tend to go down or share markets go down, assets like Australian government bonds, as Damien mentioned, tend to up in value. Again, counterbalancing that risk. That's really important as our members get closer and closer to the drawdown of retirement, because it allows them to preserve the assets that they have spent a long time of accumulating. But what's also important about that is, there's still a growth strategy within those options. So as Damian pointed out, our conservative growth option, which is one of the flagships for our retirement phase, still had a very nice growth profile because we balance the growth assets, allowing the members to still grow their assets, but then buffer some of the downside risks. 

Sally Collins: Great. So it sounds like a lot of safeguards are in place. That's wonderful. Thank you. Simon, we've had a question from one of our members, Philomena, on specific markets and investments now. And so how much is Aware, her question is, how much is Aware invested in the US stock market and what do we anticipate regarding the US economy under the current administration? 

Simon Warner: Yeah, it's a great question Philomena. So, you know, the US is the largest global economy, it's the largest capital market, so it's the largest source for investment opportunities for us and so therefore it is the biggest investment market that we have outside of our home market. About 30% of the fund is invested in the US, most of that coming through US share exposure. Now, the starting point I think is that the member base has done really well out of that. You know, that's been over a medium term period the best performing stock marketin the world. It's the home to many of the more dynamic companies that we all think of when we think about the companies that have done well out of the most recent phase of AI and technology. And there are many reasons to continue to think that the US economy will continue to do well. It's got a lot going for it. It's still a very dynamic economy. However, with that concentration of risk in the US, and all of the risks that I'm sure Philomena is reading about every day, we're very mindful that that concentration comes with it, with some downside risk as well. At the moment, we're in a position where we're really watching that very carefully, not acting very actively on that, because we still think the growth outlook in the U.S is pretty good. Although, as I said before, I do think expected returns in the next few years should probably be a little bit lower than they have been in the last few. 

Sally Collins: Ok thanks, our members are clearly thinking a lot about these topics and markets and what it means for them. We've got a question from one of our members, Ying, and what they're wanting to know is specifically about private equity and infrastructure. So what role does private equity and infrastructure play and what's included in those asset classes? 

Simon Warner: So we like stuff that's different because if you invest in stuff that is different you get that breadth and you get that diversification and through that you get a level of stability. That stability allows you to stick with your investment strategy through ups and downs. So private equity and infrastructure give us opportunities to invest in different stuff. They're either early stage companies in the case of private equity or some of the areas of infrastructure, like data centres or registries. Which you can't get access to through public markets. So we really value that and it will continue to be a big part of the portfolio going forward. 

Sally Collins: Yeah great, we'd like to not use jargon, and I think you've just changed. Now, every time I hear the word diversification, I'm going to think about stuff that's different. 

Simon Warner: Stuff that's different.

Sally Collins: I much prefer that. Thank you. Liza, a question for you. So, we've had quite a few questions about your team and the topics that you mentioned earlier. So, how do we engage with companies that we're invested in? And how do exercise our voting rights and particularly on environmental issues? So, Geoffrey has asked us, How has your voting at company annual meetings sought to mitigate climate change? 

Liza MacDonald: Yeah, great question, Sally, and I would say it is probably one of the most questions we get asked on a daily basis from our members as well. So we do have a very active engagement and voting strategy and policies around what we do. Through our climate change plan that we do, have voting and engagement is a key pillar of that climate change plan as well, so we have a voting policy. And what that enables us to do is, when we're engaging with companies and we're asking for them to ensure they have climate transition plans in place themselves, and what they're doing to manage those risks, when they have their AGMs, so their annual general meetings, and they can put up a climate, it's called a say-on-climate strategy, and so we have the ability to vote for that or against that. And so our engagement and the path that the companies are on and what their transition plans are, feeds into that voting decision. So an example for us is at the Woodside AGM earlier this year, whilst there's been some improvements, we still haven't seen as much action and a transition plan in place of how they're going to manage their risks. So we did vote against the Chair of the Sustainability Committee at that AGM, and that was on the back of them not having a say on climate vote available for us to use those voting rights. So it's very active. 

Sally Collins: Great. And those examples really help bring to life the things that you're doing every day. We've got a very closely related question from Tony, where he's asking us, can you please outline Aware's approach or strategy to divestment from hydrocarbon assets and our future asset allocation to fossil fuels? And maybe if you can cover off what a hydrocarbon asset is as well for our members. 

