Welcome to the 7th edition of CEO Online

In this edition, I’ll bring you up-to-date with:

Investment performance and end-of-year results

It's been another great year for your Fund in 2006/07 with strong returns for all four pre-mixed options. Although audited figures are not yet finalised, the Trustee Choice option is estimated to have returned 16.7% after tax and fees in the year ending June 2007, well above its long-term target return of 7% per annum.
The other three pre-mixed options also performed well in the 2006/07 financial year. The Aggressive investment option returned 20.3%, the Balanced (50/50) investment option returned 12.2% and the Conservative investment option, 9.3% - all after tax and fees. This performance means all four pre-mixed options again exceeded their medium to long-term investment objectives in 2006/07, with the highest returns achieved by options with the greatest exposure to equities.

Remember that past performance is not an indication of future performance. Returns are volatile and it is impossible to predict if they will go up or down.

Find out more about investment performance.

Partnership to improve company performance

As the Trustee for the PSSap, ARIA is pleased to have joined with seven other institutional investors to found a specialist governance and research provider, Regnan.

Regan will give us the opportunity to work together to improve the environmental, social and governance performances of the companies in which we invest.

We believe that poor management of environmental, social and corporate governance issues can lead to financial risks as well as a decline in the long term value of shareholder investments.

Find out more about our other commitments and ESG practices.

Getting to know the new tax laws

In this edition, I am pleased to tell you that the Government’s Better Super changes are now in place.

The main changes that may affect you as a PSSap member include:

The main change to the taxation of benefits is the abolition of tax paid on lump sums for members who are aged 60 or over at the time the payment is made. For members between preservation age and age 60, lump sum benefits will be tax-free up to a threshold of $140,000.

The introduction of proportioning rules will affect the amount of tax you pay on partial benefit payments. Your tax-free component will now be spread in equal proportions across each benefit payment you receive or preserve.

While it is not an offence not to quote your TFN to your super fund, providing your TFN to the PSSap will have the following advantages (which may not otherwise apply):

Find about more information about the Better Super changes.

Address details for Member Statements

The 2006/07 Annual Member Statement will be distributed from late September. If we have your current postal address, we will be able to post it direct to you. Otherwise it will be sent to you through your employer. If you haven't yet provided us with your address details and you would like the convenience of important information being sent to you directly, you can provide or update your details by:

Thinking about your super

Have you wondered when you should actually start thinking about super? Finding out how much you will need to retire on comfortably is an important step to securing your financial future.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s (ASFA) recent report on Are retirement savings on track  found that some areas of the population, particularly women, need encouragement to save if they are to achieve a modest standard of living in retirement.

It may seem too hard to think about saving for retirement, but we have made it easier by providing some key information in the Lifestages area of our website.  This will be a great first-stop that will lead you to useful information in no time.