ART unveils new range of choice investment options for members

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) members will have access to 15 “carefully constructed” choice investment options that cover a broad range of objectives and investment time frames from 1 July.

According to the fund, the product suite was curated to best meet members’ goals and life stages.

Commenting on the new investment menu, ART chief of retirement Kathy Vincent said the fund engaged with members, advisers, and employers in the designing of the suite.

“When we asked our members what they wanted most in a new investment menu, they told us performance, fees, sustainable investing and the ability to choose the right level of risk were top priority – all of which remained front of mind when we worked to streamline these choice investment options,” Vincent said.

“Today’s announcement is great news for our more than 2.3 million members and is the next step in the evolution of Australian Retirement Trust, giving our members the best of both legacy investment worlds.”

As part of the announcement, ART confirmed that it is aligning the risk profiles of its MySuper offerings for Super Savings and QSuper account holders, meaning Super Savings account holders will have more of their money invested in growth assets for longer, which is expected to have higher returns over the long term for members of all ages.

From the start of July, its growth investment option, which will be renamed “High Growth”, will also be open to all members.

“This option delivered a return of 8.95 per cent per annum over 10 years to 31 December 2023, securing the number one spot in the SuperRatings SR50 Growth Index over that period,” Vincent clarified.

She further emphasised the impact that an investment choice can have on members’ retirement savings.

“We believe these changes are in the best financial interests of our members and that no matter what level of experience they have in investing, our simplified menu will empower them to make the right choices so they can retire well with confidence,” Vincent concluded.

ART’s Balanced Option delivered a double-digit return of 10.25 per cent in the year to 31 December 2023, bolstered by a “nice little rally” observed in bond and equity markets at the tail end of the year.

As at 31 January 2024, the figure had dipped slightly to 8.66 per cent, although it remained among the top three performers over a 10-year time horizon, according to a recent SuperRatings analysis.

“One of the things we found in the last couple of years is that having an active, dynamic asset allocation program that allows you to capture volatility in markets in a cost-effective and time-efficient way has been very handy, so we’ve certainly made adjustments to our asset allocation in response to market volatility, and that’s been a very good thing,” ART chief economist Brian Parker said last month.

“The last 12 months has been a lesson that trying to predict markets in the short term in any reliable way is very much impossible and so, as a super fund, we might have a view on how the next year might pan out, but we can’t decide portfolios based on our ability or anybody’s ability to forecast what’s going to happen in the next six to 12 months – because no one knows with any certainty.”