Liza MacDonald: As I learnt today, hydrocarbon assets are very, it's a very common term in the US for oil and gas. So in Australia, we would generally refer to it as oil and gas, but in the U.S. They're hydrocarbon asset. So at Aware Super, we've had in place a climate strategy since 2016. And that's very much about managing the risks of climate change and it is a transition. So under that climate strategy, we have pillars around decarbonisation. Transition and resilience, investing in the opportunities, engagement and advocacy. So, when we put our climate strategy in place in 2020, we did take a decision then to divest thermal coal miners. That's been a position that we've had. When we think about divestment, it's not something we do lightly. We need to understand the impacts of the portfolio. We also need to understand the role that oil and gas, and particularly gas, may play in that transition. So we want to engage with the companies that we're invested in. We want to understand our exposure and we want see that transition so we do look at our climate strategy every three years and we're currently looking at that now. All of the information that we have and how we're managing that for our members is available on our website. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. 

Liza MacDonald: We report annually on our progress.

Sally Collins: Excellent, so it sounds like there's a lot of information available for those who'd like to delve in a little bit more. 

Liza MacDonald: Definitely. 

Sally Collins: Thank you. So, Mike, a question for you from one of our members, Christine, and she'd like to know why is it that Aware Super highlights the investment returns in its high growth option, but our more defensive options, which only earn moderate returns and not talked about as much, why is that the case? 

Michael Clavin: Yeah, so I think Sally, goes back to the life cycle approach to our default option. So all members under 55 are defaulted into the high growth option, which means about 800,000 of our members are actually in that option. So that is probably why it seems that we promote that option above all other options. But you can find the returns of the other options on the website. But what's probably important to note is,Why the other ones seem to have more moderate returns. And what I would say is that those options are tailored to the risk profile of the members that are investing in them. So in the high-growth options we talked before, they're invested in more growth assets like shares. Now those drawdowns when you're younger in your accumulation phase don't really have an impact to your long-term retirement savings. But those drawdowns as you get closer to your retirement age actually can have a significant impact. So the more moderate or more conservative options tend to have more assets to buffer volatility and preserve savings. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, correct. 

Michael Clavin: We call those the defensive asset classes. 

Sally Collins: OK, thank you. I think that's a really good overview. I'd love to dig a little bit deeper, if I may. So can you explain what role does the defensive asset option play in the portfolio and why do we offer them? 

Michael Clavin: So again, I think it's tailoring the products to the risk profile of our members. Now, whether that's through a default option, like the lifecycle, or members that have chosen their own more conservative options. And each one of the defensive asset classes probably plays a different role. So if I look at something like cash, the primary role that that would have is liquidity and capital preservation, and may protect a little bit from inflation. Then you have things like fixed income. Now, fixed income traditionally has played a role to counter or have a non-correlated return to share markets. So as we talked about before, what they tend to do is when share markets are in decline, there tends to be money that goes into government bonds, which means they go up in value. So that tends to counter some of the down periods of equities. And then credit, which is another defensive asset class we look after, that tends to look to get a little bit more of a risk premia in the defensive assets. Now there is some correlation between equities, but it tends to be a lesser volatile asset class. But it does give us an important source of excess returns for our defensive members. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. So, multiple roles at the same time. 

Michael Clavin: Yes. 

Sally Collins: Wonderful. Thank you so much. So, Simon, back to your different stuff concept. Janet has asked us a question about the importance of diversification across geographies. And she's asked us, how does Aware allow for exposure to the Asian and BRICS, B-R-I-C markets? And firstly, can you explain what the BRICS market is for us? 

Simon Warner: Yeah, so I think BRICS is a term shorthand generally to reference any fast-growing dynamic economy in the world. It's an acronym that used to refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China. I think we think about that group of economies more broadly now and indeed we are invested in those markets. We're invested in these markets because we like the idea of high productivity, high growth, therefore higher returns that can be available there. A good question you might ask is why don't we invest lots there? Well, we're moderating that because with that extra return comes a bit more potential to move around. So a bit what we would call volatility. And so we're trying to manage the higher returns that are on offer from those markets with the higher risk that it comes with, all within the context of that broader portfolio. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. Thank you. And often across many geographies, you would imagine 

Simon Warner: Absolutely. 

Sally Collins: Indeed. Thank you. So, Liza, a question for you again from one of our members, Claudia. And she'd like to know, what's the focus of Aware's socially conscious investment option? 

