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Women and super: Accelerate action
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Show transcript
Well, good afternoon everybody and thank you for joining AustralianSuper's Women and Super Accelerate Action presentation. Now, growing your super savings might be an important step in building your financial future and that is because one day superannuation could become one of our largest assets. That's why here at AustralianSuper we would like to see a change in the fact that women approaching retirement currently have around 33% less super than men. We want all members to achieve their best possible outcome in retirement. So today's session we're going to work through some information regarding super at different stages of your retirement journey to understand what things you could do to accelerate action with your own superannuation. My name is Rebecca BMA and I'm an Education Manager here at AustralianSuper. I've spent the last 20 years in the financial services industry helping people to understand superannuation better to help them to achieve longer-term better financial outcomes.
Now we have over 60,000 years of history to learn about from the traditional custodians of the land and we should be privileged to be sharing in their rich culture and heritage. I would like to pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. I'm joining you on the land of the Larrakia people in Darwin. So I just encourage you to take a moment to acknowledge the land on which you're joining us today. Now I do need to point out before we get into the presentation that today's presentation does cover off on a lot of information but it is general advice only. What that means is it doesn't take into account your own personal needs or circumstances. So we just encourage you to do some more research, have a look at the product disclosure statement, check out the target market determination, and please seek financial advice if you feel necessary for your situation. We will be showing you where you can go for extra help and advice at the end of the presentation. Now I have my colleagues in the background, Yen and Michelle, who will be popping some links in the chat box for you. So please feel free to save those for viewing later on or opening a new window. It will also give the opportunity in the Q&A box to ask any questions throughout the presentation. So please feel free to pop any questions in there and Yen and Michelle will do their best to answer those throughout.
Now in this session today we're going to cover off on a number of things and that is the super gender gap and we'll have a look at the statistics surrounding the gap. We'll have a look at setting financial goals and the format that you can use to help you in your goal setting. Then we'll have a look at the First Home Super Saver Scheme and we'll have a look then at ways that you can grow your super and we'll have a look at how that works. Finally, we'll look at where you can go for extra help and advice.
Now according to life expectancy tables, on average women live an extra four years longer than men so that may mean that they need more money in their retirement to last those extra years. If we have a look at average super balances for men and women between the ages of 60 and 64, we can see that for men it's over $410,000 and for women it's a little over $300,000. So we can see where that gap lies. These statistics are based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Let's have a look at what those indicators are and why the numbers don't stack up. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has determined three key indicators and you can see those up on the screen. So let's have a look at those in a little bit more detail. On average, women earn less than men throughout their working careers and to be specific the gender pay gap is currently at around 14%. How does that impact longer-term superannuation balances? Well, if we think about employer contributions being paid currently at the rate of 11.5% on employment income, the lower the salary the less employer contributions that are being received and therefore less money within the superannuation environment to take effect of compounding interest over time. The next indicator is that women are more likely to be working in part-time or casual or maybe even unpaid work throughout their life. How does this have an impact on their overall super balance? Not only are we thinking about the impact with the employer contributions that we just discussed, but also if there's less money coming in through either part-time or casual means there's less money set aside to be able to afford to save for their financial future whether that be outside of super or through the superannuation environment. The third factor is time out of the workforce and a woman's working life may be interrupted at various stages throughout her career and that may be due to a number of factors such as taking time out of the workforce to care for a family, taking parental leave, and maybe it's taking time out of the workforce to care for elderly parents or sick loved ones. So that too can have an impact on longer-term super balances.
Now we know that the gap won't close without significant policy change and we've had a step in the right direction with the introduction of superannuation that's being paid on parental leave so that's excellent. What we're going to do today is follow along Kate's journey and we're going to see her at different stages of her career and check in with her to determine what are the things that Kate could do to boost her financial position for her future self. We'll check in with Kate when she's starting out in her very first job. We'll have a look at what are the things that she could do at that point and then Kate takes some time out of the workforce to care for a growing family. We'll then check in with her as she resumes full-time work when she's ready to return and then finally when she starts to think about retirement and how she may be able to go about easing into retirement. Before we introduce you to Kate we wanted to start by discussing the importance of setting financial goals. There might be certain times throughout your life where finances can cause some stress or anxiety and by having dedicated financial goals can help with that stress or anxiety in that setting those goals and knowing exactly what money you have available to direct to these certain goals throughout your working life then that will help to ease the anxiety associated with it. If we're thinking about goal setting we're thinking about short, medium, and long-term goals. Just for a few examples, a short-term goal might be something such as paying off a credit card or it might be starting to save for an emergency fund. Then we're thinking about medium-term goals, it might be buying a new car or it may be saving for a home deposit. Then longer-term goals being planning for retirement. What age would I like to retire? Starting to think about what level of income I might need to live the lifestyle I would like to when I'm finished working. When setting goals it's really important to follow this format, the SMART goal setting format, and that will just enable you to be able to create goals that are direct and detailed. They're quantifiable so easily tracked so that you can track your success and progress and that can give you more inspiration that if you know that you're starting to achieve your goal as you move through it you're more likely to stick to it. Are your goals attainable? So it's realistic, it's meaningful to you and it also has a deadline so it's time-based so we know exactly what you're planning for and when. Why does a budget fit into goal setting? Well, thinking about a budget can help us to understand rather not a restriction of where our money is being spent but if we think of it more as a tool to be able to help us feel more in control of what money we have and where it is going. By doing that and knowing where every dollar is being spent it can help us to understand what we have to set aside to meet each of our financial goals that we may set. It's really important when budgeting to think about going back through past bank statements and having a look at actually where your money has been spent. Sometimes if we're jotting down exactly what our expenses are it can be easy to miss out on the extra coffees or the meals out. So important to go back and get a realistic view of what money you do have available for your goals. Now let's meet Kate. Kate is 26 years old, she's earning $70,000 per annum and she has a super balance of just over $36,000. Kate sat down and done a budget and has set aside a goal of saving for a home in five years' time. She's determined through her budget that she has $200 per week that she can afford to put towards her goal of purchasing a home.
Now Kate's heard about the First Home Super Saver scheme and she's unsure if it's worthwhile for her. So what is the First Home Super Saver scheme? Well, what it does is it allows people to save for their first home by utilising the superannuation environment and the tax concessions that come along with that. So there are some rules around how much you can save towards this scheme and how much you can withdraw out of it. It is very specific in terms of it must be used to purchase a first home, so it can't be used to purchase an investment property. Also, you need to be saving through either salary sacrifice or voluntary contributions. It doesn't allow us to use already pre-existing money that is in our superannuation account. So some things to consider there. There'll be a link in the chat box that you'll be able to have a look at some more information on the scheme.
Let's have a look at Kate's situation. She's determined her budget, so she has $10,400 before tax that she has available to save towards her home deposit goal. Now if Kate was to save her money into a regular bank account, she would have $7,400. The difference there is her tax rate. Kate's in the 30 cents in the dollar tax rate, so therefore she's paying tax on her income, allowing her to have her $7,400 saved in the bank account. Now if Kate was to save her same $200 per week via salary sacrifice, she's arranged that between herself and her employer to sacrifice her $200 before tax. So rather than that being paid to her, it's being paid into her superannuation and she's able to save $99,000. We can see what the difference there in her savings are, and that is due to the tax savings through the superannuation environment.
Let's look at Kate's position after a 5-year period. Kate had been saving through her bank account and she has just over $40,000 saved. Now through Kate's superannuation, she's been able to save an extra just over $10,000, and that is through the tax savings through using the salary sacrifice for her. A great outcome for Kate. Now let's check in with her again. She's now 32, so she utilised the First Home Super Saver scheme and she's taken her $50,000 of savings out of her super to put towards her first home. She's now a homeowner and she now has $888,000 left in her super account after she's taken out her $50,000 for her first home. She's now earning $85,000 per year from her employment income and she's expecting a child and is going to be taking some time out of the workforce for parental leave. Kate's had a few significant changes to her circumstance here. She's purchased a home, she has a child on the way, and she's wanting to know what she can do to continue to boost her super savings while she's in this stage of her life.
Now whilst on parental leave or working part-time or when income is lower, something that can be considered is the government co-contribution. How this works is if a member's income or an individual's income is less than $45,500 in that year and they made an after-tax contribution into superannuation of $1,000, then the government would give them a 50% return on their money. So once their tax return had been lodged and they can check off the box to say yes, their income was under $45,400, yes, they paid in $1,000 after tax to their super, then the government will pop in the $500 into the superannuation account. It's a really good incentive for lower-income earners to be saving towards their financial future and utilising this co-contribution.
The other thing that Kate could consider while she's taking some time out of the workforce is spouse contributions. How this works is if her income is under $37,000 in that financial year, her spouse could make a contribution of $3,000 into her superannuation. Then her income is under $37,000, check there's been the $3,000 of after-tax contributions that have been made, then her spouse may be entitled to an 18% tax offset. That could be up to $540 as a tax offset. As long as the eligibility criteria have been met, it's another incentive to try and boost superannuation for a spouse who may be taking some time out of the workforce or on a lower income at that particular stage of their life.We did mention that Kate's situation has changed significantly. She has a home, so she has a mortgage now. Now she has a dependent, so it's really important that Kate checks in with her insurance cover to ensure that it's at the right levels for her change in her circumstance. There are three types of insurance cover that you can have within the superannuation environment, and that is death cover, or in other words, life cover. That is a lump sum that's paid out on death or on terminal illness. Then there's total and permanent disablement or TPD for short. That is also a lump sum payment that is paid out if you're never able to work again in any occupation. Finally, income protection cover, which is a monthly replacement of income if you are off work for a waiting period, and then you would be paid a monthly benefit until either you went back to work after sickness or accident or until you'd met what's called the benefit period.
