Good afternoon and welcome.
Thanks for joining our end of year
Financial Year Investment update.
Today's webinar flows on
from the end of financial year performance update
presented by our Chief Investment Officer, Mark Delaney,
which you may have seen already.
If you haven't,
there is a link to it, to the video
currently on the AustralianSuper Internet landing page.
Today I'm going to be talking about
AustralianSuper's investment performance
for the financial year just gone by,
how we're managing
your super in the current market cycle,
our outlook for the Australian and global
economies, as well as investment markets
and importantly, strategies
to help you manage and grow your super.
My name is Peter Treseder
I'm an Education Manager at
AustralianSuper and today I'm going to be your host.
AustralianSuper acknowledges
the traditional custodians of the land
on which we work
and we pay our respects to their elders,
past, present and emerging,
and we extend that respect to Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Before we start, please be aware that the information
being provided in this webinar today
and the answers to any questions
will be of a general nature only.
We do not know your personal needs
or your financial situation or objectives,
so please assess your own financial situation
before making a decision
and please read the product
disclosure statement and target market
determinations available on our website
before you make decisions.
We're talking about investments,
so please remember that investment returns
are not guaranteed
and past performance is not a reliable
indicator of future returns.
To help me with today's discussion,
I have with me
two of our experts from our Investment team,
Sam Weaner, Manager
of our Investment Communications,
and Amber Rabinov, head of our Macro
Research and Strategy Investments.
Thank you for both joining me.
Starting with you, Sam.
How do you help members?
Hello, I'm Sam Weaner and I've worked in the
investment industry for about 20 years now
and at AustralianSuper,
I assist members with updating information
about our investment strategy
as well as updating
information about our performance
of investment options.
And welcome, Amber, same question to you.
How do you help members?
Hi everyone, I am Amber Rabinov.
I lead a team of highly specialised
economists and strategists.
Together, we work to find investable
opportunities in asset markets
and the broader portfolio
in order to help maximise
financial retirement outcomes
for all of AustralianSuper’s members.
Thanks, Amber, and thanks, Sam for joining us.
Now, Sam in his investment
update, Mark Delaney, our Chief Investment Officer
pointed to the positive returns
for the 2023 financial year.
The majority of our members are invested
in the fund's default option,
the Balanced option.
So maybe we could start there.
And could you please explain how that
Balanced option is invested?
Thank you. Peter.
To start off, the primary objective
of our investment team
is to generate strong long term
returns for members,
and we seek to do this
by actively investing in assets as well
as diversifying across asset classes
to help manage downside risk.
So the strategic asset allocation for the Balanced option
represents how we do this.
You can think of each asset class
as a building block of the portfolio
And the strategic asset allocation provides
a mix of different asset classes.
These include growth asset classes like Australian shares,
international shares and private equity,
Mid-risk asset classes that have a mix of growth
and defensive characteristics.
These asset classes are unlisted
property, unlisted infrastructure and credit.
As well as defensive asset classes like fixed interest
and cash to help manage downside risk.
You can think of the strategic asset allocation
as a starting point for our investment approach.
It's the mix of asset classes that help achieve the investment
objective of each option.
And for the Balanced option,
the objectives are to outperform
the consumer price index by 4%,
as well as beat the median balance fund
over the medium to long term.
Effectively, we're looking to outperform inflation
as well as outperform
competitors in the industry.
The key part here is outperforming
inflation is very important because
you want your investment balance to maintain your cost of living,
as inflation increases over time.
So this benchmark mix of assets
start with the strategic asset allocation,
basically has that portfolio that has the growth potential
to meet those objectives.
Okay now the investment earnings of super.
Now that's super in the accumulation phase,
or if I've got a transition to retirement account,
the investment earnings are concessionally taxed
and if I've got money in an account based pension
or the Choice Income account that
AustralianSuper has, the earnings are tax free.
So there's going to be different return
rates we're going to be talking about Sam.
Could you take us start
by taking us through some of the recent
performance of AustralianSuper's
main investment options?
Yeah, the end of the financial year
gives us a good opportunity to reflect
on the returns over the year
as well as how we perform for members.
So we'll start with the returns
of the accumulation option
and then look at the returns
of the retirement options.
And on this first chart, we have the performance
of the PreMixed options with the one year
return in orange as well as the ten year
annual average return in blue.
For this one year we're very pleased that each of the PreMixed options
had positive returns for members
and we're able to help increase the balances of members
invested in each of these options.
There's two key themes we'll talk about
as we go through the webinar today.
