Page 18 - Print 21 Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

Finance
In safe hands
Media Super, like all industry super funds, appears to have come through the Royal Commission in good health. Among the blizzard of accusations of bad dealings and bad faith, the not-for-profit industry funds shone like a beacon. Print21 editor Wayne Robinson asks Media Super CEO Graeme Russell why that is.
Superannuation funds
have been in the headlines recently – and not all
those headlines have made pretty reading, as the Royal Commission into Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services shone the spotlight into the darker corners of the industry. However, while the retail funds
run by the banks and the likes of AMP suffered a litany of distressing revelations during the course of the Commission, the industry super funds that appeared came out more or less unscathed from the hearings.
Sitting at the head of the printing industry’s super fund, Media Super, CEO Graeme Russell, now six years into the job, says industry funds generally have outperformed the retail funds. “There is a fundamental flaw, an irreconcilable conflict of interest with retail funds. They have to benefit both members and shareholders. Industry funds like Media Super have a single focus, and one stakeholder to satisfy: the member. All profits only go to members.
“Industry funds generally have a values based foundation, as we were established to act only in the interests of our members. We are working solely for our members,” he says.
Sole focus on members: Graeme Russell, CEO, Media Super
The fallout from the Royal Commission has been spectacular, with members apparently abandoning retail funds in droves. Media Super alone has seen rollovers from other funds up by 60 per cent over the year before, and the final report is not even out yet.
The Media Super fund that Russell oversees is the industry fund for
the printing industry, as well as the media and creative arts industries. Its 80,000 members have some $5.5bn in the fund. Russell points to its rankings as evidence of its well being. It is consistently among the top performers; in the last 12 months, for instance, it is ranked as the top performer in the SuperRatings SR50 –Balanced Options ratings table.
Not all print industry people
are part of Media Super, although not surprisingly Russell believes those who are not should consider the Media Super option, especially if they are in a retail fund. He
says there are three key reasons
why print industry people should consider Media Super: performance, investment in print, and investment in the wellbeing of print people.
High performer
“First, according to SuperRatings, the performance of Media Super
is strong. Our default MySuper product, the Balanced Option, has outperformed most retail funds used by major print employers for the last five years at least. Media Super’s My Super Balanced Option was ranked number one over the 12 months to November 30 last year,” he says.
Part of the reason why industry funds in general and Media Super in particular consistently perform better than retail funds is that they make large investments in unlisted infrastructure and commercial property assets, both here and
overseas. These have consistently delivered near or above double- digit returns. Media Super is one
of the owners of IFM Investors, which is a vehicle for investing in infrastructure owned by a collection of industry super funds. Similarly,
it is also a part owner of ISPT (Industry Super Property Trust), and of ME Bank, both also owned by a collection of industry super funds.
“We have different asset allocations to the retail funds,
and that has delivered superior performance over the medium to long-term,” says Russell. Industry fund members including those with Media Super also typically pay lower fees than retail funds, as they are not paying commissions or dividends.
According to Russell, the second reason why many printing industry people choose to invest through their industry fund, Media Super, is that
it invests back into the industry. A retail fund has no vested interest
in the print industry, whereas an industry fund does. “We are strong supporters of the PIAA and of
many industry initiatives, from Print2Parliament to the National Print Awards, apprenticeships, and encouraging young people to join the industry,” he says.
“The third reason is that we
are out there supporting people
in the industry. For several years,
for instance, we have offered
print employers a mental health wellness programme, run by the industry funds’ own mental health foundation, Super Friend. Next year we will launch a financial wellbeing programme for our members: we will be visiting printers offering on-site training and education for financial health,” says Russell.
The Media Super fund also provides a tool to track people’s retirement projections, enabling them to see where they will end up and
18 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019