Now AustralianSuper does issue default levels of insurance cover within a member's account when they join the fund. It's important to think about the levels of cover that are available and the levels of cover that you have. Let's have a look at first the way that you can calculate how much cover you may need. Different stages of your life will require different levels of insurance cover, so it's really important to continue to check in as your circumstances change throughout your life to ensure that you have the right levels of cover. We have an insurance calculator available on our website and that will allow you to pop in some information and it will let you know how much cover you may need. Then you can go away and check what cover do I have now, do I need to increase my cover, is it the right levels as it is, or do I have too much or do I not need it at all. Keep in mind that the insurance premiums that are being paid are paid from your superannuation account when the cover is held through the super environment. If the cover is not needed, then just keep in mind that those premiums are being paid from future superannuation or retirement funds.
Now default insurance cover through AustralianSuper is issued based on age. You'll be able to have a look at the insurance guide or check the member portal or the app and you can easily see there if you have insurance cover, what types, and how much. When default insurance cover is issued, it is issued at the highest risk work rating, which is a blue collar. If somebody is working more than 80% of their time in administrative type duties, they may be able to change their work rating to a white collar and in turn, they'll still have the same level of default cover based on their age. It just means the price that they pay for that is less. If somebody is earning more than $100,000 of income and they have a university qualification or they have a management role, they may be able to apply for a professional work rating and then the cost of that cover reduces again. You can jump onto AustralianSuper's work rating tool. It's a series of four questions, so it won't take you long at all and you can determine what work rating you are and if it's anything other. If you do have a blue-collar work rating and it spits out to say you could apply for a white collar, it will lead you through the steps to be able to make that change to reduce that cost for you.
Now really importantly, we're thinking about Kate's scenario. She has a mortgage and she has a family, so it's really important that Kate considers who will receive her superannuation on her death. A lot of members aren't aware that superannuation doesn't form part of your estate, so it's really important to let the super fund know who you would like to receive your money when you're no longer here. There are a couple of ways that you can nominate a beneficiary within superannuation, and that is through a binding nomination or a non-binding nomination. If we talk first about a binding nomination, we spoke about super not forming part of one's estate. Therefore, to have a binding death benefit nomination, we need to fill out a form that is like a legal form. It needs to be signed by two witnesses and have all the information completed correctly. On that form, you are able to select if you would like a lapsing binding nomination, which means it would expire in three years. The fund would write to you as you're nearing that three-year expiry and then it will encourage you to review your beneficiary and update that. Non-lapsing allows a member to select that they would like to put a benefit in place under a binding nomination and keep that in place until they make a change later on in the future.
A non-binding nomination may be a member's jumped online and nominated a beneficiary that way. A non-binding nomination is more like a preference. If you think of it that you prefer that your superannuation and any associated death benefits are paid to this particular person or persons on your death. There can be a little bit more time taken in the payment of this depending on who you nominate. The trustee is obligated to determine who the best, the most appropriate people to receive your money are. Just have a think about the different types of nominations, have a look at who you have nominated and under what type, and then you can make a decision as to whether you need to update that.
I would like to touch on who you can nominate for it to be a valid beneficiary nomination. You can nominate your current spouse or partner, you can nominate a child of any age, somebody who's in an interdependent relationship with you, so maybe you're caring for someone and they're living with you and you're looking after them, a financial dependent, or your legal personal representative. There are different tax dependents that may apply or tax considerations that may apply for different dependents. We have a really good webinar that discusses that in detail if it is something that you're interested in. We have an estate planning webinar, so please feel free to jump onto one of those and learn more about what the different tax payments may be depending on the beneficiaries.
Let's fast forward. We're going to check in with Kate again. She is now 42 years old. She's been working part-time for the last 10 years and her super balance is now $171,000. She's now earning $95,000 of income per year and she would like to know what are the things that she could do now to continue to boost her super savings for her future. One of the things that Kate could consider is salary sacrifice contributions. What is salary sacrifice? It's an arrangement between yourself and your employer to say that rather than that income being paid to me and paid to my bank account, I would like to sacrifice X amount into superannuation. The benefits of doing that can be saving on income tax. Of course, it does depend on what your marginal rate of tax is, so the rate of tax that you pay on your income. Within the superannuation environment, if somebody's income is under $250,000, then they would pay 15% contribution tax on any salary sacrifice contributions. There is a concessional contribution cap and this financial year it's $30,000. What's included in that cap? It is salary sacrifice contributions, it is also employer contributions. That is currently the rate of 11.5%. Some employers may pay more than the standard rate of 11.5%. If you're not sure on what your concessional cap is or how much has gone into your own super for the year, you can check your MyGov account and you'll be able to keep track of what that is. It's worthwhile to go and check that out as it will be specific to you as it's linked through your tax file number. Something that Kate can consider is making this arrangement to try and build her super for her future and to minimize some tax.Let's have a look at what the scenarios may look like in Kate salary sacrificing different amounts. You can see there that if Kate was to make no extra contributions, so she was just receiving her standard rate of employer contributions from age 42 till she retires, she would have $681,000 as her projected superannuation balance. If Kate was to salary sacrifice $50 a week, we can see there that her projected super balance has increased to $760,000 when she finishes work. Finally, if she is to salary sacrifice $100 per week, we can see that there's a significant increase in Kate's financial super balance when she stops working. That gives her greater flexibility in regards to the income that she may draw when she finishes working and the things that she may like to do through retirement.
Let's check in with Kate again. She's now at the magic age of 60. She's now considering what her options are and she's thinking about maybe working less and utilising a transition to retirement strategy. How does a transition to retirement strategy work? It can be used in a couple of ways. I say the magic number 60 because when a member has reached that age, it opens up the opportunity for them to commence a transition to retirement strategy if they are still working. If a member ceases work and they completely retire from the workforce at age 60, they can withdraw their superannuation or move it into a choice income account and any drawdowns after age 60 are tax-free. In Kate's position, she's thinking about reducing her working hours but she would like to keep her same take-home pay. By utilising this strategy, what Kate could do is set up a TTR income account. She's effectively transferring some of her accumulated super savings into a TTR income account and drawing an income stream from that account. She's reduced her working hours, which means she's getting less money from her employment income, but she's topping that up with the income that she's receiving from the TTR account. That enables her to reduce her working hours and start easing into retirement but still keeping the same take-home pay. If you would like to learn more about how a transition to retirement strategy works, we have a really good webinar that explains it. There's also a link on the screen that will take you to further information.
Now it can be a good time or a good opportunity now that we've had a look at the various stages of Kate's journey to think about your own position and the things that you could do to accelerate action. So the first thing would be is set some financial goals. Think about the formatting that we talked about. Have a look at a budget. So if you have one already, review the budget. Make sure that it's still remaining current for your change in circumstance. If you don't have a budget, there's a really good one on the Money Smart website. It's a budget planning tool, so go and check that out. It's a very useful website for various resources. You can consider using the First Home Super Saver scheme if you are in the eligibility criteria, or maybe it's that you have a child or someone you know who is looking to purchase their first home and starting to think about what their options are. You could consider contributing a little bit more into Super. So thinking about different ways to contribute into Super, we spoke about some of the different types of contributions such as after tax, the co-contributions, or spouse contributions. We also spoke about salary sacrifice. So have a look at whether you can afford to contribute a little bit more and think about the power of compounding interest over time. Review your insurances. So have a look at what levels of cover you have, if any, what you're covered for in the levels. Maybe you'd like to jump on and have a look at the insurance calculator to determine if the levels that you have are right for your stage of life. And then also really important to have a look at your beneficiary nominations. So you can do that via the member portal or via the app, and you can have a look at who you've nominated and under what structure. And then think about the things that we discussed and make sure that that is kept current as your circumstances change. And then finally, learn about your retirement and your options. So we have plenty of resources available on our website, so please check those out. Lots of calculators and tools, and I'll show you where you can go to find those in just a moment. Now before I show you where to go for extra help and advice, there is a QR code up on the screen, and I'm sure there'll be a link that's popped in the chat box, but you can download the Women and Super brochure by following the link, and it will go through all of the items that we discussed in the presentation today. So please feel free to save that for further viewing. Now here's where you can go for extra help and advice. I referred to the insurance calculator throughout today's presentation. There is also a really good retirement projection calculator that's a bit of fun to play around with. You can pop in what your existing super balance is and when you would like to retire, and then it will project out what your expected or projected retirement balance will be at that point. And then you can play around with what if I put in some extra contributions, how does that impact my longer-term retirement savings. I referred to a couple of webinars as well, which you'll find on our website, so please go and check those out. There are many different webinars, and they will be suitable for different stages of your retirement journey, so go and check those out if you're interested. You can also call our 1300 number, so 1300 300 273, and you can request to speak to somebody over the phone for simple super advice. So that might be insurance you're not sure on, levels of cover, maybe it's talking about beneficiaries or investment options, for example. If you are after more tailored comprehensive financial advice, you can request to speak with a financial planner by following the link that you can see on the screen or by calling our 1300 number. Now you can request to speak with a financial planner who will go through your personal situation in detail, and then they will provide you with a statement of advice document detailing how you can achieve your goals. I know there are costs involved in that, but the financial planner will discuss all of that with you before you proceed. So thank you for joining us today. We hope you've taken one piece of information away with you today that you can go and do as an action point to set yourself up for your financial future.
Get your super sorted
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Show transcript
Hello and a very warm welcome to our AustralianSuper Get Your Super Sorted webinar. Today, my name is Meline Gun. I’m part of the Education team at AustralianSuper, and I’ll be presenting our session today.
Before we get started, I will first of all acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and pay respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
I also want to make sure everyone understands that today is a general information session. This is very important because there will be some material that might sound like a very good idea, but whether or not it is will depend on your own individual circumstances. So please have a think about your own financial situation, objectives, and needs before taking any action based on today’s presentation. For decisions around AustralianSuper, please check our product disclosure guide, our target market determination document, and our financial services guide. These are all available on the AustralianSuper website, along with lots of other really useful information. It’s probably a good idea to have a look and cross-reference with material on the AustralianSuper website.