One is the performance of listed markets
like Australian shares
and international shares, as well as how
they compare to private market assets like
unlisted property, unlisted infrastructure
and private equity over the year.
One aspect you can highlight
and see the difference on this chart
is that the performance of the
Index Diversified option
compared to the Balanced option,
which has a similar risk return profile.
In Index Diversified the growth portion of that portfolio
was invested in listed shares like
Australian shares and international
shares, whereas the Balanced option is
invested in a mix of private markets
and listed markets.
Over this last year, Australian shares
and international shares did very well
compared to private markets
and that's where you see
that higher return
for Index Diversified in this period.
Now over the long term,
the Balanced option actually does very well
because of our active approach as well as
the investment in these private markets.
And that's where you see the Balanced
option pull ahead over the ten year period
with that 8.60% average annual return
compared to 7.22%
for the Indexed Diversified option.
So thanks Sam, that's our PreMixed options,
like the Balanced option, where
AustralianSuper decides
what the pie chart investment looks like.
You can choose your own options
through our DIY, do it yourself options.
How did they perform Sam?
So we look at the DIY Mix options.
These are the options
that focus on specific asset classes
and this is where you can see
that performance from Australian shares
and international shares over the one year period
as well as over the ten years per annum.
So in Australia over this last year, there was a very
strong rebound that came off the concerns of
the market had about interest rates
and high inflation a year ago.
And effectively the returns
were also supported
by higher company earnings and earnings
growth over the year.
International shares
had a very similar story
where the returns really did
a strong rebound from a year ago,
especially in technology shares,
where we saw
technology shares really take a leap
forward over the last six months.
For diversified fixed interests,
we still do see an effect
where that increase in interest rates
over time puts downward pressure
on the prices of bonds in the portfolio
due to that inverse relationship, higher
interest rates lead to a lower price.
And that's where we see the negative
return over the one year there
In Cash options, we have seen the return increase
compared to previous years,
largely due to those higher interest rates
that we see in the market.
So that actually has helped
the Cash option.
Okay, and as I mentioned before,
even though they're invested in the same
options, there is a different level of return
between let's say Super and Transition to Retirement
and our Choice Income account,
because the Choice Income account,
there's no investment tax paid there.
What have the returns been for the
Choice Income account?
Peter you're right that the
Choice Income accounts effectively
have the same underlying investments
as the Super options,
and the main difference
is that difference in tax treatment
where the Choice Income accounts
don't pay Australian income tax.
So this is where you see that
the PreMixed options had a higher return
over one in ten years
due to this difference in tax treatment.
So you see that the Balanced option over
ten years had that 9.48% return
over that time period.
On the next chart, you can see how this differential
tax treatment affects the DIY Mix options.
And this also brings up
a frequently asked question we often
get about Australian shares
and franking credits.
Whether you're invested in the
Super option or the Choice Income option,
you do get the benefit of franking credits
through the crediting rate or the return that you receive.
The main difference is in the
Choice Income option,
it doesn't pay Australian income tax,
but you still get that
benefit of franking credits.
So whether you're invested
in Australian shares,
in the Australian shares option
or in one of the PreMixed options
that benefit passes
through on your return.
Thanks, Sam.
Now, turning to you, Amber,
Sam's gone through the investment performance,
What factors in the economy
have played a role in investment markets?
Thanks, Peter.
I think it's helpful firstly to explain
why we spend so much time thinking
about the macro economy and the outlook.
Now traditionally
we look at the economic cycles,
so whether the economy is in recession,
recovery, expansion or slow down
and what these economic phases
imply about factors
including economic growth, inflation
and the setting of interest rates to help
inform the asset allocation process.
As what we find is different asset
classes can perform
quite differently depending upon
where the economy is in the cycle.
Now, with that in mind, we can see that
inflation has peaked around the world.
Now, while prices are continuing to rise,
they're doing so at a slower pace.
We can take the US as an example
and see this reflected in the fall
in annual headline
inflation over 9% last year.
It's currently tracking around
3% at the moment.
It's a similar situation in Australia.
Headline inflation has fallen from around
8% in year on year
last year to currently tracking
around 6%.
As a result, major central banks around
the world are coming to the end of their
cycle of rising interest rates.
Now that said, there are concerns
regarding the stickiness of price rises
given the continued strength
in spending and healthy labor markets.
With unemployment rates around the world
remaining at multi-decade lows
as such, we think global central banks
will keep interest rates relatively high,
even though the immediate inflation
emergency appears to have receded for now.