Liza MacDonald: Yeah, great question. So I talked before about how we integrate ESG into our investment decision-making processes, which is across the whole of the fund. We do offer members who want to invest more in line with their values. And so the socially conscious options are the options that we have for that. So they are options that restrict or exclude certain sectors. And so we sort of, we have climate screens. So we exclude fossil fuels. We also have ethical screens, and those ethical screens include tobacco, gambling, civilian firearms, live animal exports, for example, and some other sectors as well. We also a controversies screen, and that controversy screening includes controversial weapons, so, and as well as corporate controversy, so companies that may have had severe corporate controversies over their time. So it's essentially more of an exclusion option and allows members to invest where they don't want to have their money invested. 

Sally Collins: Thanks so much. Mike, the next question is for you. And you were talking a lot about credit earlier as a defensive asset. But this question is, can you share some insights for us as to what private credit is all about? We're reading a lot of it at the moment. The regulators are very interested in it. But what is it and what is that we invest in in private credit at Aware? 

Michael Clavin: Yeah, there has been a lot of press around private credit in the last couple of years, and a lot that's due to the growth of the asset class. It's seen a significant amount of money go into private credit. But what I want to talk about is just how do you explain private credit? And I think the best way to do it is probably just through two investments that we have within the fund. One would be in debt issued by a public company like Woolworths. Now, Woolworth is a publicly traded company. They issue... Both shares in the equity market and debt in the debt market. Now those issuances are done via exchanges and there's a lot of disclosure about the Woolworths financials and cash flows. We also have, and it was one of our first investments in private credit, an investment in Harris Farm, which some of our members in New South Wales, particularly the Sydney metro area, might be familiar with. Now Harris Farm... Does not offer public traded securities, but it did offer us to lend Harris Farms money to get exposure to that business that we normally wouldn't be able to get exposure from. So if we channel Simon, it's something different. It gave us access to areas of the Australian economy that are not as easy to get to through the listed markets. So those are kind of the difference between what public and private is in the credit market. But what I think is really important, that how we invest in credit at Aware, whether it is private or public, is fundamentally based on the risk appetite of our members and the fundamental belief that we can pick good credits by understanding the cash flows and the financials of the companies we invest in. We can pair with Liza's team in responsible investment to understand the risks they're seeing around environmental, social, and governance. And with that framework, we build up a portfolio that is anchored in diversification. So, a tenant in the defensive asset classes, to me, is diversifying your risks. What we also do is, where we don't have that capability to do it directly ourselves, like in Australia, we pair with very well-known and large investment managers to ensure that we are replicating our members risk tolerance and our investment beliefs through their investment capabilities. 

Sally Collins: That's great. Thanks, Mike. And I think that does give us a lot of comfort to know that there's so much expertise in your team that we're using external partners and it plays such an important role in our overall portfolio. Final question now for you, Simon, and this has been a popular one around outlooks, and this comes from one of our members, Irene. She'd like to know what is the forecast for the next 12 to 24 months, and will major economies slow or will they expand in the next year? 

Simon Warner: Yeah, well, look, it's been an interesting old time, hasn't it? So, markets have been very volatile. There's lots of headlines. We've had that period of volatility, obviously, in inflation over the last few years. But through all that, actually, underlying growth has been relatively stable. And that continues to be our outlook for the next year or two that we've got... We will continue to see some fluctuations. I'm pretty sure we'll see some more headlines. And I'm sure accompanying that, we'll some market volatility. But as long as we continue to see the underlying tenets of the economy to be relatively strong, which we do, and growth to be relative strong, then that should be anchoring us in this long term outlook that we've spoken about over the last half an hour or so. 

Sally Collins: Yeah, great. So, a case for calm, perhaps. 

Simon Warner: I think so. 

Sally Collins: Excellent. Wonderful. Thank you. So, thank you so much to Liza, Simon and Mike. Unfortunately, we've run out of time, but that was a fascinating insight into how aware is managing investments on behalf of our members. Now, don't go away. We'll be back in a moment with our final session for this evening, our retirement panel, hosted by our retirement commentator and author, Bec Wilson. 