With that in mind, what we’re going to be looking at today is consolidating super, insurances in super, ways to add more to super, and how to get some help and advice if that is going to be useful. We’re going to do this by working with a case study, a real-life, lifelike situation, because I think it’s helpful to see each of these topics in the context of someone navigating their superannuation in the same way that we’re all doing during the course of our working lives.
Let’s start by thinking about consolidation and what this means. We’re going to do that by first meeting our case study, James. James is 36, he’s working as an IT consultant, and he earns $90,000 a year. He has a partner and a young child, and his partner is taking time out of work to care for their young child, so their circumstances have changed over the last few years. James is aware that he’s got super spread across several funds. The balance altogether is about $90,000, and he’s really looking now, having not thought much about his super in the past, to make the most of the super system and get his super in order so that he’s positioned well for his long-term financial security.
We’re talking consolidation because James is aware that’s probably something he should consider. If you’re in that position, like James, of having a few super accounts, maybe as a result of working for different employers, and it’s all just seemed a bit too hard, maybe now’s the time to stop and think about the benefits of bringing funds together. A lot of people find they save money on fees once they bring super into one consolidated fund. They certainly get less super-related correspondence, which is a plus, and there’s that feeling that “Now I’ve got my money together, I’m more likely to be in the driver’s seat and in control of my long-term savings.”
When we’re thinking about consolidating and hoping it doesn’t feel too hard, we should be aware of fees and costs when we’re looking at the different funds that we have and where we might consolidate to, because we want to put ourselves in a strong position going forward. Another area that’s important to consider is our insurances. As we’re looking at our different super funds, if we have insurances in several of the funds and they’re important to us, so we’d like to keep them, then we may sort of stop and think about what we’re going to do with that.
At AustralianSuper, we can apply to AustralianSuper to literally transfer that amount of cover from another super fund into our AustralianSuper fund. So we’re effectively increasing that cover in AustralianSuper. When we go back, after that’s been received and acknowledged by AustralianSuper, and we can see the change has happened in our AustralianSuper account, we can go back and consolidate the funds knowing that we are not losing insurance cover that may be important down the track. For people who are unsure, it might be useful to seek some financial advice around this.
Once we feel we’re in a position and ready to consolidate, and maybe we’re consolidating into AustralianSuper, we’re comfortable with our insurances, we can use the tool on the AustralianSuper website. We can use the online tool by logging into our account to consolidate. If we go to australiansuper.com/consolidate, there are listed things that we can think about first, including insurances.
So it’s quite a nice way to make sure that we’ve covered things off that are important to us. We can consolidate through our online account, or many people find it’s easier just to go into their MyGov account, where maybe they’ve done their tax return. Going into that link to the ATO, there is a super comparison tool in there, and there is a consolidation tool as well.
This is a much more straightforward process than it used to be in the past, and I think once people have consolidated funds and have their super in one account they can focus on, there’s often a feeling of achievement that “I’ve done this.” This is what James is going to be considering as he’s trying to get his super accounts in order.
We’ve talked about insurances. When we’re thinking about our super, quite often the insurance piece gets parked to the side for later. Most of us don’t like seeing the insurance premiums coming out of our super account. We certainly hope that we’re never going to need to use these insurances. So all in all, it’s a topic often of “I’ll look at that later,” but really it’s important. It’s protecting these insurances: death cover, total and permanent disablement cover. These are lump sum amounts that are paid in addition to our account balance in the event of our death or our total and permanent disablement. You can see these insurances are there to protect ourselves and our loved ones while we are building our long-term financial security within our super account.
Income protection we can have as well, and that’s designed differently. Its structure is that it can provide a regular income in the event that we can’t work due to accident or illness and hence don’t receive an income. Income protection insurance can step in and replace that income. Default cover in super is generally for a maximum payment period of two years, but we can apply to change that if that suits us. So having a look at our insurances and what might be useful, usually when people join AustralianSuper, they’ll receive a default level of cover. It’s really looking at: is that what I need? If I don’t want that cover, I can cancel it. If I want to keep the cover, that’s fine. Maybe I want to change and increase the cover depending on where I am in my working life and my current circumstances.
That often leads to people thinking, “Well, how much cover do I need?” This can change over time as well. We think of James, who now has a partner who’s not working at the moment, caring for their young child. He’s probably thinking that his insurance needs have changed and thinking about how much cover he might need.
It's something he may not have thought about in his younger years, so maybe James could check out the insurance calculator on the AustralianSuper website to help look at his needs at the moment and the costs involved.
When we're thinking about the costs of insurance through an AustralianSuper account, we can see that the costs will depend on the amount of cover that we have. Also, our age will be a determinant in the premiums. There's another factor which people are sometimes not aware of, and that's what we call our work rating. It's a type of risk rating. When we join the fund, the insurer knows nothing about us, and we generally default to what's termed a blue-collar work rating.
This is the most expensive set of premiums, and for a lot of people, they may be eligible to pay less for their cover. So, we would encourage members to think about what they do and, if they're thinking that doesn't sound like their role in the workforce, to perhaps have a look at their work rating eligibility by using the AustralianSuper.com work rating tool. It's a very straightforward tool where I think there are about four questions to answer, and we can see then whether we would actually qualify for a white-collar or professional work rating.
A white-collar rating would reduce the costs, and a professional work rating would reduce the costs further. We can apply for a change of work rating, and if we're successful, we would see those costs reduce, with the deductions coming out of our super account.
In James's circumstance, his current rating is the default blue-collar, and he probably, like most of us, didn't pay much attention to this. He can apply for, and if accepted at, the white-collar work rating, he can reduce the cost of his cover. Of course, there's also the professional work rating, which would reduce the cost further again. Currently, he wouldn't be accepted at that professional work rating level, but he has the option if, down the track in his future, he fits into this niche, he can reapply and maybe be accepted at that future date.
We talked about changing an individual work rating. We can log on and do that through our online account by going into "My Insurance" and then "Change My Insurance". Again, we encourage everyone to have a look by going online to their account, either on their laptop or through the app on their phone, and seeing through "My Insurance" what their work rating is and, if it's not appropriate, taking some action to lower the cost of premiums, which is a win straight away.
Another important area, and one I think James would be aware of with his changed family circumstances, is letting the fund know who he would like to receive the balance of his super account. This might include insurance payouts in the event of his death. Again, this is an area that tends to be put off for later, but it's very important that we all understand that our super doesn't automatically form part of our estate.
We need to tell our super fund who we would like to receive the funds. We can advise them to pay to our estate, in which case, in our will, we can state what we would like to happen. But it's important for that financial administration process that happens after a death to run smoothly, and that requires us to have advised the fund of our wishes.
We can do that in a couple of ways. While we're working and having contributions going into our accumulation account, we can tell the fund our nominated beneficiaries via what's termed a binding or non-binding nomination. The reversionary nomination you can see on the screen is a third option available for people who have a retirement income account. We call that our choice income account. They can choose a reversionary nomination, but for people in the workforce with a super account that's receiving contributions, we talk about a binding or non-binding nomination.
If we go online and advise the fund of our nomination, that will be considered a non-binding nomination. As the name suggests, it's not binding on the super fund. If, in the event of death, there are disagreements within the family, AustralianSuper may need to follow a due process and change the outcome. This is important, as it can take some time when these things happen.
Understanding that, if I've gone online and put my preferred nomination in place, I know it may not be the final outcome. If I want to make sure it's a more straightforward and faster process, and I want to determine the outcome, I might choose a binding nomination.
To do that, I can't do it online. I need to download a binding nomination form, complete it, and sign it in front of two witnesses who are not beneficiaries. I can then scan and email that into the fund.
A binding nomination is a very powerful document because it’s binding. Provided it's valid, this is how the super fund will pay out. In the past, all AustralianSuper binding nominations have been what we term lapsing nominations. This is because it's such a strong document that the fund has felt it preferable for people to renew them every three years. With a lapsing binding nomination, AustralianSuper will contact you as the three-year period draws near and ask you to renew that nomination.
It's an opportunity to have a bit of a think and, if circumstances have changed, to update the nomination now. Just as we speak, in fact, in the next week I think it's happening, AustralianSuper will now have a choice for members. So, for new binding nominations, you'll see on the form that there is now a choice. You can tick if you want it to be lapsing, in which case you'll hear from the fund in three years' time asking you to renew that nomination. Or you can choose a non-lapsing binding nomination, in which case it will stay in place until you change it. So, thinking in terms of your own circumstances and what's going to suit you best, you can decide binding or non-binding, and if it's binding, you can choose on the form between lapsing and non-lapsing.
On these nomination forms, you'll see clear instructions of who you can nominate, which is prescribed by super legislation. So, you follow those instructions and send those into the fund. We have been thinking in terms of items that someone like James may not have thought about in the past. Now that he wants to set his super up for success, he's thinking of each of these items to go through and make sure they are in place.
Another area for James to think about is whether he should add a bit more to his super. He's aware that investment time is important and can be really advantageous. He's thinking about whether he should take advantage of that and add some funds to super now to help it grow and compound over time. So, he's wanting to know the different options that he has. He may be thinking about making what we term a salary sacrifice contribution via his employer. What he's talking about here is, at the moment, his employer is making the compulsory contributions to super.
So, his income is paid, of course, into his bank account. When it's paid into the bank account, his employer is withholding tax and paying that to the ATO, and he gets the net amount in his bank account. When his employer is paying the super, it is 11.5% across to the super fund. They don't withhold tax at all; 100% goes to the super fund because it's a before-tax contribution. The super fund withholds tax at its concessional rate of 15%, so we see that contribution tax on our statements. That means he's got 85 cents in the dollar invested in his super.
So, that's a nice tax deal for James because ordinarily his marginal tax rate is higher than that. He might decide to ask his employer to pay some more to his super, so he gets a bit less in his bank account, but the tax difference works in his favour. We call this salary sacrifice. So, he can build his super and save on tax because of this tax preferential situation — the fact there's less tax paid through going into super than into a bank account. There is a limit to how much the government will allow people to contribute pre-tax into their super, and that limit this financial year is $30,000. So, James is sort of mulling this over and thinking about that.