Moreover,
we think that monetary policy takes
time to work its way through the economy.
The full impact of interest rate
hikes aren't felt
for anywhere between, say, 12 to 24 months
after they're implemented.
So if you think about it, it's
kind of like if you're driving a car
and you want to turn a corner,
but you won't get around the corner
until maybe one or even two years
after you've turned the wheel.
Now, as Peter's mentioned,
our CIO Mark Delaney
spoke in his end of year update.
As he mentioned, these economic conditions
are expected to generate
a much more challenging growth environment
over the outlook period.
So by challenging,
we mean that a further easing in household
spending is expected as additional savings
built up over the COVID period run out.
And also a more challenging environment
on the corporate side of the fence,
businesses already beginning to suffer from tighter
credit conditions as well as lower profits and margins.
And ultimately, we expect these factors to feed into
a broader slowdown in economic demand.
But with this change in market cycle,
we think opportunities
will also be provided
for our investment process.
So the concurrent fall in valuations,
which we expect with an economic
slowdown, will make assets
more attractive for us to buy into.
Thanks, Amber.
Now, Sam, given
the economic conditions that Amber
has just outlined,
can you provide some more detail
on the performance of the underlying
asset classes within the portfolio?
Earlier,
we started talking about the building
blocks of the portfolio
in the Balanced option.
This chart shows more detail
about the returns of these asset classes
that we use
in each of our PreMixed options
and how they've done for the one year
ending 30 June 2023.
So as Amber pointed out,
the returns of each asset class can vary
depending on the economic environment
and market conditions.
So in a diversified portfolio,
you can often expect one asset class to do
really well, whereas other asset classes
might have challenges during that period.
And that's the benefit of diversification
because you don't
always know
the timing of when that will occur.
So we put it the last year in context
let's highlight a few asset classes
that have done well as well as a few that
haven't done as well over this last year.
So, we'll first start taking a look at listed
shares like Australian shares
and international shares as well as
unlisted property, unlisted infrastructure.
So in Australian shares and international
shares,
these asset classes actually exceeded
our expectations for the year.
We think the environment that we're facing,
that high interest rates, high inflation,
we expect expected some more challenges
in how these companies would perform
over the year.
However, there is very high consumer
spending over the year on the back of the pandemic
and effectively the basically
the corporate earnings did very well.
We saw this both in Australia as well
as internationally. And internationally
we saw a strong rebound
from the technology sector,
with especially over the last six months,
and this is where some stocks
actually performed
by upwards of over 100% in the portfolio.
But it was a very concentrated rebound with technology
really leading the way of that performance.
And looking at unlisted infrastructure,
this is an asset class that actually does
well during high inflation,
but there's actually some inflation
protection in infrastructure assets.
Many times the revenue from an
infrastructure asset is linked to inflation.
Think of toll roads or utilities
that are higher,
those higher prices actually flow
through to benefit these assets.
So while it hurts a little bit to have
higher toll bills or higher utility bills,
you can be slightly comforted by the fact
that some of those revenues
flow through and benefit
your retirement portfolio.
Now, it's also worth looking at a few asset classes
that did not perform as well this last year.
So we'll take a look at private equity
as well as fixed interest
and we’ll close on unlisted property.
So with private equity, we have updated
the valuations in this asset class
and they really reflect the current market
cycle for private equity portfolios.
And a large part of that is the higher interest rates
that has put a damper on the valuations there.
Now, we have looked at each of the largest
holdings in the private equity portfolio
and looked at the fundamentals,
and we still believe that
this is an asset class that will perform
well for the fund in the long term
and give a strong performance for members.
In fixed interest, this is where that increase
in interest rates over the years still put
a negative effect on the on the performance
of the price of bonds in the portfolio.
And that's why we see the negative return
in fixed interest.
Now, unlisted property is worth
highlighting because that's where we saw
some key things on the back
end of the pandemic that really affected the returns there.
And this is especially in retail
properties as well as office properties.
So this also highlights
the importance of our valuation approach.
We update our valuations with a frequency
to make sure that there is
a fair value in the crediting rate
that we provide to members.
So we want to make sure those are updated
frequently.
And this negative 8% return
that we see this last year reflects that.
So we thought it was important
to update the returns
of those office properties
as well as the retail properties
Because an office that's slow return to work that
we've seen post the pandemic has affected their valuations.
We also see a lot of vacancies
in retail properties as well.
Now looking forward,
we are looking to reposition the property
portfolio and invest in more
asset sectors that will do well.
