A personal assistant for your super
You may not have a personal assistant to organise your life, but it is feasible to get personalised support when it comes to how your super is invested.
By Darren Strauss - 3 min read
A little about Darren
As a Member Solutions Consultant at Russell Investments, Darren Strauss understands all the ins and outs of super and retirement legislation, and loves to answer questions and help members.
Not many people have a personal assistant to help to organise their life. But wouldn’t it be great if you did? Who wouldn’t want someone who could be trusted to take the initiative and quietly deliver what you want and need without detailed instructions at every step? Artificial intelligence may be slowly and surely filling that role, but there’s still a long way to go before Alexa, Siri or the Google Assistant can fully meet that job description.
If hiring a personal assistant to manage your day-to-day life is out of your reach, you may be on your own until technology catches up, but when it comes to support for investing your super, there is a wider range of options.
Go with the default
If you stick with the MySuper1 investment option, professional asset managers will be monitoring your fund’s performance and making investment decisions aimed at achieving the best balance of risk and returns. But they don’t take into account your personal needs or preferences.
Generally, most super funds will have your money invested in a standard split of around 70 per cent in growth-oriented investments, such as Australian and international shares, and 30 per cent in defensive investments, like fixed income and cash.
We do things differently. Our MySuper option is the GoalTracker® Investment Option, which invests your super based on what we know about you (like your age) through a diversified portfolio invested across a range of asset classes. When you’re younger, the focus is on growing your super, so there's a higher allocation to growth assets. As you get closer to retirement, the focus changes to protecting your super with a higher allocation to defensive assets.
Choose your own strategy
You can make your own superannuation investment selections—allowing you to create a bespoke portfolio of growth and defensive options. In this scenario, professional asset managers still monitor and manage the portfolios you’re investing in, but you choose the overall investment strategy. This can be useful if you’re confident that you have the skills and experience to take this on, but for some it can be difficult and time consuming.
Professional financial advisers can help—they are equivalent to a real live personal assistant for your super. They can shoulder the load of creating an investment strategy that is highly tailored to your individual circumstances. Of course, like personal assistants, their services come at a cost.
If you are keen to get expert advice at no additional cost, we do have options for you to consider, like general information, phone-based personal advice and Retire Ready meetings. Call us today to find out which option suits your personal situation.
However, as we said before, we do do things differently and this is where GoalTracker Plus comes in.
Get strategy support
If you like the idea of having your investment portfolio tailored to your lifestyle goal, but don’t want to do the hard work yourself or pay for advice, you might find it useful to activate GoalTracker Plus within the GoalTracker program.
You can use GoalTracker to work out how much you need to fund the lifestyle you want and if you’re on track to get there.
At this point, you can activate GoalTracker Plus, which personalises your investment strategy based on additional information provided by you, such as your anticipated retirement age, retirement income goal and other savings you have. What better way to take the headache and emotion out of investing your super savings—and at no additional cost as well!
The investment strategy advice you receive through GoalTracker Plus is tailored to your personal situation, taking the unknowns out of investing in super. In fact, recommendations are based on the same investment methodology we use for some of the world’s largest investors.
GoalTracker Plus automatically checks your situation every three months and adjusts your investment strategy if needed and as agreed by you. It keeps you in the loop of how you’re tracking and makes suggestions on how to get and stay on track—at no additional cost. A very helpful personal assistant for your super indeed!
1 Every super fund has a default MySuper investment option. It is aimed at providing a simple, cost-effective, balanced product for those super members who have not made an active choice in how their super is invested.
Issued by Total Risk Management Pty Ltd ABN 62 008 644 353, AFSL 238790 (TRM) as trustee of Russell Investments Master Trust ABN 89 384 753 567. Nationwide Super and Resource Super are Divisions of the Russell Investments Master Trust. The Product Disclosure Statement (‘PDS’), the Target Market Determinations and the Financial Services Guide can be obtained by phoning 1800 555 667 or by visiting russellinvestments.com.au or for Nationwide Super by phoning 1800 025 241 or visiting nationwidesuper.com.au. Any potential investor should consider the latest PDS in deciding whether to acquire, or to continue to hold, an investment in any Russell Investments product. Russell Investments Financial Solutions Pty Ltd ABN 84 010 799 041, AFSL 229850 (RIFS) is the provider of MyTracker and the financial product advice provided by GoalTracker Plus. General financial product advice is provided by RIFS or Link Advice Pty Ltd (Link Advice) ABN 36 105 811 836, AFSL 258145. Limited personal financial product advice is provided by Link Advice with the exception of GoalTracker Plus advice, which is provided by RIFS.
This communication provides general information only and has not been prepared having regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision, you need to consider whether this information is appropriate to your objectives, financial situation and needs. If you'd like personal advice, we can refer you to the appropriate person. This information has been compiled from sources considered to be reliable but is not guaranteed. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. To the extent permitted by law, no liability is accepted for any loss or damage as a result of reliance on this information. This material does not constitute professional advice or opinion and is not intended to be used as the basis for making an investment decision. This work is copyright 2022. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of Russell Investments.