We'll also want him to be aware and understand, because as circumstances change within his family unit, that a government co-contribution strategy at some stage might be appropriate for him or his partner. We're talking here about someone whose income for the year is less than $45,400, and if they make an after-tax contribution into super, they can be eligible to receive a co-contribution of up to $500. People whose income is more than $45,400 but less than $60,400 may be eligible to receive a partial co-contribution. So here, we're thinking to get that maximum amount: my income would be $45,400 or less, I make a $1,000 after-tax contribution into super, and I can receive a government co-contribution into my account of $500.
Another mechanism for James to consider is a spouse contribution, and you may have heard this term before. What we're talking about is putting some funds into our partner's super account. James might think of this because he could save on tax by putting up to $3,000 into his partner's account, and he can then receive a tax offset of up to $540 off the tax that he would normally be due to pay. It has the added benefit of growing his partner's super at a time when her balance is pretty stagnant because she's not working at the moment.
So, when they look at their overall position and their nest egg for their future financial security, this can sometimes be a useful strategy. When we're thinking of that, we need to remember that to be eligible for that maximum, the contribution needs to be $3,000, and our spouse's annual income receiving those funds must be no more than $37,000. There is an age limit as well.
While we're thinking of strategies that may or may not be appropriate at the moment, again, we like people to know that these strategies are there so that we can find out more about them and tap into them as our circumstances change.
Something to consider would be, maybe if we can't afford to make additional contributions into our partner's super account, or maybe we are doing that but would like to do more, we can actually split our before-tax super contributions that have gone into our account this financial year. We can apply to the super fund to pay up to 85% of those before-tax contributions across into a partner's super account.
It's also helpful for people to understand that there is what's termed a carry-forward rule. What we're talking about here is the fact that we might be in a position at some stage to have used our $30,000 contribution limit pre-tax when we add our compulsory contribution, maybe any salary sacrifice, and maybe we've made some tax-deductible contributions. We've used that limit, but maybe there are some periods in the last five years that we haven't used the cap, and we're in a position this year where we'd like to be able to add more.
We can look back over that period if our total funds in super are less than $500,000. We can look back and use some of that cap we haven't used. We can use this for this financial year, and for someone that thinks, "Oh, that might suit me either now or at some time down the track," we can go onto our MyGov site, again into that link through to the ATO, and have a look in the super area. Look for the carry-forward concessional contribution. Within that website, within that tab, you'll see listed quite clearly if we have any remaining for each of the last five financial years.
It's worth having a look and having a look at also the other contribution information that's there. Also, as we're going through our journey towards retirement, people might have heard about a transition to retirement strategy. Sometimes in those years leading up to retirement, we can find that using a transition to retirement strategy, where we're actually drawing some tax-free income out of super to help with our cash flow, allows us to make pre-tax contributions into AustralianSuper and literally have more funds going into AustralianSuper by paying less tax. It doesn't work for everyone, but it's worth understanding that for some people, this is a helpful strategy in that pre-retirement period.
Finally, on the screen, we can see reference to a downsizer contribution. What we're referring to here is that for people who are aged 55 and older, if they downsize their home and, in the process, have some excess sale proceeds, instead of looking at how they're going to invest these funds, perhaps to help with their retirement living, they can now add these to AustralianSuper. Each person can add up to $300,000 to their AustralianSuper via this mechanism. There are some discrete rules around this type of strategy, so if we were looking to do this, we’d want to have a look at the rules at the time to make sure we comply with those.
Very importantly, we need to be at least aged 55. There is no upper age limit, and we can do this type of contribution once in our lifetime. So, they are important barriers or criteria, but as well as that, I would encourage people who are thinking of using that strategy to have a look at the rules, either considering the fact sheet available on the AustralianSuper website, checking on the ATO site, or maybe seeking financial advice. These are all mechanisms that look at different circumstances that people can be in during the course of their working lives and strategies that are going to fit these different circumstances at different times. The more that we know about the different strategies available, the more that we can reach out, find out more about them at an appropriate time, and use them if it's going to assist in our journey towards retirement.
So, let's go back and have a look at James's circumstance. James has looked at each of these items and decided to take some action. As a result, he has saved on costs by consolidating his multiple super accounts. He's only got one set of administration fees, and he's very happy about having less paperwork to manage as well. So, that's been successful. He's also applied to change his insurance work rating from where he was sitting at Blue Collar. Now he's been accepted for White Collar, so this has reduced the cost of his insurance premiums. After some consideration and looking at his financial circumstances at the moment, he's decided to start salary sacrificing $250 a month. This results in an additional $127,000 expected into his super by age 67 and a tax saving of $510 in the first year. So, that's a nice outcome for James as well.
He's really now tapped into the benefits that are available within the super system, and the more he interacts, the more he understands how his super can benefit from these steps that he's taking. He also makes a
A one-off contribution of $3,000 into his partner's account so he boosts a super balance and receives a tax offset of $540. Finally, James has put in place a binding nomination, so he wants to make it as easy as possible for his partner in the event of his death, so that the financial administration process is clear and is more likely to be a straightforward process in this circumstance. So we're talking about some straightforward steps that have a strong impact, both in the short term if something happens to James, but also planning for that longer-term financial security for both himself, his partner, and of course his child growing up.
When we're thinking about a few simple steps we can take, we can think in terms of maybe adding a bit more to super over the long term as a very powerful strategy. We could also have a look at our investment options and think about whether the way that we're invested is appropriate. We all start as default balanced option members, so having a look and seeing what that means and whether that is appropriate. If it is, that's fine; if it's not, altering our investment option to suit us better.
As we mentioned, having a look at our insurance cover to make sure that it's the right cover for us, remembering the importance of the work rating—the fact that we've defaulted into a blue-collar work rating. If that's not appropriate, changing that and maybe saving on premiums, and also looking at the amount of cover we have, of course, to make sure that it's right for us. Very importantly, and quite often overlooked, checking to see that we have nominated beneficiaries for our account in the event of our death. If we have, whether they're appropriate; if we haven't, thinking in terms of putting that documentation in place to make the financial administration in the event of our death as straightforward as possible for our loved ones at that time.
So we have covered quite a few strategies today and things for us to think about. If you think it might be helpful to seek some financial advice around converting this sort of general information that we've presented today into something more meaningful for your own circumstances, I think a really helpful start is possibly to contact the fund and organise a time that's convenient for you to speak with a financial advisor by phone. A phone meeting with a financial advisor is part of our simple super advice channel, and here that advisor can provide financial advice that's personal to you.
For advice around insurances in your super, maybe contribution strategy in super, or maybe an investment strategy, there is no additional cost involved because this service is funded as part of the member fees that we all pay. So, getting the best value from the fund would be seeking some help and advice, maybe as we need it over time. Of course, if you receive personal financial advice, you would receive that in writing.
You can see on the screen we have online calculators that can be helpful. I referred to our insurance calculator, and there are some other calculators if you have a look that you might find useful. We do also have face-to-face financial planning available, and you can see the link on the screen now. You can go in and find an advisor to suit you in that capacity. We have advisors in our offices around the country, and you can call the fund to organise to meet with an advisor.
Importantly, face-to-face financial advice is provided at the member's own expense. There would be an initial meeting to discuss circumstances generally, and an advisor would be listening to you, thinking about how they can help, and talk to you about that and provide you with a quote for financial advice.
This really brings our presentation to a close. One last thought is to let people know that we have a podcast now, The Moments That Count, and people find it useful to have a listen to. Our Head of Member Products, Guidance and Advice, Shane Hancock, speaks with members about how they plan for retirement, the steps they took while planning for their future, and he also speaks to super experts from around the country. So, have a look at australiansuper.com/podcast or scan the QR code if you think that might be helpful or of interest to you.
So now, I will bring the presentation to a close. Thank you very much for your attendance today.
Do you need $1 million to retire?
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Show transcript
Hello and welcome to our presentation this evening.
Do you need $1,000,000 to retire?
My name is Madeline Gunn, I'm an Education Manager with Australian Super and I'll be presenting your session this evening.
With me today, I have some colleagues who are ready and waiting for any questions that might come up during the presentation.
So if while we're going through tonight's presentation, if some questions arise or if you have other super questions on your mind, remembering we're talking general questions.
We can't provide personal financial advice of course, but certainly general super questions.
Please feel free to type those in the Q&A box, which you'll find either at the top, maybe the bottom of your screen and my colleagues will answer those for you.
At the same time, keep an eye on the chat box.
You'll see that's also in in the bar either at the top or bottom of your screen because they'll also be posting some links there where you can find further information about some of the topics that we cover.
So you would think about opening those in another window or maybe copying and pasting them into a Word document for later.
So with that background, let's start our presentation, first of all by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and paying respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and extending that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
I also want to make it very clear to people that today is a general information session, and this is important because I'll talk about things that might sound like a very good idea.
Whether they are or not is going to depend on individual circumstances, your financial situation and your needs.
So please, when considering what's been presented today, think about your own circumstances.
Check out further information on the Australian Super website.
Also looking at our product disclosure statement, our target market determination document and our financial services guide which are available on the website.
So getting started with our presentation, when we're thinking about, we may well have heard people talking about retirement and how much is needed and niggling away in the background, we might remember hearing that we probably need about $1,000,000 to retire.
That number we might have heard recently may well have gone up.
And as we look at our own super, we might be thinking maybe I'm just not going to be able to retire.
How, how does all this work?
And it's a very good idea to come to a session like today to just find out a bit more about exactly that, how this is likely to work and how much am I likely to need?
What does this actually mean?
And when we're looking at a topic like this, what we're going to be doing initially is to be considering the various factors that are going to come into play here so we can see on the screen.
There are a number of them.
Thinking first of all, about the sort of retirement I'd like to have, and then from there, how much income I'm likely to need.
Where's this possibly going to come from?
And if I'm going to be using my super, when can I access my super?
Does that fit in with my retirement plans?
And when I do that, how long is my money likely to need to last?