Those things are like industrial
warehouses as well as logistics centers.
As an example, a recent investment we have
there is the Amazon Robotics
Fulfillment Center located in Victoria,
and these are the types of assets
we think will do well going forward.
Thanks, Sam.
Now, Amber, Sam's had the ability to
look to the past and see what's happened.
When we look to the future
and the economy has done well,
there are asset classes that have done well.
But when we look to the future,
what are we anticipating?
Well, earlier I spoke about why
we think about the economic cycle
and how that helps us
to support our investment process.
But increasingly, especially in my team,
but across the investment department,
we spend just as much time
thinking about the thematic
and the long run outlook as we do on the cycle
and the reasons why are two-fold.
Firstly, because we believe
that the global economy is undergoing
some fundamental structural changes
which mean that the next ten years
will likely be quite different to the ten
years leading up to the pandemic.
A second reason is our Fund strategy.
As we've grown in size
with more assets under management.
We've increasingly internalised
the management of the portfolio
and we've also internationalised
our asset base.
In addition, we have more unlisted assets
in the portfolio,
and these includes assets such
as you can see on your screen that
New South Wales Ports Asset or the Amazon Fulfillment Center
that Sam spoke of.
We tend to hold these unlisted assets
for longer periods of time than, say,
more liquid assets such as Australian
shares or international shares.
Now, as such,
we've increasingly needed to look through
economic trends over the next one, two or three years
and really have a good handle on longer
term macro influences over the coming
five, ten or 20 years
to help to inform the kinds of assets
we want to hold in the portfolio over
the longer term
and also the kinds of assets
that we don't want
to hold in the portfolio.
Now, as
I mentioned, we believe that the future
will be different from the past
and there are four key areas
that we've been focusing on
which we believe are already making
structural changes to the global economy.
And therefore these are issues that could impact
on AustralianSuper's investment portfolio.
These include, number one, geopolitics.
This is all about how different countries
interact with each other.
Some examples of developments
in the geopolitical space
include conflicts
such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
what that has meant
for the global economy.
But also issues such as new trade
restrictions and investment
restrictions that have been announced
by a number of countries recently.
A second major
theme is the energy transition.
So that shift away from fossil fuels,
empowering our societies
and towards renewable and zero carbon
energy sources
such as solar and wind, as well as broader
climate considerations.
Again, here, there have been key government initiatives
in this space which have impacted on the economic outlook.
These include the US Inflation
Reduction Act, which included
significant policy
support for energy transition measures.
Third theme that we look
deeply into, demographics.
So this is all about
how population growth is slowing globally
and to society's age.
This can have a number of big impacts
on the economy
by the demographic makeup of countries.
Here, I mean, the number of workers
available, the wages they can demand,
for instance, as well as shifts in savings
and consumption patterns.
And a final big theme
that we've been thinking a lot
about of late is technology, particularly
in the space of artificial intelligence.
I think a final point that I'd like to
make, which is interesting about these
four key global themes,
is how they interact and are intertwined.
And this umbrella theme,
if you will, has been a distinct shift
away from the importance of pure cost
or economic considerations in the setting
of official policy and towards
national security considerations.
We can really see this umbrella theme
weaving its way through these four
key points that I highlighted for you.
Now, one of the things that
tweaked my ears then Amber
was AI, artificial intelligence.
Now, many people see this
as the way of the future
Where does AI sit in
the world of investing?
Yeah, AI is really, really
interesting, Peter.
It's an interesting development
in the thematic space,
not just from a global competitiveness
angle, but also from an innovation
and also a
productivity perspective.
Some of the considerations
we're thinking about include shorter
term issues and firstly,
looking through the current hype
and some of those movements
we've seen in international equities
that Sam highlighted,
we look through the current hype
we can consider the pace
of AI adoption across industries,
plus the demands upon data and power
to drive AI.
Now what we can say is
AI is not a new development,
but we can see signs of longer term
accelerated innovation,
particularly in the area of generative AI.
Over a longer timeframe
what we can say
is technological advancements tend
to be productivity
enhancing and disinflationary.
What that means is, they make people
more efficient in what they do
and the cost of production
tends to be lower as a result.
And we think AI
will be no different.
The question is how powerful
these forces will be
and could they be offset
by other structural issues
pushing in the opposite direction,
for instance, on inflation.
We also need to consider different constraints
which present further uncertainty.
