Chris Keys got into super by default when working in human resources and office management for Nicholas, the pharmaceutical company which made the famous Aspro and was later taken over by multi-national Sara Lee. On May 1, 1988, Sara Lee made her secretary of its pension fund. On May 15, 1988, former Prime Minister Paul Keating made his ground breaking speech which kick started the super industry as we know it today. The rest, as they say, is history.
Along the way there have been many challenges, not least of all that of merging 14 super funds into one in 1994 after Sara Lee went on an acquisition spree in Australia. A big achievement at the time, says Keys, was getting a 100 per cent voluntary transfer over into the larger fund.
And the trials continue. In the current super-annuation climate, Keys’ challenge is to demonstrate to her employer that it receives value from its super fund.
“At the moment, the employer sees providing a super fund as an adjunct to its HR strategies and as an adjunct to being the employer of choice,” she says. “But if costs continue to skyrocket because of legislative changes over the next few years, the super fund will come under the microscope.”
She adds: “APRA and the Government appear to have an agenda to reduce, and even eliminate, corporate superannuation funds. We are constantly burdened with increased legislation. The double licensing from ASIC and APRA is a classic example which can only encourage corporate funds to outsource. The losers will be the members who end up with decreased retirement income… Employers will shift the costs of super onto members and drop their contributions to the minimum Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate.”
An ongoing challenge too for Keys is to show members that their corporate fund does give them greater benefit than the SG. “You might have the best benefits in the world, but if you don’t communicate that, they are useless,” she says.
Not only do many of Sara Lee’s employees get a higher contribution than the SG level, but the employer subsidises the administration and communication costs of the super fund and gives members free basic death, disability and income protection insurance.
A future goal for Keys is to encourage younger people to save more. “There’s still a dearth of acknowledgement by young people that super is an important issue that needs to be addressed when they are young. That’s something that I would greatly like to change,” she says.
“I think that superannuation is a great product. Even if young people don’t see it, I see it. Early in my career, Nicholas, which had a very generous compulsory defined benefit plan, was forced to make some workers redundant when it closed its Chadstone site. These workers were mainly middle aged and had worked for Nicholas all of their working life. They received a generous payout because they had been in a super fund from their date of employment… It gave me great satisfaction to see that they could retire on adequate benefits.”
Along with her role, the Sara Lee fund has also grown and now has assets of $82 million and 2596 members.
Keys usually spends at least a month out of the office visiting Sara Lee sites around the country trying to meet with members each year after they have received their benefit statements. This year, however, she was away for two months, during which she did 67 presentations at about 15 different locations.
Keys is known to have a passion for member communications and a prime focus in this area has been on putting faces to super in order to show members just who is looking after their money. As a result, the fund’s annual report and other communication materials are now littered with the faces of its trustees and various advisers.
Watching members walk off with adequate retirement benefits gives Keys great satisfaction in her job, but she is probably most satisfied when they put these in allocated pensions or see a financial planner. “Then I know our communications have paid off,” she says.
Keys particularly enjoys the variety in her job. “One certainly has to have a little knowledge in a heap of disciplines — everything from the law, mathematics, communications and plan administration,” she says. One drawback, however, is the amount of complicated legislation she has to deal with.
She also believes in talking to people who operate other funds and getting involved in the super industry. She is an Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) director and sits on ASFA’s policy and prudential committees. She is also a committee member of the Corporate Super Association (CSA).
Her scarce spare time is spent doing “all the normal things” like gardening, reading, going to movies and seeing friends. For exercise, she likes to walk one hour at least five days a week. She also likes travelling to new places and meeting new people and is particularly keen on Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival.