I know that Australians are living longer on average than previous generations, so is it realistic to have funds lasting that length of time?
Again, there's a lot of pieces of the puzzle here to think about and put together as I'm looking at my own plans for my future self as I finish work and have choices about the things I'll be doing and the lifestyle I'll have in those future years.
So probably the first thing I'd be thinking about is the sort of retirement I'd actually like to be having.
Am I someone that's really planning to do all that travel I haven't had a chance to do?
Am I someone that's really wanting to go bush or maybe spend more time with family?
Who knows?
But importantly, of course, I probably won't be doing everything on my own.
So if I have a partner, close family, loved ones probably need to be having these conversations with them so that we're not going off on completely different tangents and discovering our plans for retirement are actually completely different.
So on a practical level, thinking in terms of what it is I'd like to be doing is very much a starting point.
Because from there we think about how much that's likely to cost, How much am I going to need to, to meet my living expenses in these later years.
And quite often as I start to think in terms of how much I'll need, it all sounds a bit too hard.
And this sort of tends to often stop the process.
So we want to get past this point and think in terms of well, where can I look for some information to help me look at well how much are retirees on average spending at the moment.
That would give me a starting point at least.
And this is where we can use the work that ASFA the Association of Super Funds of Australia, look at the work they have done in just that reviewing and analysing expenditure for retirees currently and they have put together what they call their retirement standards.
They're looking at firstly how much retirees are spending at the moment, for what they term a comfortable retirement.
Now there is an assumption in these numbers that people retiring own their own home, which on the whole has been a valid assumption in the past and probably at the moment.
But we may need to think about how valid that is going forward.
But for now, we're looking at active retirees who are healthy and able to go out and do activities owning their own home.
And we can see on the screen, couples are spending just over $73,000 a year and singles for this sort of lifestyle, just over $52,000 a year.
If you're someone that would like a bit more detail that sits behind that.
And our graphics on the screen showing money being spent eating out, perhaps buying those new shoes, a bit of travel, maybe updating our cars, our technology.
If you'd like a bit more detail than that, you can have a look on the ASFA site at their retirement standards and you'll be able to see a detailed budget sitting underneath these numbers.
And these get updated each quarter and adjusted with expenditure and inflation.
So it's, it's quite a current number and we know it's increased in recent times due to the inflation that we've all experienced.
Now ASFA also provide a second retirement standard, which they term to meet a modest lifestyle.
So what they're talking about with their modest retirement standard is having sufficient funds to meet basic income needs.
So here we can see some of our graphics have been greyed out.
We can see that maybe some of those nice to haves aren't there.
We're talking about people that own their own home, that are relatively healthy but having more limited expenditure, but sufficient to meet what are termed basic lifestyle needs.
And again, those details are on the ASFA website, so we can see the numbers there.
Now some people we're talking about average expenditure here and some people will feel I tend to spend less than the average person.
So I probably might not need as much as that.
Other people are thinking, well, I'm probably a higher spender than that.
I intend doing a lot of travel initially.
I'm possibly going to be spending a bit more than that.
But at least we've got somewhere to start in our planning process, which is what we're after.
Because we want to actually walk through this process, which can be fine-tuned over time.
But we want to actually make some progress and get an outcome so we can have an idea of the way we're heading and what it's looking like and how we might be tracking.
I think it's helpful as well, having considered these lifestyle retirement standards to just compare those to a full aged pension.
I think it's sort of helpful to to look at both the comfortable and the modest lifestyle numbers and remember ASFA see the modest numbers, those amounts as required to meet what they see as basic living standard living needs.
And we can see the full age pension is a few $1000 less than that.
And we can really see the benefit here of at least having some super saved so that we can generate a few $1000 each year to perhaps add to the full age pension we might be receiving in retirement if we haven't had an opportunity to build a substantial balance.
So then of course what comes into play is understanding how age pension and super income streams can work together to provide us the income we need in those later years.
So we're thinking in terms of the level of income on average that Australians are spending at the moment.
And if we were going to sort of model numbers going forward, we could then start with these sorts of numbers and factor in inflation as intrinsic in those numbers.
And now we have a pathway forward.
So then we'd be thinking, well, if I'm thinking about my income in retirement, have I really thought about where my income is likely to come from?
Have I been sort of connected into my super and assumed that as I save into my super, I'm going to have a sufficient balance there to generate the income I need?
Or maybe I have other investments or savings that I'm planning on using, or should I do that?
So these are all going to depend on our own circumstances.
But thinking in terms of where my retirement income may be coming from, we tend to think in Australia of funds could come via government age pension, from our super savings, maybe from other savings we have, or other investments that we might hold.
And we know when we look across the community that most retired Australians are receiving some government age pension at some stage during their retirement.
And often this can be combined with some income from their super generating income needed to meet the sort of living standards that they'd like from the two income sources or maybe a bit from other savings and investments as well.
Tonight we're going to focus on that mix of government age pension and superannuation.
So as we are thinking in terms of our retirement income in our later years, it's probably well it definitely is helpful to have an idea of what you're spending now.
And quite often this is the the point that people find difficult and stops the process that we're on our planning journey.
So it's thinking in terms of the power it gives me, the control over my future self of having an understanding of my expenses at the moment.
So it's finding a tool that's going to be helpful for me.
Everybody's different.
We know that the Government Money Smart site has a nice budgeting tool, but there are certainly other apps available that you can find or for some people they keep a spending diary and it's as simple as that.
Just noting down what's being spent at at that level.
I think it can be helpful if we run things through credit cards to certainly that helps looking at income and expenditure to give us an idea.
But the putting effort in to put together a budget, it does give us a lot of control over a pathway forward and that information to make good decisions as we're deciding how we go to track forward.
So we're thinking if the more we know about what we spend, the stronger our route forward is.
But I think initially we can rely on those averages that we talked about at the beginning.
That's a good starting point which we can fine tune with our own expenditure as we go forward.
Another feature that's going to become important, of course, is if super is going to be central to my income in retirement, then, well, when can I access my super?
And we can see here that if I'm thinking in terms of retiring before I can access my super, then part of my planning is going to, of course, be having another source of income until I reach the stage when I can now start drawing from my super savings.
So as we can see on the screen here, we can access our super if we've reached age 60 and stopped working permanently.
So retired or if we change our employers so stop working for a particular employer, we could then start working for a different employer, but that will provide us with access to our super.
Once we turn 65, we can access our super whether we're working or not.
So no one is going to ask us if we're working.
We just need to show that we have have turned age 65 and then we can decide if we want to to access our super.
We don't need to.
The super can just stay exactly where it is.
But now we've reached the age of 65, we have some choices around how what we do with our super and how we manage that going forward.
So these rules, we talk about them as the terminology is 'conditions of release' and it's really those we've met those conditions and it releases the funds, they're not preserved anymore.
So that is part of these thought processes as I'm tracking through working out how much I need to fund my retirement.
When I start that process is is going to be part of that journey because it will also be part of, well, how long does my money need to last?
And when I'm thinking about that, here are some numbers for us to have a look at and realise I think we're talking quite a long time.
So we can see for someone who is aged 65, for a male the average life expectancy is aged 85 and for a female aged 88.
So that is quite a long period to fund when you think of drawing income to meet living expenses.
As I mentioned, Australians are living longer than previous generations and the numbers you can see on the screen are average life expectancies.
So there are many Australians who live past the ages that you can see on the screen.
So being prepared for that outcome, which is a nice outcome to be having that time at the end of our lives to enjoy and do things that maybe we've been too busy to do while we're working is a nice thing.
But you can see the importance of having the funding to enjoy that time in our lives.
So I think having looked at the components that are going to be important as part of this planning process, it's going to be helpful to have a look at putting these together in a case study.
And we're going to do that with our couple here, Nick and Anne, and look at how this effects them and how the pieces fit together.
So our couple, Nick and Anne are both aged 53.
So Nick, we can see earns $80,000 a year and 70.
And we can see together their super is about $400,000 and they've done a bit of planning and their retirement income goal, we can see there being $76,000 in today's dollars.
So they're expected to keep that buying power.
So it will increase with inflation during their retirement.
And they're hoping to be able to retire at age 67.
They've heard that you need considerably more than that sort of dollar amount to retire.
So they are a bit anxious that they'll ever be able to retire.
So if we do a bit of modelling on their numbers and see what we come up with, that might be a good starting point.
So if we look here, we can see schematically on the screen aged 53, their super balance together is about 400,000.
We can see that they're planning on working to age 67 and retiring at that stage.
And when they do that we estimate their super balance will have grown to about $838,000.
And at that stage they would retire.
They plan to start drawing that level of income they'd like as a combination of funds from super and having applied and and received some age pension that together give them the income they'd like.
They then start their retirement years.
And so that's where we look at expectations going forward and we can see we expect them to be able to draw the level of income they'd like adjusted for inflation past their average life expectancy.
So that's a nice outcome for them to feel a level of confidence that that looks like it's going to work quite nicely.
It's a bit of a relief.
They didn't really feel that the funds that they had would be sufficient.
And it's really that interaction of super and age pension that's enabling them to be in this position.
So then they're probably thinking, well, that's quite good.
I wonder if we could retire a bit earlier or maybe things happen and they need to retire earlier, perhaps to look after one of them through ill health and the other one looking after their partner.
And this happens to members more than we realise.
And so if there was an earlier retirement happening, it would look now at what the ramifications of that might be.
So what if they retire early?
So now if we run another modelling scenario, we think in terms of, OK, they're starting super balance at 400,000, working until age 62 when they both retire.
And we would expect then a super balance of about $662,000.
Retiring then means that they're not yet at their age pension age, so they will be funding their retirement from their own resources from their super.
So they're drawing out more heavily from their super.
So they're retired, drawing the income that they'd like.
And when they reach age 67, they can apply for age pension and they do that and draw and ease back on the funds being drawn out of their super because now they've got the two income streams and continue in their on their retirement.
And that's the big question of how long would we expect their funds to last.