These include things around regulation,
data quality,
computing power, as well as the energy
that's required to support it,
as well as geopolitical considerations
and how policies impacting on trade flows.
So overall, what we do as a team
when we think about issues such as AI,
is to ultimately consider their significance,
to the outlook for the economy
and to our investment portfolio.
That is, what does their evolution mean
for things including growth,
inflation, interest rates,
different industries, different countries.
And using this research
helps us to uncover
investment opportunities
in order to maximise returns for all our members.
Thanks, Amber.
But now Sam
Amber has gone through a lot of factors
that come into play when we're investing.
How is AustralianSuper, you said we're an
active manager,
how is AustralianSuper
positioning the portfolio?
Yeah, the analysis that Amber’s team does
really determines how we
allocate assets in the portfolio.
So we think of the strategic asset
allocation as the starting point.
This chart shows how this asset
allocation positioning has changed in the Balanced option.
From a year ago in orange
to 30 June this year in blue.
So all the outcome of that economic
and market analysis that we've done
really leads us to be cautious
about how higher interest rates
may affect the future of company earnings
and the valuation of growth assets.
And this is really why we lowered
the allocation to Australian shares
and international shares and increased
the allocation to fixed interest.
We effectively move
the positioning of the portfolio
to assets that we expect to do
well during this economic cycle.
So when interest rates are peaking
or when central banks are close
to the end of their tightening cycle,
we find that fixed interest
may be a favorable place to invest
because you receive that higher yield
from those investments.
So overall our
our portfolio position
is set to really respond
to market conditions
that look for investment opportunities
that arise through this economic cycle.
Now, Sam, we mentioned
before we have benchmarks,
one to outperform inflation,
the other to outperform competitors.
Based on the asset class positioning,
how did our performance results
compare to those benchmarks?
A key aspect of monitoring investments
is to see how they're performing
against their objectives.
So we are seeking to be a top performing
fund over the long
term to really help
enhance the returns for members.
So this chart shows a comparison
of the Balanced option
compared to its benchmark over
the one, five, ten and 20 years
with the option in orange
and the benchmark in blue.
And the benchmark is the Super Ratings Index
for Balanced options,
which is a group of our key
competitors in the super industry.
And looking at the one year
return, you do see a result of 8.22%,
which is slightly behind
the competitive benchmark.
And the main reason for this is we
we believe were more defensively positioned
than the rest of the market.
So we do feel that
through our economic and market analysis
there are some headwinds to the economy
and we've positioned
our portfolio with a lower allocation
to those growth assets.
And over this last year,
as we saw earlier,
Australian shares and international shares
beat our expectations and did well.
And that's why we we underperformed
over this one year period.
Now the objective of the option
is to beat those benchmarks
over the medium and the longer term over that
ten and 20 year timeframe.
And that's where we've been
a pleasingly been able to provide
that performance
for members over that timeframe.
So a major benefit for us
is that we're positioning
the portfolio to go through this
current economic cycle
so we can continue to achieve
that long term objective in the future.
Thanks, Sam.
We must remember super is a
long term investment
and we've seen this different performances
over different time periods.
But it's the power of compounding interest,
the interest on interest
that drives the growth of whether
it's Super, the Transition to Retirement account
or your Choice Income account.
How might the growth of my account
with compound interest,
What might that look like,
say over the last 20 years?
Certainly, another way of looking at the performance
is the growth of your portfolio over time.
So this is the growth
of the Balanced option with $100,000
invested 20 years ago
with no additional contributions.
And how it is performed
through different market cycles.
So you think of the time during the global
financial crisis back in 2008-2009,
as well as the COVID 19 downturn
just three years ago,
that the Balanced option is really set to
to invest through these time periods
and provide members
with an opportunity to
gain some of that performance
during those rebounds as well.
So when growth returns
to the investment markets,
a member that investing in the option
is able to get that upside swing as well.
So we think of investing
for a long period of time,
there are those ups and downs in
the economy as well as investment markets,
and you can expect that
in your journey of investing.
Yeah, and it is a long term investment and again
looking at history, the ups out weigh the downs.
So thank you, Sam, for your insights.
Thank you Amber,
for sharing your expertise.
If you're looking for help and advice,
you can visit our website,
which has a range of tools
and calculators.
We have qualified Financial Advisors
who can provide members with over
the phone advice on simple matters
such as investment choice,
contributing to super, insurance
options available to you.
And there is no additional
cost for that advice.
There is a small fee for
people that want to go into
the more broad areas of retirement
and transition to retirement strategies,
and some members might feel
they are in a situation where it's complex
or they like to prefer to meet
with an advisor in person.