Jesse Oey: I'm Jesse, I'm the retirement lead at Aware Super. My job is to connect you with the right support, products and services, so you can get the retirement that you want, whatever that might look like. I love listening to your feedback and finding out what matters to you most as you navigate life after work, so we can help you get there with confidence. Here's some of the ways we can help. With My Retirement Planner, you can see how much money you'll need to live the you want when you decide to stop working one day. It can show you how small changes you make now can make a big difference later on. And you can adjust your plans to whatever life throws your way, like downsizing, caring for loved ones, or winding back your work hours. And if you need help with those next steps, you can book in for a chat with a retired ready expert. It's all part of your membership. But what about when you do retire? With a retirement income account, you can turn your super into regular income and take money out as you need. Your money will stay invested to help keep it growing, tax-free. And when you do this, you could be eligible for a retirement bonus, giving you extra money that could help you retire with more. If you qualify, it's added to your account automatically. More than 6,000 members got their bonus this past year, and you could next. Last but not least is Retirement Manager, a new digital advice experience designed for members aged 60 and over. Now that's super helpful. 

Bec Wilson: Hi, I'm Bec Wilson, the author of How to Have an Epic Retirement, the host of the Primetime podcast and the founder of the Epic Retirement Institute. I'm also a mother of three teens and young adults, and I'm headed into my own primetime years. Half of us are genuinely worried about having enough money to retire. And I hear many people out there saying retirement feels impossible to plan for. The good news, it doesn't have to be. Aware Super is one of only six Australian funds that have been awarded what's called the Epic Retirement Tick for being truly retirement ready. Telstra Super was another one of them, which says to me that there's already lots that the two funds have in common and are doing well when it comes to superannuation. We assessed funds on 18 criteria, including long-term performance, fees, the variety of retirement-relevant advice available to members, retirement income options, digital tools and calculators, education, and service standards. So it's my pleasure to be speaking with the experts at Aware Super about how you can make sure you set yourself up for an epic retirement and take advantage of the services and support Aware offers to help you achieve it. We'll also be answering some common questions about retirement, growing your super, as well as questions submitted by you. Remember, if you have a question for any one of the panel, please click the submit a question button on your screen. And if you'd like to get help or advice managing your superannuation account, Aware's member services team is actually waiting by the phones now to help you. So give them a call on 1300 650 873. That's 1300 650 873. Now, I'd like introduce you to our experts tonight. First of all, we've got retirement experience lead, Kate Rolfe. 

Kate Rolfe: Hi, Bec. 

Bec Wilson: Hey. We've got general manager of guidance and advice, Peter Hogg. 

Peter Hogg: Hi, Bec. 

Bec Wilson: And we've got the head of member and advisor help centre, Jess Ricks. 

Jess Rix: Hey, Bec. 

Bec Wilson: Welcome to the panel, guys. Now, I want to start with a little bit of fun. I looked up the definition of retirement when I wrote my first book, How to Have an Epic Retirement, and it made me smile and cringe at the same time. I have to read you the definition that is in the Cambridge Dictionary right now. It says that retirement is the act of leaving your job and stopping working because you're old. Yeah. Try it on. It gets the same reaction from retirees, right? They don't feel like that's the definition of retirement that fits the modern world. To me, the modern definition of retirement is a world away from how we used to think of it. I like to play out the definition of retirement as a new phase of life, which for many people, they're now moving into giving up work gradually. They're looking to gradually generate income from more passive sources. And then they're trying to choose what to do with their time. And that's a whole different phenomenon. Can I ask from your chair, from what you see in a Aware Super, can you start us off tonight in this discussion by telling us what you say of retirement today and how it's changed while you've been there? Kate, do you wanna lead us off? 

Kate Rolfe: Sure. Thanks, Bec. I think a modern retirement now is about a liberating, flexible next chapter of life after full-time work and you being able to call the shots on how you want to spend your time. You know, whether it's through hobbies or travel or many people are starting to pick up extra part-time work or just pursue that passion project. Everybody's view of that next chapter is so different. And we're here at Aware Super to help our members prepare for that and have a really smooth transition, even if it takes a long time to do that and be right with them when things change, because they will, and to be there for them right through their next chapter in their own unique vision of what their retirement looks like. 

Bec Wilson: Love it. That's really nice. Peter, tell us from the financial advice perspective. 

Peter Hogg: Oh, I knew you'd say that. I think the strange thing I'm going to say is that retirement isn't all about the money. Now, it's obviously important, and you've got to make sure that it's there to enable the things that you were just speaking about, both yourself and Kate, you know, that new phase of life, you know your chance to do whatever you wanted to do all those years. So, retirement's more about that than the money, but the money does help. So, obviously, we're here to help people get that right. 