And when we look at this, we can see that we expect their super to run out from about their age 83.
And from then we would expect them to rely on the full age pension.
There's not really much safety net sitting there for them and they might feel a bit uneasy about this outcome.
So then the question would be, well, are there, is there an action they can take now in this lead up to their retirement to alleviate this?
What difference would it make if they added some funds to super now?
And so they decide both of them to make before tax contributions of $100 a week to their super.
So let's model that and see the difference that that makes for them.
And here we can see they're at 53, they're now working, but making those additional contributions to super and retiring at age 62.
And now we expect their super balance to have increased to about $752,000.
They're retiring on their own.
There's no age pension yet, so they're drawing their income until age 67.
When they apply for some age pension, they receive that and can ease back on the draw downs from their super.
And the big question is how long do we expect their super to last?
And here we can see an expectation of having the income they'd like past their average life expectancy and we think to about age 90.
So that's a pretty nice outcome.
And in their scenario, they would probably feel very comfortable about this.
They're really looking at either they've decided they'd like to retire early or the potential for something to happen that means that they need to, they've got that base covered and it looks like they'll be comfortable.
So we can see that they've in the process, they've saved tax with their contributions to super, They've got additional funds in their super and it's lasting an extra 7 years.
So if we come back to our original question and what we're really focused on is, do I need $1,000,000 to retire or how much do I need to retire?
We can see that drawing that level of income may use that level of funding, but for most Australians they're not doing it on their own.
They've got funds from their super and for many Australians they can supplement that with income from Centrelink age pension.
And even if they don't qualify at retirement, for most Australians at some stage during their retirement, they, as they use their super, their assets up, which is what it's designed to do.
The balance will be starting to come down.
And the requirements for Centrelink asset testing is going up.
And they'll find often at some point during retirement that they'll qualify and can apply, receive maybe a small amount initially of age pension, which may increase over time, which that means they can ease back on the draw down from super.
And that nice combination of the two income streams will enable them to generate the income that they would like to have throughout their retirement.
So we can see the importance of understanding this dynamic, what it might mean for us and getting a feel for how these systems can work together.
So when we're thinking of well, what can I do now to sort of have a look at my own circumstances.
It looked very nice for our couple on the screen.
But then I really want to convert what that might mean for me.
And I think it's very helpful to start thinking about the spending I'm doing at the moment and create a budget.
So it's a helpful scenario to have a feel for how much we're spending now and the sort of expenses that are going to continue into retirement.
And there may be some that don't, that might be work related or debt related that won't be there.
And thinking in terms of fine tuning the sort of spending that I'd like to have in those years.
And thinking in terms of is my retirement income likely to come from super, remembering that I need to reach the age of 60 usually to be able to access my super.
If I'm thinking of retiring before that, maybe I need to be thinking about having some other savings and investments to cover that off.
And then I think finding a modelling tool that we can put our own numbers in to give us a bit of an outline as to what my scenario looks like and what I'm on track to receive.
And there's some things I can do to perhaps make a difference in that lead up towards my retirement.
And certainly on the AustralianSuper website, we have our online calculators, we have a super projection calculator.
We can put our numbers into the system and generate the first screen.
We'll see.
We'll be looking at our balance over time and expectations of how long it will last.
But if we click onto the second income stream, we can then have an estimate of income from super and any potential age pension that we might be eligible to receive at some stage during our retirement.
And I think the beauty of these calculators is of course, that over time as the rules change, those updated rules are embedded in the calculator for both age pension and super.
So if we tapped into a calculator like this, there's also one on the government money smart site, There's one on the ASFA site.
They have a nice calculator.
Here is finding the one that we are most comfortable with and like to use so that maybe each year at tax time when we do our tax, we're in MyGov.
There's a lot of our super information now in our MyGov site in the tax area.
It's a bit of a reminder.
I'm going to go in and see how I'm tracking.
I know that any updated rules are in these calculators so I can see how I'm going and make sure I'm on track for the sort of retirement outcome that I'd like to have.
So that's a pretty good outcome from learning how this works and having a look at calculators.
And the pathway forward is really me on the front foot now working on just tapping in each year and checking in to make sure that I'm on track for my future financial security that I'm looking forward to.
If I'd like a bit of help with some of this, particularly as members are often asking, but for my circumstances, what might be the type of contribution strategy for me or often an investment strategy that's suitable for me or maybe about my insurance, as in super that style of advice.
I can contact the fund either on the 1300 number or through the website and organise a phone meeting with a financial advisor and there I can receive personal financial advice.
Today is a very general session and this sort of converts this information to something that's meaningful for my circumstances.
And there is no additional cost for that service as it's funded as part of the member fees that we all pay.
So I think getting best value from your super fund is tapping into this assistance perhaps as you need it over time.
We also provide access to face to face financial planning for people who would like more comprehensive financial advice.
And you can see there the link on the screen for that.
That's at members own expense on a fee for service basis.
So it's really making sure that we're gaining an understanding of how this works, how this fits together, taking the steps that I can around using calculators and making sure I'm on track and where I need a hand, Making sure that I reach out and get a hand so that then I'm on track for the sort of retirement that I'd like to have.
And that's really what this is all about.
I'll also just mention that on the AustralianSuper website, a relatively new feature is our Elements of Retirement guide, a self-guided group of we can see the topics here.
You can see them on the screen when we're planning a path to retirement.
They're a very helpful tool for covering off areas and working through this planning and the pathway towards retirement.
That can be a very useful mechanism, again, to get acquainted with the things that are going to be important to know about and to tap into things that will be suitable for us.
So that brings to a close our presentation today.
If you have any questions that you'd like answered, please type those into the Q&A box.
We've we'll stay open for a few more minutes.
If people are still thinking about questions that they would like answered, I can see my colleagues are typing out answers as as we speak.
Just having a look at some of the questions here.
An interesting question I think someone is asking, can they keep some of their funds in super rather than the Super pension so that it keeps growing?
I think it's important to know that when we retired and if we choose to move our funds across to a superannuation income stream in retirement, it's a choice.
We can leave our money in super if we want to, but in actual fact we have the same investment options in the income stream and it often earns a little bit more in the income stream because there's no tax on those investment earnings inside the fund.
You might remember in our super where we're got our contributions being paid into, it's nice in our working lives because those investment earnings are concessionally taxed, not like out in the real world for us.
So there's concessional taxation.
The Super fund's marginal rate of 15% is the the, I guess marginal rate that's applied across the Super fund.
However, when we move our funds into a retirement income stream, that's not part of the funds taxable income.
So it's a zero rate of taxation on those investment returns in a retirement income stream.
So it's weighing up what's going to suit us best as we're looking at our own circumstances.
There's a question here I will also mention because it's often asked is if I retire or leave my employer now and I'm over 60 and I convert to an income stream, I'm happy and then I might go back to work again.
Is that OK?
And that's fine.
I could just open up another super account and have my contributions paid into that account.
And at some stage down the track, I might want to pull everything together and I can do that as well.
I can't add to a current retirement income stream, but I can move everything, the retirement income stream, my super across to a new retirement income stream down the track if I want to bring it all into one place.
So we've still got some questions coming through, but we're sort of finishing up now.
I think we'll come through to the last ones here.
Just one question asking for asset testing for age pension.
Is our residential property considered as part of the assets?
And the the answer to that is generally not so generally, our home is exempt from the Centrelink assets test.
Someone's asking, do you need 2 super accounts to take advantage of the recontribution scheme?
I think what they might be referring to is sometimes people draw funds out of super and decide to put it back in again for tax purposes.
And it doesn't need to be in two separate accounts.
But depending on the strategy that you're pursuing, sometimes it makes sense to use two different accounts.
So I would seek advice about that, about my own circumstances if that was me.
OK, so I think we're finishing up now and I will thank everyone very much for your attendance today.
Thank you for joining us.
I hope that it's been helpful as you can go away and have a little look further into some of these things and see how they apply to you.
And don't forget, if you need a hand, please contact the fund and organise to receive some help and advice using our phone advice team.
So I'll close the session now.
Thank you very much to everyone for your attendance.
It's been lovely to chat to you tonight.
Thank you and goodbye all.
Keep your super safe online
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Show transcript
Thank you for joining us. My name is Peter Treseder, I'm an education manager at AustralianSuper and I've been helping members understand their super better and hopefully engaging with their super more to put themselves in a better financial position when retirement eventually comes. The topic today about keeping your super safe online, I have with me Cat Burke. Cat is one of our member-facing fraud specialists. Now fraud specialist sounds a bit sinister Cat, but you need to know what's going on to stop what's going on. So welcome Cat.
Thanks for having me. AustralianSuper does acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which we work and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and we extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. AustralianSuper's head office is on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and today we're talking to you from the lands of the Taungurung people and the Bunurong people.
What Cat and I are talking about today is general information. We don't know your personal circumstances, wants, needs, desires, etcetera. So what we're providing is general information. If you got to make a decision about AustralianSuper, please read our target mark determination and our product disclosure statement.
So looking at the topic, what are we going to be looking at today when it comes to keeping your super safe online? I'm going to look at what data breaches are, the various scams that are around, how to identify them, looking at how AustralianSuper protects members and also providing you with a number of different tips to help you keep your super safe.
So we hear Cat all the time in the news about data breaches and there's been quite a few, well, a number over recent years, some affecting well-known company household names. Yeah, absolutely. You can't sort of look at a news website these days without seeing a more recent data breach. Obviously, we've had a few sort of where people where companies have been held to account and threatened with their customers' data to be leaked on the black web and that sort of thing, or the dark web. But a data breach is, yeah, something that I think that everybody's encountered these days in the news.
So we see them in the news and there's reports of a data breach. But if we dig a little bit further, how would you describe a data breach? Yeah. So data breach is the equivalent of somebody coming into your house, getting your passport, they might find your birth certificate, they might get copies of your bills and that sort of thing. And then having access to all of that personal information. The difference with the data breach rather than somebody breaking down your front door is they often get that information online. So it's usually facilitated through electronic devices, the Internet, and usually the threat is to your own personal security or your financial health. So a lot of it comes down to privacy issues, but it can really result in a lot of time lost for yourself, but a lot of money as well. So there's, yeah, huge consequences for it.
