Rest has announced it will be streamlining its investment menu to support member experience and outcomes.
Effective 30 September, the fund will cut down its menu from 15 to nine investment options to simplify the selection process.
The streamlined menu will include Cash, Capital Stable, Balanced, Growth, Balanced Indexed, Sustainable Growth, High Growth, Overseas Shares-Indexed, and Australian Shares-Indexed.
With this, the six investment options to be closed are Bonds, Property, Diversified, Shares, Australian Shares, and Overseas Shares.
“Around half of Rest’s 2 million members are under the age of 30 and many have told us making an investment choice can be an overwhelming and confusing process,” said Rest’s chief member officer Deborah Potts.
“Rest has made these changes because we want all our members to feel confident about making investment choices that truly align with their retirement goals and what’s important to them.”
The fund’s MySuper default option ‘Core Strategy’ will also be renamed to ‘Growth’ to “better reflect its growth investment focus”.
The option delivered a return of 8.67 per cent in the financial year 2023–24, ahead of its 10- and 20-year average returns, though it was down on the 9.2 per cent return recorded in the previous fiscal year.
In its latest announcement, Rest also confirmed changes will be made to the investment objectives of some options.
The objective descriptions for the Capital Stable, Balanced, Growth, High Growth, and Sustainable Growth options will be updated while the objective time frames for the Capital Stable and Balanced options will be extended.
However, it reiterated these changes will not impact how the options are invested or their expected potential level of risk or return.
“By making the process simpler, and the options easier to understand, we can help break down the barriers that often stop Rest members from taking an active role in their super journey. By doing this we can ultimately help them to achieve better retirement outcomes,” said Potts.
She said that the changes are intended to create a “straightforward path” for Rest members to “feel empowered about their future”.
“Rest’s goal is to provide transparency and confidence while supporting our members to make the right personal choice about their super,” Potts said.