Bec Wilson: Jess, what do you see? 

Jess Rix: Well, it's hard to add to both of my colleagues here, but, look, when I speak to members and I have the fortunate opportunity to speak to more than 700,000 of them each year, it really is working less and living more. It's a chance to do more of what you love, and that's for those that are fortunate to choose when they retire. For members that are...it's not their choice and they may be forced into retirement, may be caring for a loved one, it can mean very different things. So I think the spectrum is quite different, depending on your situation. 

Bec Wilson: Important for us to remember that too. I think only 31 per cent of people retire by choice today, a number we want to actually improve in our lifetime. Look, we've got some questions coming in and I'd like to start with the first question from Matthew. I'm looking to retire in the next 10 years or so. What's the best advice to pay off a mortgage quickly and set yourself up for a comfortable retirement? I'd love to throw this question to you, Pete, if you'd like to take. From a guidance perspective? 

Peter Hogg: Sounds like one for me. So, look, firstly, it makes a whole lot of sense to reduce debt or eliminate debt in the lead-up to retirement, of course. Maybe the place to start is to think about, you know, what sort of income you do actually need to live off each week. You match that against the income you're getting and go, well, actually, what surplus have I got to work with here? You know, whether that's to pay down debt faster. You know? Obviously, that's a good place to stop. It's probably good to think about retirement planning as well, so it's just good to get started there. A couple of tips, maybe. Of course, hassle your bank or your lender. Make sure you're getting the best rate. These things change all the time. So, certainly encourage people to go and do that. And then another one is, if you can, you know, increase the frequency of your payments. You know, that might be from monthly down to fortnightly or weekly, and that can just help get on top of that mortgage quicker. As you get closer to retirement and particularly post 60, there are strategies we can use to support members to accelerate the payment of debt. So, come and talk to us and we can help you with that. 

Bec Wilson: Yeah, nice. Now, I've got a follow-up question that's popped into my screen. I have a lot of people who have retired and still have a mortgage asking me whether they should pay off their mortgage in full using their super rather than being in debt as they head into retirement. Where do you think this goes? And is it a good idea always? 

Peter Hogg: Yeah, look, generally it is. And, look when you go into our digital advice tools or you speak with one of our advisors, the first place we'd start would be, yeah, let's sort of get rid of that debt at the point of retirement. It makes a whole lot of sense generally. There are exceptions, you know, so investment debts and different things like that. And if that's something that you've got, again, we can help you sort of navigate those questions. But generally, yes, it's good to get rid of the debt at retirement. Yeah. Makes things a whole lots simpler.

Bec Wilson: It helps people feel a lot calmer. 

Peter Hogg: That's right. 

Bec Wilson: Alice has asked, and this one I might throw your direction, Kate. What should retirees consider or monitor once they are drawing an income stream from superannuation in the current economic situation? 

Kate Rolfe: Yeah, thanks, Bec. So, if you've just started drawing an income stream, particularly in the current economic climate, I think there's a couple of things to consider. So first of all, make sure that you're checking in on your spending and that's lining up against your income payments. You don't want to be overspending, you want to make sure you've got plenty of money to last throughout your retirement, but also underspending out of fear, you know, that is reasonably common. And we want all of our members to be living the best possible life that they can afford, so making sure you're not underspending. And at Aware Super, we help you work out what that right amount is with our advice and guidance team and also with our new retirement manager tool that our members over 60 can access through Member Online. So, the second consideration that I would say, if you've just started, is really the importance of staying invested throughout your retirement. So our balanced conservative portfolio is where our majority of our members are invested in retirement. And this is really designed for that retirement phase. It's designed to minimise the downside, but also more importantly, we're all living longer, healthier lives and we really want our money to be growing right through our retirement so we can live our best possible retirement. So I think staying invested is also a really important factor. So. Checking on your spending and staying invested. 

Bec Wilson: And those retirements could last 25 or 30 years now. 

Kate Rolfe: Absolutely. 

Bec Wilson: There's a real shift come to longevity. Our next question is from Dryden and he asks, can I pay additional money towards my super? Can I do a salary sacrifice to boost my superannuation? I think this is one for you, Pete. 

