Our Annual Members' Meeting was held virtually on Tuesday, 13 February 2024.
If you couldn't make it to the meeting, or if you would like a recap, you can watch the recording below.
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Bendigo Super Annual Members' Meeting FY2023-24
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Bendigo Super Annual Members’ Meeting for the 2023 financial year. I’m Maggie Chan, Senior Manager of Business Governance, and it is my pleasure to be your MC for today.
On behalf of Bendigo Super, I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians, of the many lands on which we meet this afternoon. I’d also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands which each of you are joining from this meeting from. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and also extend that respect to all First Nations peoples at this meeting.
Also, for those celebrating the Lunar New Year, happy Lunar New Year. And to everyone, may the year of the dragon brings as much happiness and prosperity and great health.
The speakers for this afternoon are Tony Hodges, the Chair of the trustee board, and two key members of our management team, Justin Hoare, Bendigo Super’s Chief Executive Officer and Thadeus McCrindle, our Chief Investment Officer.
Tony will firstly kick off the meeting with the welcome address and talk to you a bit more about Bendigo Bank’s decision to sell Bendigo Superannuation. That will be followed by Justin and Thadeus to provide financial, investment and strategic updates.
We also have our external auditor Ernst & Young, represented by partner Hayley Watson, listening in today.
Before we hear from the presenters, I just want to go over a few things with you. Firstly, to allow the meeting to run smoothly for everyone, please know that your microphones have been muted.
Just in case that technology fails us during the meeting, a recording of this meeting will be made available on our website in the coming weeks.
This is also a great opportunity for you to ask questions of your Fund. We’ve allocated some time at the end of the presentations for a question and answer session. We have received questions from some of you prior to this meeting, so we’ll be addressing those first.
If you would like to ask a question during the presentation, please type it in using the Q&A chat function that’s on the right-hand side of your screen. We’ll do our best to answer them. And note, we can't answer any questions about your personal account or personal situation during this meeting.
If we don’t get a chance to answer all of your questions during this afternoon, we will be publishing a full list of questions and answers on the fund’s website by the 13th of March. You will also be able to view a recording and minutes of today’s meeting on the website.
Now that I’ve got those out of the way, let’s move on to the presentations. Please let me introduce you to Tony Hodges, Chair of Bendigo Superannuation, who will welcome you on behalf of the Board.
Thank you, Tony.
Thank you, Maggie. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for taking the time to join us for the 2022-23 Annual Members’ Meeting.
I’d like to start with a significant point of interest that affects all members. On 27 September 2023, Bendigo Bank announced that it had signed an agreement to sell Bendigo Superannuation to Betashares Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, subject to certain conditions and regulatory approval. This decision was made by Bendigo Bank, as the owners of Bendigo Superannuation. It came about as a result of a process that considered the future sustainability of the superannuation business, as well as the Bank’s strategic focus.
Bendigo Bank determined that Betashares had the investment scale, expertise and commitment to customer service that will best serve our members into the future. Our CEO Justin Hoare will talk to you more about Betashares’ background and expertise later on in his presentation.
While we’re working with the Bank to prioritise a smooth transition process, the Board will continue to be the custodians of your super. We will ask questions of Betashares, and make sure our questions are addressed to our satisfaction, before the change of ownership occurs. Our decision-making process will continue to be guided by the principle of always acting in members’ best interests. It’s an obligation we do take seriously. Subject to regulatory approval, the sale is expected to be completed in mid-2024.
In the meantime, it remains business as usual for our staff and the Fund:
SuperRatings continues to rate Bendigo SmartStart Super as one of Australia’s lowest fee funds; Bendigo SmartStart Super continues to offer flexible life insurance options from automatic, default cover to customised cover through TAL Life Limited; and Investment choice remains available through our range of investment options, including ten diversified funds with different risk profiles, a socially responsible fund and an income and cash option. And for members who prefer a more hands-off approach to their super, the Bendigo MySuper option is available, which offers an age-based investment strategy.
