Significant corporate success over the past 12 months and competitive pricing has contributed to the Sunsuper for life Corporate product taking the prize for best corporate solution at the Super Fund of the Year Awards.
The Heron Partnership judging panel also pointed to the solution’s solid investment performance and the broad range of investment assets it captured, which included listed, unlisted, passive and active options, as reasons for its win.
The facts that the solution offered a retirement bonus when activating a pension account and was an industry fund operating with subplans, choice of insurer and full policy committee further impressed the judges.
Sunsuper general manager, corporate and institutional, Dave Woodall, said having this range of strong options was vital to the solution’s success.
“I think [winning the award] is a recognition of how you need to perform strongly in all aspects of your value proposition because the process large employers go through in selecting a default fund is a detailed process, with a lot of due diligence, so you need to be consistent in all facets of your solution,” he said.
The solution’s focus on its members was another reason for its victory, with the extensive member research undertaken and personalised member experience offered through enhanced digital channels impressing the judges.
“We focus on how we can deliver services to members that are highly specific and unique to their personal circumstances, and we do this through the effective use of technology,” Woodall said.
Finally, the judges were drawn to the solution’s planned initiatives for the next 18 months, which they found were “extensive”.
The judges looked at the finalists’ depth of features, consistency of long-term investment performance, and their competitiveness of group life insurance premiums and administration and investment costs.
The judges said that Sunsuper’s solution achieved “very good scoring across the whole product”.
Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data.
Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion.
APRA has raised an alarm about gaps in how superannuation trustees are managing the risks associated with unlisted assets, after releasing the findings of its latest review.
Compared to how funds were allocated to March this year, industry super funds have slightly decreased their allocation to infrastructure in the six months to September – dropping from 11 per cent to 10.6 per cent, according to the latest APRA data.