Peter Hogg: Yeah, really good one, and absolutely you can. There's two main ways to contribute to super. So, the first one is using sort of after-tax money. It might be money you've saved up in the bank, you might have got an inheritance, it might be from the sale of an asset. And that goes into superannuation tax-free, because you've already paid tax on it somewhere along the system. For some people, particularly lower-income earners, you might get access to a co-contribution. So, there's some really great resources, information on our Learn Hub, which you heard Loretta speak about before. They can sort of guide you on how that works and if that's right for you. Salary sacrifice, well, this is really powerful, Bec. So salary sacrifice is a great way to save tax and boost up your super while you're working. So how it works is instead of your employer taking tax out of your pay, they pay it straight to your super fund. And the super fund only needs to take out 15% tax versus maybe 30 or 45% tax on your earnings. So look, really powerful way to get money into super and save tax along the way. Again, jumping into our Learn Hub, there are limits, so you've got to make sure you stay under those limits, but lots of information on salary sacrifice, and it's really powerful. It's clever for people to understand this stuff. I really do love to hear more people learning about it. Now, our next one's from Bridget, and I think this one's gonna be for you, Kate. I am retired, but I may need to go back into the workforce for financial reasons, more common than ever. What happens to my aware super retirement income stream when that happens? 

Kate Rolfe: Yeah, thanks, Bridget. And it's really common for a lot of Australians to go back to work and do a bit of part-time work while they are retired. They're doing it for many reasons for connection, for money, to pursue something that they'd always wanted to do. So we think it's fantastic and it's all part of that modern retirement. And then what happens practically with your income, retirement income account and your income payments is that they actually stay exactly the same. So your income account stays intact, you'll continue to receive the income payments and you'll benefit from those tax-free earnings and those tax free payments. You've got a bit of flexibility in that account in that you can increase or decrease the amount of payments to the minimum if you like. And it's also really important that if you are starting a new role that you've opened a new FutureSaver account which is an accumulation account and those new work super contributions can go into that account. So that's how it works. You still get the benefits of the income stream getting that tax-free earnings in retirement and also that accumulation account to put your new super contributions in. 

Bec Wilson: Yeah, nice. It's a complex area that people don't understand and yet I think so many people are going to go back to work. It's going to be a very interesting journey in retirement. 

Kate Rolfe: It sure is. 

Bec Wilson: Now, our next one to come in, I think this is going to for you as well, Kate. A number of questions from members have come in actually just now related to the subject of whether or not they'll get the age pension and how much they're going to get. Can Aware help its members apply for the age pensions? It's tricky area for people to navigate. 

Kate Rolfe: It is. And, yes, we can help our members apply for the age pension. It is a complicated process. And many Australians are missing out on, I think, it's up to $18,000 just by it being complicated and applying late. So what we've done is launched an age pension hub. We've got some fantastic resources on there. We've go some step-by-step videos that shows you exactly how to fill in the age-pension form and all the tips and tricks and all the things that people. Get right and wrong. So we're getting it right the first time. So that's really important. We've also got an age pension guide and a checklist and we're about to launch some other things as well. So yeah, we are there to make sure as soon as our members are 13 weeks from turning 67, that we want our members to be applying for the age pension and we are here to help. 

Bec Wilson: Awesome. That's really cool. The next one I've got, and this one's for Jess, we've talked a lot about retirement, but someone's asked what support is available for younger members who are a long way from retirement. 

Jess Rix: Oh, OK, good question. So there's plenty of support back. You did hear from Loretta earlier, our head of education. We recommend to our members to head to our Learn Hub. It's not just about retirement. There's a lot of information there about superannuation, tools and calculators. You can have a little bit of a look at our investment options. You can see how you're invested. We really encourage our members to go and play around with some of those tools. Then we recommend to our members to go and look at their own superannuation, head to member online and see how much super annulation you have. What's your balance? Do you have insurance? Don't you have insurance? Do you have a beneficiary nomination? But I think like all these things, the more you know, the more you can make better decisions for you now that will help you when you head into retirement. 

Bec Wilson: It's the modern equivalent of opening your super statement, isn't it, going to the app and opening it up? You don't need to open your super-statement anymore, you need to your app. 

Jess Rix: Yeah, that's it, Bec. 

Bec Wilson: My next one, I think, is gonna head in Pete's direction. Jane has asked whether you can add extra money to a pension account. Peter, can you explain that to us? 