I’ll now hand over to Justin Hoare, Bendigo Super’s Chief Executive Officer, to speak initially on the financial position of the Fund. I hope you find the presentation and the Question-and-Answer session informative. If you have any feedback on this afternoon’s proceedings, we would like to hear from you. Justin.
Thank you, Tony.
Good afternoon everyone and thank you for taking an interest in your superannuation and retirement savings. We’re proud to be your fund of choice, knowing you rely on us to look after your retirement savings.
It’s been a challenging 12 months. In an environment where super funds face increasing competition, turbulent investment markets, and changing member expectations, our priority continues to be on safeguarding your financial interests and achieving ongoing sustainable growth.
I’ll take a moment now to provide you with our fund highlights for the 2023 financial year. If you would like to understand further details on Bendigo Superannuation’s financial position, our 2023 Annual Report is available on our website.
During the 2023 financial year Bendigo Super, which incorporates Bendigo SmartStart Super and Bendigo SmartStart Pension, welcomed nearly 2,000 new members. With more than $1.45 billion in funds under administration, we continue to help members with their retirement goals. From assisting more than 1,800 members make voluntary contributions towards their retirement savings, to releasing payments to over 2,400 members in retirement phase, along with everything that goes in between.
The superannuation industry itself also continues to see change driven by the Federal Government. From 1 July 2023 superannuation guarantee contributions maintain their scheduled upward trend, moving from 10.5% to 11%. Our pension members have also seen minimum annual payment calculations revert back to previous percentage-based factors. This is a result of the temporary 50% reduction which was introduced during the COVID pandemic, not being renewed for the 2024 financial year.
Regulatory reporting also continues to evolve within the superannuation industry, including the Annual Superannuation Performance Test, more commonly known as the performance test. The performance test was introduced by the Australian Government in July 2021, and is intended to hold trustees accountable for the performance of the assessable investment options offered to their members. Whilst only MySuper, or default investment options, were assessed previously, this year the performance test was expanded to include all assessable options where the Trustee or an associated entity decides the investment strategy. Sandhurst Trustees is currently an associated entity of Bendigo Super.
This year, for the first time since the performance test’s inception, two of our twelve assessable investment options did not pass. There are several contributing factors as to why the Bendigo Growth Wholesale Fund and the Bendigo High Growth Wholesale Fund did not pass the performance test. We have developed some frequently asked questions to assist members in understanding more about the performance test and our results, which is available on our website.
Our Chief Investment Officer, Thadeus McCrindle, will address this year’s results in more depth. I will hand over to Thadeus now to talk more about investment performance, market volatility and economic conditions, as well as the impact on investment portfolios over the year. Thad.
Thanks Justin and good afternoon, everyone. I’ll begin by talking about the economic and market conditions for the 2023 calendar year.
We know it’s been challenging for many members as interest rates have risen materially through 2022 and 23. Along with rising interest rates many of us have experienced rising living costs, including higher fuel, energy bills, groceries and mortgage payments. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate is now the highest it has been in 12 years. While we’re seeing inflation starting to fall it may take some time before interest rates fall.
We have seen robust economic performance through 2023. The Australian economy was growing at 2.1% p.a. according to the September 2023 release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this led to stronger returns for growth assets. Financial Markets have responded to economic growth with shares performing well. Large US technology stocks lead the way with Artificial Intelligence seen as a source of growth in earnings into the future.
Closer to home the ASX200 rose 12.5% during 2023, and over the same period the Bendigo Growth Index Fund, our most popular investment option, generated returns of 10.7%. You can see in the graph on this slide how the returns for the Bendigo Growth Index Fund compared to cash and CPI inflation over the last ten years.
My team’s outlook is positive on economic growth and company profitability. It’s important to note that although our most likely forecast is for moderate growth there are still some risks for a slowdown.
In terms of managing Bendigo Super’s investment portfolios, we know super is a long-term investment and we will continue to focus on building an investment strategy that can deliver returns over longer time frames. The team has positioned portfolios rather neutrally, close to the strategic asset allocations. The notable exceptions are an overweight to Japanese shares, technology shares, and to inflation linked bonds with a corresponding underweight to Australian shares and government bonds. Through much of the 2022-23 financial year, we were more defensively positioned, which resulted in lower returns than some of the broad benchmarks, including APRA’s performance test that Justin referred to earlier.