AustralianSuper offers
access to Financial Planners in offices
around the country, and that service
does come with additional cost.
If you'd like to know
more about which option is best for you
or require further assistance,
please visit our Help and Advice page.
AustralianSuper.com/helpandadvice
For further education, we have a range of webinars and videos
covering a variety of topics and these
can be accessed through
AustralianSuper.com/webinars
Now that brings us to the end
of the formal part of the webinar.
but there was one or two questions
that did catch my eye,
which I'll throw, to you.
One of those themes is about our size and
scale and how does that benefit members?
I'm happy to take this one, Peter.
So in terms of scale and size,
I think there are three key factors
why this provides benefits for members.
I think firstly,
it allows us to build out our capability
in our international offices
and to be able to access
the best international investment
opportunities to add to our returns.
I think a second benefit is our ability
to invest in unlisted assets.
So those large multi-billion dollar
commitments - such as that New South Wales
ports asset we have that we saw on screen
earlier, the Amazon logistics facility
that Sam mentioned, toll roads, airports -
investing in these big ticket
assets is only possible with scale.
And a final benefit,
it allows us to have a really strong team
of specialists
to drive our investment
analysis and management.
Again, finding those opportunities
for the portfolio
in order to maximise returns
for all of our members.
Look and Sam,
just touching on specialists,
we have within AustralianSuper.
Now I’ve been with the Fund for nearly 25 years,
One of the biggest changes
I've seen in the investment
area has been internalisation.
How's that benefiting members?
Sure, I’m happy to take that one.
So when you think of internalisation
first, it's worthwhile defining it.
So internalisation means that
we're managing the assets in-house.
We have a team of over 330 investment
experts at AustralianSuper that manage
assets on your behalf, and this compares
to using external managers.
And we do use a mix of both.
But right now about 58% of the assets
are managed internally.
And there's two key advantages to that
for members in the portfolio.
Number one is it reduces costs for members
as well as it helps us
manage the efficiencies
of reallocating assets.
So the first part, internal
asset management
is actually much less expensive
than using an external manager.
Oftentimes the fees for external managers
can be much higher.
So this helps bring down
the overall investment fees
and costs for members over time.
The second benefit is a portfolio
efficiency of moving assets around.
So we talk a lot about how we move assets
through the economic cycle.
By using our internal asset management,
we can actually more efficiently
delegate assets between different parts
of the investment team
Whereas when you use external managers,
that can be often slower to do that.
So between lowering costs
and adding to portfolio efficiencies,
it definitely is a
good benefit for members.
Looking and a final one that a number of members
are asking, it’s a common theme.
And look, I'm going to paraphrase here:
I'm approaching retirement.
I've got concerns about the market
uncertainties, the slowing of the world
economy, as you mentioned.
How might that impact my super savings?
I can start with that one.
One key aspect is, especially
when you're approaching retirement,
you're getting to the point
where you're actually using the money
so that the whole goal of investing
for retirement is to be able to spend it.
So in the short run, you want to make sure
you have enough
income to meet your current needs,
but also you could be retired for
many, many years.
You might be retired for 20, 30
or more years.
So investing in
an option that enables you to get growth
over time is pretty important as well.
But overall,
you want to make sure that you're invested
in a way that meets
your own personal situation.
So it is worth looking at different advice
options and really asking for help
if you have questions about your super.
I might just add to that
from my perspective,
firstly, recessions are opportunities.
We think recessions provide
buying opportunities with more attractive
entry points to implement our longer term
investment strategies.
And as I mentioned, this is because
valuations or asset prices,
they tend to fall as demand in the broader
economy slows.
And so we can use recessions to position
the portfolio
for the eventual economic recovery
to follow.
I think this broadly feeds into the fact
that Sam pointed out
we actively manage the portfolio
as the economy evolves
through different cycle points
to take advantage of market opportunities.
And also, you know, just a final point,
just keep in mind
the slide that Sam showed earlier
on the performance of the Balanced option
over 20 years; the importance around
staying invested through the cycle.
So longer term themes
take many years to play out.
There might be a few ups and downs,
but it's important
to stay invested through the cycle
to take advantage of those themes.
Thanks Amber, Thanks Sam,
now we have reached the end of our time today
So once again, thank you,
Sam and Amber, for joining us today.
And on behalf of AustralianSuper,
I'd like to thank the many of you
that have joined us today,
and I wish you all the best in the future.
Thank you.