How we invest

At GESB we follow a rigorous process that helps us to grow your super and helps you to achieve your financial goals.

If you’d like to learn more about how we do this, here’s a general guide to the kind of investments we make on your behalf and how we stay on track with these investments.

We invest in a range of asset classes

If you have a GESB Super, West State Super or Retirement Income Pension account, you have a market-linked super fund. This means we invest your super, and any contributions you make, into a range of financial assets such as Shares (also known as Equities), Bonds (Fixed Interest), Cash, Property and Infrastructure. These are known as asset classes.

The performance of these asset classes, as well as any contributions, withdrawals or deductions from your account will influence your account balance.

We invest in assets in Australia and overseas

The funds in your GESB account are invested in a variety of Australian and international assets. When the value of these assets goes up and down, so do the returns on your super investment.

In financial terms, each of these asset classes have different risk and return characteristics.

• Return is the gain or loss in the value of an asset over a period of time – and can be represented as a positive or negative number
• Risk is the chance that the return will be different than expected

Shares are considered a high-risk asset

Investing in Shares has achieved high returns over the long term, but they may fall in value from time to time.

Cash has lower risk but can have lower returns

Cash has historically achieved low returns, but tends to be a stable asset, so you can be confident it is more likely to produce a positive return.

There's also a group of assets called alternatives

These don't fit into any of the asset classes mentioned above. Alternatives can include hedge funds, insurance-linked securities and multi-asset portfolios. These can vary in their risks and returns.

We put our experience and expertise to work for you

We employ an asset consultant who analyses asset classes and helps to decide on the appropriate mix for each investment plan. Together with our internal investment team, our asset consultant bases their recommendations on the medium to long-term outlook for the risk and return of each type of asset. This process is called asset allocation.

We regularly review the performance of our investment plans

We also review our investment portfolios to make sure the mix of assets remains in line with our asset allocation ranges. For example, if the value of Australian Shares grows faster than other asset classes, a portfolio might become weighted to Australian Shares. Our ongoing reviews help to keep the percentage of funds held in each asset class within our asset allocation ranges.

You can choose the asset classes your super is invested in

You can see – and even change – your current investment plan using your Member Online account.

You don't need to be a financial expert to make a choice. You might like to explore our Readymade investment plans, which are pre-set plans with different combinations of assets, from lower to higher risk.

Learn more

• Find out more about how we achieve diversification in our investment plans
• Read about how our investment managers buy and sell assets