Changes have been made to some of our active managers in the overseas equities’ asset class within all Wholesale funds. We will continue to review active manager performance, aiming to add new active managers and eliminate those who consistently underperform.
In addition, new alternatives strategies and a new credit strategy have been added within all Wholesale funds. We will continue to monitor our investment mix adjustments as measured against the performance test benchmarks for the two investment options that did not pass the performance test.
And in September 2023 we reviewed and adjusted our Strategic Asset Allocations to incorporate the higher interest rates and changes in market volatility. We do believe these changes will assist in us delivering to the investment objectives and improved results against benchmarks.
We’re still on track to meet our long-term investment return objectives for most of our Bendigo Super investment options. I’ve always said that the best time to underperform is when there are robust total returns for most markets. And if inflation continues to fall, we will find it easier to beat our long-term investment return objectives.
The team continues to actively monitor and respond to current market conditions, and plans to change its positioning, with the objective of adding to returns and reducing risks through time, for all of our investment options. Doing so will allow us to seek other investment opportunities and continually test our approach as markets and the economy change.
That brings me to the end of the investment update for this afternoon. I will hand back to Justin.
Thanks Thad.
At the start of the presentation, Tony mentioned Bendigo Bank’s decision to sell Bendigo Super to Betashares.
I understand many of you are valued Bendigo Bank customers, and this news may have been unexpected. For those of you not familiar with Betashares, you can rest assured that your super savings will continue to be managed by experienced professionals.
Betashares is an award-winning Australian fund manager established in 2009, with a focus on exchange traded funds or ETFs. Over 13 years, Betashares has grown to serve over one million investors and their advisers, and currently manages over $35 billion of assets across a broad range of ETFs in Australia. Betashares has committed to bring their ethos of diversification, cost effectiveness, investor education and engagement to deliver enhanced retirement outcomes and best serve members into the future.
You can expect minimal disruption as a result of the sale to Betashares. A number of our existing Bendigo Super staff are expected to transfer to Betashares to help ensure continuity of service to you, our members. I do understand there might be some questions about the change. Please rest assured that we are committed to acting in your best interests right through this process and we will continue to communicate updates with you regularly as the sale progresses.
If you would like to learn more, you can visit Betashares’ website at betashares.com.au - external site.
As Tony said at the start of the meeting, it is very much business as usual for our staff and our fund, so we haven’t lost sight of our focus – which is to help empower you to achieve financial independence in retirement. While your super is a long-term investment, making sure you get the most out of your savings is crucial at any age. The first step to maximising your retirement savings is understanding them. Our Education Hub is designed to help you build your knowledge, with a diverse range of articles, videos and tools available.
There are a number of ways that you can access information or learn more about super. This includes visiting our website, logging on via our secure online portal, or contacting our Client Services Team to assist with any account enquiries or questions you may have. We also welcome any feedback from our members about our services and how we can improve.
That concludes our presentations for the afternoon. We have some time now for questions which our MC, Maggie, will talk you through.
Thank you, Justin.
We've now reached what may be the most important part of the afternoon, a session where we can directly address your questions. We will start with addressing those that we’ve received beforehand. Let’s get onto the first one, which is from Paul.
Paul wants to know “Can you please explain why I should trust Bendigo super and the hedge fund managers they contract out to, when I cannot even find out who these hedge fund managers are? Thad, I’ll hand this one over to you to answer.
Thanks Maggie, thanks Paul. We continue to work hard to ensure we deliver strong outcomes for all members. We have broad and comprehensive processes to ensure the delivery of our services to members, and we hope this meets your expectations. With regard to the underlying managers, there is information available on our website. The portfolio holdings are published twice per year and note the names of all our underlying managers. Currently we do not have exposure to any hedge funds although there are exposures to some unlisted agriculture, water rights and credit opportunities funds and these would be considered alternatives strategies. Hope that answers the question. Back to you, Maggie.
