2024 in review with ESSSuper CEO Robbie Campo

In our final edition of Exploring Super for 2024, we take some time to chat to ESSSuper CEO Robbie Campo about what’s happened this year, what makes ESSSuper so special, and some of the big activities on the agenda for 2025 and beyond. 

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This podcast is of a general nature only and does not consider your personal circumstances, financial needs or objectives before acting on any advice contained in this podcast. Please download and read the relevant product disclosure statement and target market determination found on our website, esssuper.com.au.

The board recommends that you seek financial advice before acting upon this information. Benefits in ESSSuper accumulation plan, income streams, and beneficiary account products are not guaranteed or underwritten by the Victorian government or ESSSuper. The Association of Superannuation funds Australia otherwise known as ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia's superannuation industry. It publishes the retirement standards on their website at superannuation.asn.au.

Transcript

Transcript 

00:00:02 

You're listening to Exploring Super, the exclusive podcast for ESS Super members. Welcome to Exploring Super, the exclusive podcast for ESS Super members. I'm Michelle Guinan, Stakeholder Relationship Manager. 

00:00:18 

And my name is Christian Kueng  and I'm the Manager of Member Education. Today we're joined by Robbie Campo, ESS Super's Chief Executive Officer and Chair of Women in Super. Welcome Robbie. 

00:00:29 

Thank you very much. 

00:00:30 

All right, we'll get into the hard questions. 

00:00:32 

Can you please grill me? That's right, that's right. 

00:00:36 

Definitely. Can you please tell us a bit about yourself and why you've chosen superannuation for your career? 

00:00:42 

So I've been at ESS Super for about 2 1/2 years. And prior to that, I was in the superannuation industry for about 2 1/2 decades. But I really have found my home here at ESS Super. I really love it. It's got all the elements. 

00:00:58 

that has made me want to work in superannuation, a really strong purpose-driven fund, delivering retirement outcomes and improving quality of life, so financial security and confidence for our members, but also working in an environment where I'm surrounded by people who are also sharing that really strong purpose and culture that's focused on the members of the fund. There are some things about ESS Super that are quite different to other super funds, 

00:01:26 

which I've also really enjoyed. But we have an incredible board and we have an incredible group of members and every day I learn something new. 

00:01:35 

Thanks, Robbie. So you mentioned that EWS Super is different to other funds out there. Can you perhaps give us a bit more detail on that? What have you seen here that's different? 

00:01:42 

For starters, SS Super is a defined benefit fund. We're really the only defined benefit fund that's left. Once upon a time, the whole industry was defined benefit. 

00:01:53 

When the compulsory superannuation system was built in the early 90s, it really took over as the dominant form of superannuation. And the Australian system is very distinctive because it is mainly accumulation funds. So the last standing defined benefit fund is *** Super. So there are some real advantages being a member of a defined benefit fund because your end benefit 

00:02:19 

is calculated based on how long you've worked, what your salary is, what your time fraction has been. You're not exposed to the way the market operates in the way that other accumulation funds are. So other funds really operate like a bank account. What it means for members is 

00:02:38 

that generally they end up with a lot more in retirement savings than the member of an average fund. And we can see if we look at our members' average balance at retirement compared to those in the rest of the system, there's a very big difference and our members are much better off. 

00:02:54 

That's excellent. 

00:02:55 

It's also the fact that... 

00:02:57 

With the DB design comes a unique death and disability benefit, which offers members a lifetime pension in the event that they're disabled and unable to work, and also a more generous death benefit. And that's really in keeping with the extraordinary sacrifice that our members make through their working life. There's no doubt that they're exposed to a lot more trauma, a lot more hazard. And so it really is in return for keeping their community safe 

00:03:27 

and keeping the community educated, all of those things that our members do, that very unique death and disability benefit is in place. The other thing that's really distinctive about our fund that's different to other funds is it's a really exclusive club because it is a lot more generous. It's really now only emergency services workers who can become members of the fund. 

00:03:49 

I think once members leave the fund, they're not able to come back in. So the fact that we're closed and really only offered to a very small group within the Victorian community is because it is such a special offering. That's great. 

00:04:01 

So what do you see as your role as CEO of ESS Super and what does a day look like for you? 

00:04:08 

Well, most of my days are quite busy, but it is a really, you know, an absolute privilege to be the CEO of ESS Super because it is such a special fund. Being member focused, 

00:04:20 

a lot of the work that I do really is on driving the various things that we're doing that are about improving outcomes for our members. Sometimes that will be things that members notice and are... 

00:04:32 

changing the way services are delivered, but sometimes it's the stuff about making the fund stronger that's perhaps less visible to members, but equally important in terms of making sure we're future fit. So I manage the executives, so we have an executive team and they're the ones who are actually responsible on a day-to-day basis for the various parts of the fund, whether it's the member-facing functions, so looking after 

00:04:56 

your teams, member education, financial advice, administration, the contact centre, the supporting functions like our investment area, our technology and finance areas, and also very important the risk management and governance functions which make sure that the fund is really operating with high integrity. 