So the breach can happen for your own personal devices, but it can also happen through a service provider that you use, government agencies, or even your employer's payroll systems we've seen be targeted as well. The big call out for a data breach is that if you are a victim of a data breach, then you're so much more likely to be a victim of a scam. OK. And these data breaches. Thanks for that. And so before I meet go any further, if you do have questions, please type them in the Q&A box. I have some colleagues behind the scenes that are ready, willing, and able to answer your questions, and they'll also be putting some links in the chat that relate to what Cat and I are talking about.
So this data breach is the virtual break-in where someone's usually breaking. People sneak in and pinch something, this way they're sneaking in electronically. So what are some of the scams or the types of scams we've seen recently? Yeah, so there's obviously a lot of different scam types. We see one thing with scam is, is they're always continuing to evolve. So a scam is a crime of opportunity where the person is usually tricked into believing the personal organisation that they're dealing with is genuine. We see a lot of our members be victims of scams at AustralianSuper, but a great resource which I refer to regularly is the Scam Watch website, which is where sort of these sort of little data points have been taken from.
But we do see a lot of different scams, predominantly at the moment we're seeing online dating scams. So that's where a scammer builds a personal relationship with you to gain your trust and your money. And then they make you believe that the relationship is real. They manipulate you into giving them your money over time, which, Yeah, is usually sort of quite heartbreaking because you genuinely believe that the person you're dealing with has your best interests at heart. But realistically, it's quite the opposite. We see investment scams as well, so that's where our members might be looking to make money through investing. They'll go and do a little bit of research online and then the scammer will convince you that they're going to be able to make you more money than you could ever make by yourself or with more traditional platforms such as your superannuation.
And then the last one that we see quite a bit is impersonation scams. So that's scammers impersonating trusted businesses, friends or family, and they'll convince you to transfer money to them all, obviously in an effort to steal that money from you once they have it. But more valuable, and well, sometimes more valuable is your actual personal information. Not just the money that can be lost through this, but the time it takes you afterwards to protect yourself is something that some people don't think about. Yeah. And I think we've all had those. We've seen those impersonations. I think most of us have probably got that email from the Nigerian Prince promising to give us multi millions of dollars. And look, I, I had one, oh, maybe two years ago where I got a text message allegedly from my son that something had happened to his phone. And Gee, it was, it was very convincing. It wasn't until I took a bit of time to stop and think about it, that I realised this, this doesn't weigh up.
And so they're the types of scams. How are the scammers trying to reach out to us? Yeah. So you can see on this slide that there's numerous ways, but I want to focus on the top three reported ways, which is text messages, phone and email. So quite often you'll receive text messages from government organisations, businesses that you deal with or even your own family or friend trying to catch you out. So good example being the message that you received. Just recently I received a message from Amazon trying to tell me that there was a seven and a half $1000 transaction on my account and was this legitimate? Do I actually need to buy a, a spa bath and to please click on this link to dispute it, which obviously any text message that has a text link in it, you always have to be a little bit questionable of.
Phone scams is a big one as well. So that's cold callers. That's somebody giving you a call to try and convince you that they are who they say they are? This is another one that I get quite regularly, which is the ATO calls asking me to log in and lodge my tax return. Otherwise, they're going to send out police because there's a warrant for my arrest. And I promise you I've done my tax return at least for the last few years. So that's another one that sort of seems to come out quite a lot is those cold calls trying to convince you. If it's not from an organisation, it'll be from Microsoft or your bank trying to convince you to log in while they're on the phone. That's usually a good sign.
And then the last one that we see quite a lot is email scams. So to your Nigerian inheritance, it's definitely one that we see quite a lot and it's either going to be a completely out of the blue dead relative or it will be something along the lines of a bank impersonation where it looks like it might have come from the genuine bank, but there's always sort of slight differences. The wording could be incorrect. You'll see the sender is a little bit not genuine, or they're asking you to click on this link and log in. And don't worry about calling them to verify it just definitely trusts that they are who they say they are. Yeah. And often you'll see, as you're saying in those emails, the grammar's not right, The salutation of hello, Peter Mann or something like that. But just sort of throws you off straight away. I think I've probably got the same one from you about Amazon that was new straight away because I don't even have an Amazon account.
So they're trying all different ways. But then it costs, it costs Australians lots of money in a number of various ways over the, if we look over the recent years Cat. Yeah, absolutely. So $2.74 billion in losses in 2023 alone as reported to the ACCC. 1.3 billion of that 2.74 was investment scams. But something to keep in mind is this'll only be the scams that have been reported to the ACCC. So there's a lot of the time when somebody has been a victim of a scam, they're embarrassed that they fell for it. Scammers are really sophisticated. They're very well practised in what they do and they target people who they consider vulnerable. So scam is a crime of opportunity. It's where they will send a text message out to, you know, 100,000 people and if they get just one person, that's a good day for them. The problem is, and we see it all the time as well, where our members might fall victim to scams and they're embarrassed to tell us. They might be embarrassed to call the police. They might be embarrassed to tell their families and friends, which you should never be embarrassed. It's, it's happened and there's people around you and there's organisations and there's people like myself who are here to help you. You should never be embarrassed if you fall victim to something like this.
Yes, as you said, this is what's been reported. There's probably a lot more that hasn't been. So if we bring it a bit closer now into superannuation world and the scams and frauds, how are these scammers targeting super? Yeah, so for a very long time, superannuation wasn't targeted. For a very long time, it was all about banks. But in the last sort of 10, 15 years, we've seen superannuation really be targeted. One of the big ways is staging accounts. So back to the data breach that we were discussing earlier, a staging account is where a fake member account is created for people who aren't aware that their identity is being stolen. We next see these accounts used as an unauthorised rollover. So an unauthorised roller is where the scammer has taken that information, created the staging account and then they rolled someone's genuine retirement savings into that fake destination account. By either creating that fake account or we see a lot of mygov portal accesses where someone has been able to get your mygov password or get into the ATO portal and sort of access your personal information. We have seen a huge uplift in the protections that the ATO and the advancements that the ATO has made though. So we have seen those drop off quite significantly, which has been great.
We also see it AustralianSuper, a lot of member impersonations. So this is where someone will call, write or message a contact centre pretending to be the genuine member to change their contact information, reset their password to access their online account and then request a benefit, so a withdrawal from their super account. And then finally, we see a lot of early release, So illegal early release, which is sometimes where we see the actual genuine member slowly deplete their retirement savings by claiming financial hardship and then rolling it over to another super fund and doing the same thing within a 12 month period, which is against the legislation around financial hardship. But we also see early release in terms of departing Australia, super payments and compassionate ground payment applications being received when the member wasn't eligible. These payments are managed by the ATO, which again does make it really difficult for super funds to identify.
OK, so this is where it's important that if something's happening with your account, take note of it because I know not like me and not everyone's as excited about super as I am or engage with super. So it's important that if something does come through, not to ignore it because it could be someone being shifty around your account. And if you're not taking note that they may take some actions. And I think often when we talk about these things, it's best to put it into context by what has actually happened with a member. And you recently had a situation with a member through fraud called I think it was Connie. Yeah, absolutely. So. Connie had been a member with AustralianSuper for about 50 years. I mean 15 years. Goodness. And Connie's 60, so she's right at that age where she's starting to consider retirement, but she's considering what her investments will look like for the next few years. So yeah, Connie was a lovely member who I had the opportunity to sort of work with. But so essentially, Connie was searching for an online way to improve her retirement benefits and increase her investment returns. She found a website that promised to do this in a crypto fund investment, which she signed up for. So she's entered all of her contact information. She's uploaded a copy of her driver's licence and her passport. Because quite often when you deal with genuine investment funds, they'll ask you to provide all of that when you onboard or when you sort of first engage with them.
So after all that had been uploaded, the scammers contacted Connie and convinced her to transfer a small amount of her AustralianSuper balance into her bank account and then told her to move it again into the scammer's bank account. And then they moved it into this crypto platform, which they said was amazing. So she was then shown a website detailing her balance, showing how much it had increased in a short amount of time. And then she was sold. So she then tried to move the remainder of the funds to a new bank account. So our flags then alerted to us and it was flagged by the member protection team. The second withdrawal was a significantly large amount of Connie's balance. So we gave her a call and that we asked a few more questions and it was through asking those questions, asking her to share us the website that she was investing in. We were really fortunate with Connie that she was willing to have those conversations with us. Sometimes we might have that conversation and it just gets people's backs up a little bit. They don't want to have that conversation with us. But we identified that the website wasn't genuine and that Connie's first transaction wasn't actually invested as she thought she was, so the remainder of Connie's Super balance wasn't transferred out. Thanks to that call and Connie's willingness to have that conversation with us, we were able to protect the funds with AustralianSuper and help Connie as well. So she felt really silly. But through my conversations with her, the most important thing was protecting herself, resetting all of her online passwords and just doing what she needed to do to make sure that these people couldn't get anything more from her, but also the information that she'd shared with them wasn't going to be able to use further.
Yeah. And I think that's the important part, that Connie's experience. The website looked legit. The numbers looked legit. Everything was there. But like you were saying before, often it's that temptation of more than possibly could be imagined and if it's too good to be true, maybe it is. So the member protection team got involved there when that second transaction was being made. How is that member protection team working and protecting members' information? Yeah, absolutely. So we take a multi-pronged approach. Obviously with scammers, they're very sophisticated. So we need to do everything that we can to address the threat before it happens and do what we can when it is identified. So at AustralianSuper we invest in financial crime and information security teams. I'm obviously one of those people and we're every single day committed to protecting members from harm. We have a security programme which delivers enhancements as part of that strategic road map in response to constantly changing environments. We do education and awareness. So thanks to all of our members who are joining us today. One of the best things that you can do after this is take the tips and share them with as many people as you can. You don't even have to tell them that it was Cat Burke and Peter who told you to do it.