Well thanks Thad. Our next question is from Jarvis. Jarvis asked, “How will the sale of Bendigo super impact the integration into the Bendigo bank app? Will I need to use a separate app?”
Justin, would you like to answer this one?
Thanks Maggie, that’s a great question Jarvis. I know this is an important one. Bendigo Bank is currently working with Betashares to determine the impact on the Bank’s e-banking app once the sale is finalised. We’ll make sure you are informed if there are going to be changes to the way you view your super balance. Our aim is to enhance the experience of our members going forward and we’ll be looking to ensure that you have the right access at the right place. Back to you Maggie.
Maggie: Thanks Justin, our next question is from Sebastian, who wants to know “When the Beta transfer actually is planned to occur, will a free transfer to another investment plan be made available prior. For example, same portfolio only change from growth to balanced)?”
Justin, I I might give this one back to you.
Thank you Maggie and thank you for the question Sebastian. You can change your Bendigo Super investment portfolio at any time, we do not charge any fees to switch between investment options on our menu. You can do this either online via your secure online account, or by completing the Switching Instruction Form available on our website. Back to you Maggie.
Thanks. We have another question here and it’s from Philip. Philip asked “Does the investment management team invest in trading programs that are using artificial intelligence to make trades?”
Thad, can you please answer this question.
Thanks Philip, we employ a large number of different investment strategies in our suite of investment options including some that use alternative assets and active trading strategies. This is not the right forum to discuss specific potential investments, but I can assure you we regularly review our investment strategy and have processes in place to consider AI or any other kinds of strategies.
Back to you Maggie.
Thanks Thad, its really good to see that there are questions coming. There is one from Melissa. Melissa wants to know will you consider providing Non-Lapsing Binding Nominations as a choice to members? If not, why not? Justin can you please take this question.
Yes, sure Maggie and thank you for the question Melissa. At this stage we are not considering this option. As people’s lives continually change, we think it is important that the nominations people make about such an important asset are reviewed and confirmed on a regular basis. This ensures that a nomination takes into account a members’ current personal situation. Back to you maggie.
Thanks very much, Justin.
It doesn’t look like we have any more questions for this afternoon. Well in that case then, this brings us to the end of our meeting.
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to ask questions and thank you Thad and Justin for responding to them. I also like to thank everyone once again for joining us at this year’s Annual Member’s Meeting.
I hope you have found this afternoon’s meeting informative. And just as a reminder, the responses, written ones to all of the questions asked will be posted on the Fund’s website by the 13th of March 2024.
Should you have any questions about your super account or personal circumstances, please contact our Client Services Team during the week for help. Their contact details are actually shown on the screen.
I look forward to you joining us in 12 months’ time and thanks everyone once again. Enjoy the rest of your day.
2023 Annual Superannuation Performance Test results
Our announcement provides details on which Bendigo Super investment options did not pass the performance test, along with a list of frequently asked questions to help you understand our results.
Previous meetings
You can find minutes of our previous Annual Members' Meetings below.
Bendigo Superannuation Pty Ltd ABN 23 644 620 128 AFSL 534006 (Bendigo Super) is the trustee and issuer of Bendigo SmartStart Super and Bendigo SmartStart Pension (products). Bendigo Super is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited ABN 11 068 049 178 AFSL 237879 (Bank). Each of these companies receives remuneration on the issue of the products or services they provide, full details of which are contained in the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). Bendigo Super, the Bank and its related entities do not guarantee the repayment of capital invested, the payment of income or products’ investment performance. An investment in these products does not represent a deposit with, or liability of Bendigo Super, the Bank or its related entities. The Bank does not stand behind or guarantee the performance of Bendigo Super in its capacity as trustee and issuer of the products. Bendigo Super is not an authorised deposit-taking institution within the meaning of the Banking Act 1959.
Information on the website is subject to change without notice. Any advice in relation to superannuation is provided by Bendigo Super. The information contains general advice only and does not take into account your personal objectives, situation or needs. Before making an investment decision in relation to these products you should consider your situation and read the relevant PDS accessible through this site.