We’re updating our fee information

19 September 2017

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has introduced new rules around how we communicate (or disclose) some of our fees to our members.

Here’s a quick overview:

• These changes affect our members with GESB Super, West State Super, Retirement Income Pension and RI Term Allocated Pension accounts
• As you probably know, these changes are known as Regulatory Guide 97 – or RG97 – and apply across the super industry

The aim of RG97 is to make it easier for our members to compare different super and investment products, and give them a clear picture of the total cost of their investments.

RG97 won’t change the amount of fees our members are charged

RG97 won’t change the fees for our members’ accounts or impact the performance of their investments.

What is changing is the way some of our fees are grouped and explained in our Product Information Booklets and other important documents about our members’ accounts.

The Indirect Cost Ratio will generally be higher on Member Statements and documents

This does NOT mean our members are being charged more – it’s just that our disclosure of ‘indirect costs’ will now include fees that were previously not included, such as ‘transactional’ or ‘operational’ costs.

Here’s how we’ve defined those fees and costs for our members:

• Indirect costs – these relate to the underlying investments in their account, which may reduce the return on their investment. These costs form part of what’s known as our Indirect Cost Ratio (ICR)
• Transactional and operational costs – these are incurred when our investment managers buy or sell assets in their investment plan

Find out more about RG97

From 20 October 2017, you will find updated fee information for GESB Super, West State Super and Retirement Income Pension in the next issues of our:

• GESB Super Product Information Booklet
• GESB Super schedule of fees
• West State Super Product Information Booklet
• West State Super schedule of fees
• Retirement Income Pension Product Information Booklet

These changes will also be reflected in the next Member Statements we issue for the 12 months ending 30 June 2018.

If you would like to learn more about the fees for our members’ investment options, or how we invest super and retirement savings for our members, please visit:

• Super investment options
• Retirement investment options

If you have any questions about our fees or how these changes affect our members, please call us on 13 43 72 – we’re available Monday to Friday between 7.30am and 5.30pm (AWST).