Peter Hogg: Oh, that's a good one. And interestingly, I actually had a family member ask me this only a couple of weeks ago, and you'd think you would be able to, but actually... Yeah, sounds logical, doesn't it? 

Bec Wilson: It does. 

Peter Hogg: You actually can't directly add money into a pension account once you've started it. But there are ways around this, and we sort of work with members on this all the time. So, one of the ways you could navigate that, as long as you're under 75, you can still add money into superannuation, so you could add that into, like, an accumulation account, like you would have when you're working. And what we often do is... Would stop the pension even just for a day or two, put that money back in with that other contribution you've just made, and then restart the pension with a higher amount. So it is a bit trickier, but that's why we're here, I guess, to help you navigate that. And our retire-ready appointment could certainly help you navigate that sort of thing. So it's a great way to work through that. 

Bec Wilson: And you do that at no extra cost. 

Peter Hogg: That's right. 

Bec Wilson: I thought I heard that earlier. I get a lot of questions about transition to retirement pension accounts. Many people find that concept pretty difficult to get their head around. Are there any benefits to opening a TTR account? I think I want to ask this one to Kate first. Maybe Pete can chime in later, but I think, how do you do it at Aware? 

Kate Rolfe: Thanks, Bec. So, a transition to a time and account, or some people call it a TTR account, is really designed as a bridge to help you access some of your super savings while you're still working full-time. So, that's really why a TTR account exists. If you're over 60 and you are still working full- time, you can access up to 10% of your Super Balance on an annual basis. And the main reasons why people open a TTR account... Is if they want to work less, so they want move from full-time to part-time, that TTR income helps top up their salary. The second main reason is that they want to tax effectively boost your super. There's some good ways to do that. And the third reason is to reduce debt. So if they've got high interest credit cards or car loans or personal loans, the TTR Income Payments might be a really good option to help reduce that debt. So the way you do it is you log on to Member Online. It takes about 15 minutes to open the account and you're all set up, ready to go. 

Bec Wilson: Awesome. Another area people just want to know more about. I've got one on security for you now, Jess, and I think it's a pretty big concern of everybody, given all the scams and fraud we see flying around in the world right now. We've had several people ask tonight, how can I protect myself from being hacked or scammed?. 

Jess Rix: Great question and thanks, Bec. Look, I think, in this area, it's really important to exercise a healthy level of scepticism. You heard from Christine earlier that, you know, if something seems too good to be true, it often is, you might not be expecting communication from a company. So, if you do receive it, whether that's via a call or via an email, just take that moment to double-check, was I expecting this communication? I think if you do receive communication that's asking you to put your personal information, whether that be bank details, account information, and it's unsolicited, again, I would exercise a level of caution. If you're receiving information to click on links, again, if it's un-solicited I would definitely recommend that you do not do that. And I think lastly, a really obvious one is if poor grammar, punctuation and spelling is an indicator that perhaps this is not actually information that I want to click on and read more about and again, if you're really unsure, please reach out to us 

Bec Wilson: The thing we always say is just stop and have an extra look, right, and if you stop and have an extra look, that extra time taking can just stop you falling in a hole that you've then got to climb your way out of, and it can just be horrible. Look, I think we've got one more question here from two people have sent in questions, and I think this one is going to go to you, Jess, about why pension payments take three days to go from Aware to their nominated account and if this can be shortened and Dave and Colin have both asked this question. 

Jess Rix: Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank You, David. Thank you, Colin. So I think when you've got a pension or an income account, the great news is, is that there are a minimum level of income you need to withdraw. And most of our pension members do set that up on a frequency. So that is whether that's fortnightly, monthly, biannually or annually. And our members know via the dates of when that money will arrive in their account. So it's a really great system. They can access that money, it arrives in their account on that date. For members that do decide to take out a lump sum payment, and that might be to buy the caravan, to go on the holiday, maybe to pay the mortgage off, for those members, there is a couple of things that happen when you ask for a lump-sum payment. So, one, we sell those investment units and convert them to cash, and that does take a moment. And then we transfer that money to your nominated bank account. So that process takes up to three days. I think it's a really great option that we now have introduced in Ausco payments. So, for those members out there that do use Ausco, that does reduce the amount of time that transfer bank transfers take to happen. So, with that technology, we will actually reduce that payment process by another day. 

