Super news wrap-up

Media release - 25 Oct 2022

ART CEO Bern Reilly speaks at the QUT Business Leaders’ Forum

In August, Australian Retirement Trust's CEO Bern Reilly was the keynote speaker at the QUT Business Leaders' Forum.

During his speech, Mr Reilly spoke about the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people and empowering your team with trust and autonomy to deliver, while simultaneously supporting them with processes in place.

Mr Reilly's style of leadership is to be a coach, not a captain, and he explained how that has helped him lead teams through the global financial crisis, COVID-19 lockdowns and, most recently, the merger of Sunsuper and QSuper to create Australian Retirement Trust - the largest merger in superannuation history.

For more information, please see the QUT website.

New Super Fund Onboarding tool¹

To assist you in meeting your super obligations, we have developed a new Super Fund Onboarding (SFO) tool with Beam.

What is Beam?

Beam is the technology behind SFO, and it's part of Australian Retirement Trust. Through a streamlined digital onboarding experience, Beam helps to make light work of your super obligations. The SFO tool is only a small part of what Beam can do. With years of experience processing and administering super payments, Beam is a great software solution to manage super.

For information about Beam, check out beamconnect.com.au

What is SFO?

SFO is a digital tool that is designed to streamline the super onboarding process for employers. It allows you to add new employees, invite your employees to validate their personal details, record their super fund choice and their Tax File Number (TFN) declaration in one secure place.

How can I access SFO?

SFO is available in Employer Online (EOL).

If you're an existing EOL user, simply log in using your employer login details to access the SFO tool.

If you're not already using, you will need to register and agree to the terms and conditions to access SFO.

For more information, please see our SFO factsheet.

Our response to the Optus data breach

On 22 September, Optus Australia was the victim of a cyberattack, which has led to a significant loss of their current and former customer data. Optus has advised data exposed may include personal information such as customer names, email addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth. For a subset of customers, exposed information may include addresses and, ID document numbers such as passport and or driver's license numbers.

What does the Optus data breach mean for members of Australian Retirement Trust?

While the Optus data breach is concerning, members' accounts have not been compromised because of it. We can assure you that keeping our members' superannuation accounts secure is our priority. In light of the Optus breach, as a precaution we have taken further steps to enhance the protection of members' super accounts and employers' information (bank account details and email addresses), and we will continue to monitor the situation and respond as necessary.

It's important to remember:

Superannuation can only be accessed if a condition of release is met.
Only authorised employees can access member and employer account information.
When a member calls us, we use a three-point security check to verify their identity to help protect their account.
We take steps to protect our members' personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, modification, misuse, or loss. These steps include having:

Privacy and security training for our employees
Active security measures and surveillance
Corporate measures such as access controls, firewalls, virus scanning, and encryption.

We can also further enhance security by setting up an additional security question and answer.

Protection

For more information on how members can take action to protect themselves, see:

Protecting your super against fraud

Privacy

For more information on how we protect members’ privacy, see our Privacy Policy.

Responding to a data breach notification

For members impacted by the breach, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has provided a useful guide on how to Respond to a data breach notification.

Ongoing monitoring

Members can stay up-to-date with the latest security news and alerts at:

Contact centre delays

Over the past quarter, increased call volumes through to our contact centre have extended wait times for members seeking support. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to your employees and are happy to inform you that we've provided additional support to our customer service team to meet demand and call volumes have returned to normal.

"It's more super"

Two of Australia’s top performing super funds (Sunsuper and QSuper) merged in February to become Australian Retirement Trust. While we have a new name, we are still dedicated to helping Australian employers meet their superannuation obligations and supporting more than two million Australians to save for their retirement.

Think of us as a super-super fund with the experience to spot market opportunities… And the ambition to do things a little differently.

Find out what more super is for you.

Arlanda Express. One of our super-smart investments

When it comes to investing, diversification is important. Our team of investment experts find great opportunities for our members – like the high-speed rail-link in Sweden.

With size comes opportunity, and we have access to assets that are not available to individuals, self-managed super funds (SMSFs), and even other super funds.

Arlanda Express is a city-to-airport train in Sweden, which runs from Stockholm city to Arlanda Airport. ART owns a 25% stake in A-train AB (‘A-Train’), the owner and operator of Arlanda Express. A-Train has moved over 90 million passengers from the highway to rail from its launch.

Investing in Arlanda Express offers¹:

A stable, mature, transportation asset in a country with a strong economy and stable politics
An attractive, risk-adjusted return that is highly correlated to Swedish GDP and inflation
Strong earnings visibility, with a history of predictable cash flow growth
Passenger demand showing resilience to economic conditions

Australian Retirement Trust and QIC to partner to deliver social and affordable housing in Queensland

Working in conjunction with experienced community housing provider, Brisbane Housing Company (BHC), this innovative investment partnership provides a scalable model for the financing, development and operation of social and affordable housing in the state.

Up to 1,200 new homes are to be delivered through the partnership, largely consisting of social and affordable housing, with construction to commence on all projects by 2025 subject to agreement of terms and finalisation of diligence and documentation.

Via the partnership with QIC, ART is making capital available alongside the Queensland Government to enable delivery of seven projects in the initial stage by the QIC-BHC Social Housing Consortium, representing nearly 600 dwellings.

Annual Members' Meeting

The Australian Retirement Trust Annual Members' Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 22 February 2023. We'll send invitations to members in November with registration details and more information about the event.

Australian Retirement Trust appoints Aaron Santelises to its Board

Aaron Santelises has joined our Board of Directors effective from 30 June 2022.

Mr Santelises is an Industrial Advocate and Legal Advisor for The Australian Workers’ Union, responsible for advocating for members from an array of industries and providing advice regarding governance and compliance. He is an employment law and industrial relations solicitor and holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of International Relations (Honours).

Australian Retirement Trust appoints new chair

On 30 September 2022, Australian Retirement Trust announced the appointment of Andrew Fraser as Chair of our Board to steward the Fund through our next phase of integration and growth.

Mr Fraser was appointed as a Director of Sunsuper in September 2015, and as Sunsuper Chair in February 2018. He has served as a director on the ART Board since February following the merger and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role having served on boards across a number of sectors over the last decade.

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