00:05:17 

and managing the various risks that a financial services organisation operates within. That's a really important part of my job, but also very important is stakeholder engagement. And because we are operating in quite a complex ecosystem, the health of our relationships with key stakeholders is very important. So that includes the government, because we do sit under the Victorian government, our employers, the unions, we spend a lot of time with the unions because they're a really important voice 

00:05:44 

for members and a means of also communicating with their membership. And most importantly of all, our members, and I do have the opportunity from time to time to go out on the road with the member ed team, to see members when they're in the office, to engage with them through the forums that we offer. 

00:06:03 

And then sometimes individual members also reach out to me. So it's always, you know, a great pleasure for me to have that engagement and remind me what it's all about. 

00:06:10 

Yeah, thank you. So could you perhaps tell us some of the main achievements that AWS Super has had in the last year, so for 2024? 

00:06:16 

So I'm really looking forward to the break of a Christmas, and I think that's a good sign for our members because of the amount that we've got done this year. So there's been a number of things that we've delivered 

00:06:30 

an incredible focus on member service. And I think we've seen, our member satisfaction levels return to their historic high levels, which is, 9 to 9 1/2 out of 10 of our members express great satisfaction with the service they get from ESS Super, which is really important. Really high numbers of engagement with members across education, advice, contacting the fund and also managing really complex cases, including death and disability. 

00:07:00 

claims. But we also have put in place a new strategy. We have introduced 2 new execs to the fund. We introduced a new investment option which became our default in November this year. And we've been working on a new website which will be launching early next year. So they're all really exciting developments. Really pleasingly we're seeing 

00:07:24 

that we have 75% of our members who are on track, active DB members who are on track for a comfortable retirement, which is a very comfortable standard of living in retirement. That would really set our fund apart in terms of having such high levels of members who are well prepared for retirement. That's a really exciting way for us to finish the year. 

00:07:45 

And just to clarify, when I'm talking about comfortable retirement, we use the ASFA retirement measure. So ASFA is the Association of Super Funds of Australia, and they have a measurement of retirement adequacy. So the comfortable standard affords a couple a comfortable, or a single, a comfortable standard of living in retirement, but that's the measure that we use when we talk about comfortable. One other thing I think I'll mention is 

00:08:11 

Most of our members will be aware that we did have a few years ago some pretty serious disruptions to our service as we embarked on a new way of having the fund administered. We've had ongoing issues with the company that we outsource those services to, and we've worked very hard to try and engage with them to resolve them. But it has got to the point that in order to maintain the service that we want to maintain for our members, 

00:08:38 

and ensure that we're holding our service providers to account, that we were unable to resolve things with them directly and have had to take the step of initiating legal proceedings against them. So that's been quite a lot of work, but an important focus for the fund in terms of ensuring that going forward we can be delivering members the high level of service that they rightfully expect from ESS Super. 

00:09:03 

Thanks for your honesty there, Robbie. What exciting things can we look forward to in 2020? 

00:09:09 

So we are really continuing to focus on delivering our new strategy. As I've mentioned, we're going to be launching a new website, which is really a very exciting thing where we know that it will be much more intuitive and enable members to get answers to the common questions that they have. 

00:09:28 

We're also looking to enhance our mobile app, further development on the product side of things, especially in retirement, and ongoing improvements to our service for members. So it's all very exciting. There's also some really important work that we're doing under the bonnet, I guess, that are probably less evident, but we have a really strong and ongoing focus on 

00:09:52 

data governance and cyber security. In this day and age, you just can't sit still on those things. So it's really a program of continuous improvement to make sure that we're understanding how the environment's changing and what we need to be doing to be best protecting our members' assets and interests. 

00:10:11 

That was definitely a conversation at the annual members meeting. So yes, very important to our members, obviously. 

00:10:18 

It is. 

00:10:19 

And a question without notice. 

00:10:21 

Given that it's Christmas, what would be one of your favourite Christmas carols? 

00:10:25 

Oh, that's very funny. So with a very old group of friends, every year we get together before Christmas and sing Christmas carols. Although as we've got older and our kids have grown up, there's perhaps a little bit more champagne being drunk and a few less Christmas carols being sung. But I do love a bit of Christmas caroling. So I guess my favourite would be Little Drummer Boy. 

00:10:47 

But I'm not going to sing in case that's the next question. Not if you want people to listen to this podcast. It's my singing voice. 

00:10:55 

Well, thank you very much for speaking to us, Robbie. It was great to hear from you, and we look forward to having you on again in 2025. 

00:11:01 

Thank you, and I hope everyone has a great festive season and break. 

00:11:05 

That wraps up our episode today of Exploring Super, the exclusive podcast for ESS Super members. We look forward to producing more content for you at ESS Super, proudly serving our members. 

00:11:17 

If you'd like more information about our investments and products, please go to essuper.com.au. 

00:11:26 

This podcast is of a general nature only and does not consider your personal circumstances, financial needs or objectives. 

00:11:33 

Before acting on any advice contained in this podcast, please download and read the relevant product disclosure statement and target market determination found on our website, esssuper.com.au. The Board recommends that you seek financial advice before acting upon this information. Benefits in ESSuper accumulation plan, income streams and beneficiary account products are not guaranteed or underwritten by the Victorian Government or ESSuper. 

00:12:03 

The Association of Superannuation Funds Australia, otherwise known as ASFA, is the peak policy research and advocacy body for Australia's superannuation industry. It publishes the retirement standards on their website at superannuation.asn.au.