Bec Wilson: Nice. It's not a technology that all funds are using yet, so impressive to see. Lillian has asked one for you again, Jess, you're on a roll, about the process of paying for death benefits. I would like to know that on my death, if the paperwork is correct and signed in full, how long it will take for the recipient to receive my superannuation. I've heard some terrible stories in the news of it taking such a long time. Can you help us with that? 

Jess Rix: Thank you for the question, Lillian. So, look, I think there's a couple of things. So, yes, if the paperwork is correct and the beneficiary nomination is in place, it's very clear to us who we need to pay that superannuation benefit to. It typically takes around a month. You heard earlier how important it is to have a beneficiary nominated in place. And that makes it really clear to ask who you would like your superannuation benefits to go to in the event of your death. So, having that beneficiary in place is really critical. And I can't stress that it takes so little time, a couple of minutes if you head to a Member Online account, you can in a couple minutes set up a non-lapsing binding death benefit nomination, which is really the stuff you need to do to make sure your account is in good order. And it does only take a moment by a member online. So we really encourage members to do that. 

Bec Wilson: I'll just slow down there and say non-lapsing, binding death nomination. Now for everybody's benefit, a non- lapsing is very, is uncommon in the industry so far. Most lapse every three years. So this is something really cool. Because once it's in place, you don't have to come back and do it every three years. So if it is that easy, and I don't need a wet signature either, I can just do it in a form online. 

Jess Rix: You do not. 

Bec Wilson: Good going guys. Well done. Like go and use it everybody is my message. These are important things. And now my last question for tonight is for you, Pete. Julian has asked, what financial advice is available to me as a member? Great question, Julian. 

Peter Hogg: It does sound like a me question. So, look, the good thing is, you would have heard it through the course of the evening. There's so many help, guidance, advice options for members, and we talked quite a bit about that. Really, most of those are at no additional cost for members which is really exciting. So, I think about our Learn Hub, which we spoke about before. I think the digital advice tools we've got so members can get on there and use them at no addition cost. And then for those members that want that additional support with a human on the other side. They can absolutely use the service we have. We've got personal advice, financial advisers, they're fully qualified, they're giving personal advice on all things that we're super. So, insurance, investment choice, contributions, and really excitingly, they give advice on retirement at no additional cost. And it's a really popular service, as you can imagine. We have over 1,000 members use that every month. And so, please take advantage of that, we would say, because it's great service for members to access. In addition to that, we have some specialist advice services, comprehensive advice if you've got other needs, and they're available for a fee as well. But I'd encourage people to get on there, try some of the free stuff, get involved, and then we can absolutely connect you to the right help if you're not sure where to go next, and we'll guide you to that next place.

Bec Wilson: We often egg people on out there to see what they can get out of what's available on the fees they're already paying. And if you're already doing the retirement advice, that's not always offered at no extra cost. So again, for everyone, get in and use it. That's something I'm really passionate about. We need to use what's on offer. Look, thank you so much to our expert panel and to our audience for your excellent questions. If we didn't get to your question and we didn't get to the bottom of the pile, don't worry because... Aware will be publishing the full set of answers on their website in the coming weeks and letting you know. I hope after this session, you're feeling more confident about your retirement journey, whether that's decades away or just around the corner. If you've got some follow-up questions or you need some personalised advice, please don't hesitate to reach out to the Aware Super team. When it comes to your retirement, it really is never too early to start planning your journey, and it's never too late to benefit from great advice in all shapes and sizes. And remember, don't settle for an ordinary retirement. Make it an epic retirement. Back to you, Sally. 

Sally Collins: Thank you, Bec, and we do love an epic retirement. That was a really insightful and informative discussion. And thank you to all of our speakers this evening. To our members, we truly appreciate your engagement, your questions and your observations. Although we didn't get to every question, we value every bit of feedback that we receive. So please look out for the full list of questions and answers that will be coming on our website in the coming weeks. I'm sure that what we heard this evening, will spark even more conversations and questions from our members about saving and planning for a secure and fulfilling retirement and how Aware Super can help you achieve your goals. Our team is here and ready to help you navigate your journey, whatever stage you're at. Or maybe you're not a member and you're wondering whether you're with the right Super fund. I can assure you that we would make joining Aware quick and easy. Just head to our website to learn more or give our contact centre a call. Thank you again to each and every Aware Super member for choosing us to secure your retirement future. Have a safe and pleasant evening and we will see you again soon.