We do data governance as well, so continuously refining data retention, archiving and destruction standards to reduce the risk of data loss. We're proactively responding to new threats and we protect members associated with recent data breaches, being that from employers or companies that we're aware of, we actively protect those members and finally through collaboration. So one of the most important things that we do is we work with law enforcement, regulators and industry partners to combat the increasing threat of cybercrime and fraud. Yeah. And it's that collaboration part that really helped Connie because she was open to say, well, this is what I had. This is what I've seen. So if you're aware that something doesn't look right, we're certainly going to help you. And the more you get involved, as Cat said, the more you tell others, the more you're probably going to help the next person.
So if we bring it down now to a personal level, what are some of the ways that I can protect myself from scams? Kat. Yeah. So information security is about keeping your personal and financial information safe from cyber criminals and scammers. So just like you would use a lock to protect your house or your car, think of your information security as a virtual lock. So you want to think about protecting your own personal and sensitive information online. Just be aware of what you're sharing. Preventing our devices from being accessed without our consent. So that's a big one that we see a lot of is, you know, be aware of what Wi-Fi you're connecting to, that sort of thing and preventing cyber criminals from stealing our valuable information or causing us harm. So just being aware of, you know, where did you leave your wallet? Was it in your car, in your front yard overnight? And it's been broken into. It's not just about online cyber criminals, but it's also your personal information as well in that hard form.
And that's keeping and making, I suppose passwords better than just password or ABC1234. So what would be some of your tips to help people protect their privacy and identity? Yeah. So the best thing that you can do is with your financial institutions, and obviously AustralianSuper being one of them, is keep your account information up to date. Do we have your correct phone number? Do we have your correct email address? If anything happens, we're going to try and contact you or you're going to contact us. And that's going to be one of the first things that we ask you is, is the information that we have up to date creating a passphrase, rather than just using your dog's name +1234 as your passwords for every single website, use a passphrase. So for example, something that someone wouldn't be able to guess like so purple monkey dishwasher, plus something else in addition to it. That seems random, but it makes sense to you. Beware of host emails. Don't click anything as we sort of said earlier. And again to the unsolicited calls and text messages. Sure, here is the text sectioned into appropriate paragraphs:
If ever you're not sure about something being genuine, find the website for that company that is contacting you and call their contact centre. They'll be able to verify to you straight away.
And then finally to cybersecurity, the Wi-Fi and device browsing when you're online. I recently had a member who was a victim of online attack and it was through his local library. He'd connected to the Wi-Fi from his car outside and he thought he was connecting to the genuine Wi-Fi of his library, but it was actually someone else in the area making it appear like it was the library's Internet that he was connecting to. But it was this additional service that was not genuine. So yeah, it's really important.
Yeah. And I think you're right with passphrases coming into play, I'm sure. Was it purple monkey dishwasher? I would have probably gone with Blue Gorilla microwave or something like that. But it is that making it tougher for people to get in.
So if the worst does happens, like with Connie, what should you do if you think you've been been scammed? Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing to do is act fast and report it. Report it to the financial institution that you think has been impacted. So if it was something going out of your AustralianSuper account, call us first. If it was something coming out of your bank, call them first. But ultimately it's about reporting it first and the quicker you do, the easier it is going to be for the financial institutions, me to actually try and protect your account but also recover anything if there has been any funds that have gone out of your account.
As part of that reporting as well is reporting it to police to Scam Watch and the Australian Cybersecurity Centre as well. And then that way the authorities can act as quickly as possible as well. And as I said, we work closely with the authorities as well as much as we can. So yeah, the more information they have and we have, the easier it's going to be for us to help you.
The secondary is change your passwords. So your financial institutions, your bank, your mygov account is another good one to make sure that you're protected on. And obviously you're AustralianSuper online account as well. And then finally, contact ID Care. So ID Care isn't an organisation that a lot of people have heard of, but it's Australian and New Zealand's national identity and cyber support service. They help hold your hand and help instruct you on what to do next and what steps you can take to protect yourself moving forward.
So it's just that common sense approach, like if I lose my house keys, I'm going to change the lock. If someone's got my password, I need to change the password to stop the next one. Now we've talked about the way scammers try and get in touch with us through SMS and email. AustralianSuper, we communicate with members with SMS and email. How can members be comfortable with what they're receiving from us that it is actually from us? Yeah, absolutely. So SMS is will never ask you to click on a link to update your personal information or link through to your account login page. They'll always be something like an update on your account or something that you're either expecting or something that you're not expecting. So if it's something that you're not expecting, that's where it will ask to call us.
The secondary is if you do receive a call from AustralianSuper, even if it's unexpected, our representatives will always clarify who they are, the reason for their call and ensure that you're comfortable to continue before they continue that conversation. And then if you're ever suspicious that a call isn't from AustralianSuper, hang up and call our contact centre. Use the phone number that you find on our website, not the one that you just received in an email or text message, because that's going to be the most secure obviously as well. I can verify that the phone number that you can see on the screen as well is AustralianSuper's phone number. Just for a little bit more Peace of Mind.
OK. And I suppose where we go to from there, and we've covered some of these things is learn more about the various scams, Cat's given us some some insights, but AustralianSuper has a couple of locations on the website shown on the screen here. But the ACCC also has their little black book of scams. Now, what's in their little black book Cat? Yeah, obviously the ACCC is one of the authorities on recent scam trends. So this little black book is essentially a web page that has all of the most recent trends that are being seen. So for every person that reports a scam, the ACCC collates that information and updates their website, which helps keep our members up to date and the general public on what scam trends are being seen. But it's also a great resource for people in my profession as well. So it's, yeah, really valuable to have in your back pocket if you're ever curious as to sort of what's going on in the scam world, other than, of course, our actual website itself.
OK. So again, that that sharing of information, building a bigger database for the authorities to make sure that no one falls victim to the scams because they can recognise them and shut them down. Well, that brings us to the end of the formal part of the presentation. We'll now go to some questions. My colleagues have been answering questions that have been going through and putting some links up in the chat. One question that's come up that's fairly topical, Cat, is about multi, what's it called? Multifunction identification. Now there's been a lot of interest in around that. How is AustralianSuper looking at that? Yeah, good question. Multi factor authentication is what it's called, but I think it's called factor or function depending on which school of thought you belong to. So at AustralianSuper, we take protection of personal information seriously and we have robust security measures in place to safeguard members, accounts and data. These measures do include aspects of multi factor authentication or MFA. It's also sometimes referred to AS2FA. So 2 factor authentication which is where you.
Yeah, one of the more recent enhancements that we've rolled out is in AustralianSuper's mobile app. So we now have the functionality to be used as a authenticator for online portal login, which is using PIN, Touch ID or Face ID. That obviously depends on which how advanced your mobile device is. But then in addition to that we also send real time notifications and we have a stringent security identity check as well process in place. So I definitely encourage if you are concerned about MFA and two FA is use our mobile web app as it does provide that additional security features, which allows you to sort of access your account regularly as well. And that's one of the best things that I can recommend if you are worried about being a scam victim or you're worried about somebody accessing your data, be it on the dark web or if you have recently been a victim of a data breach. Is actively staying on top of your account balances your transactions, whether it's with your AustralianSuper account or your banks or even your mygov account. By actively engaging with those institutions and understanding what your balance is and having a good idea of where you expect it to be, it means that you're more in touch with it. Ultimately, you're the best protection you have against being a victim of scam or if you have had your information leaked on the line.
OK, now one of the questions come up, Cat, is you talked about romance scams. How do they work? How are they? Are they picking on the vulnerable here? Yeah, absolutely. So romance scams, we quite often see members become victims of romance scans because they either receive an email, which was unexpected, but it's sort of, hey, I'm, I saw your profile on social media and I'd like to become friends. And then they slowly win over your trust. So usually it's either via email or it's through social media. So we see it via Instagram and Facebook where, you know, you get a friend request from somebody who you weren't expecting. And then slowly they build trust so they stop showing interest in your life. And then they get you to be interested in their life. And then slowly things start to go wrong with them. We see people who all of a sudden they might not be able to pay their phone bills. So it starts something small and it's usually something that would stop them from talking to you. So it's, oh, I need $50.00 for my phone bill or I can't contact you anymore. And by this stage, you're already sort of engaged with who the other person is, the scammer is. And so you continue to have those conversations. It's like, Oh well, $50, I can give you $50. So we can continue to be friends. And then it's snowballs. So often it'll be some sort of family tragedy. It'll be something to do with, oh, well, I'll come and visit you, but I need $10,000 for the flights and that sort of thing. And these romance scams are quite often the ones that people are the most embarrassed about. We had a member who unfortunately was a victim of a romance scam and lost a significant amount of money. And when they told us, when they let us know, when I was speaking to them, they didn't want to tell me what it was for. They just said, oh, I transferred the money, but you know, I'd like to get it back and how can I help? And it was through the police report. So we work obviously closely with police. And it was through the police that they actually told me the circumstances and how embarrassed they were. And our poor member didn't want to tell his family and friends and that sort of thing because he felt silly. But ultimately it they're very, very sophisticated. They know what they're doing and they know what triggers and leavers to pull for people because they do this every day. It's, yeah, really heartbreaking. But yeah, the more we talk about it, the more people are aware of it, and then hopefully the more people come forward when they have been victims.
Yeah, great. Thanks for that, Cat. Now we've gone through all the questions, so we might just wrap it up there. So thanks Cat for your time and your expertise as a fraud specialist, having the knowledge to help protect our members. Thank you to those that have joined us. I hope and trust that you've received some information that you can put into practise. And finally, thanks to the team behind the scenes being answering questions and popping those links in chat. AustralianSuper does have a number of other webinars you may want to join and you can find that by going to australiansuper.com. So I might see you in the future. Thanks again, Cat, and all the best for the rest of the day, wherever you may be. Thanks a lot.