The $2.3 billion Westscheme super fund has rephrased the way it explains its Target Return option to members, emphasising its relationship to inflation for the first time.

Westscheme’s other investment options, the Trustee’s Selection and Screened Investment options, have always referenced the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in their official performance objectives. However, the Target Return option previously undertook only to ‘produce returns before tax and fees of 12 per cent per annum over periods of 10 years or more’. According to Westscheme chief executive Howard Rosario, this did not chime with the fund’s overall aim of “;increasing the purchasing power of our members’ money”;, so on future documentation the Target Return option will have its objective described thus: ‘To achieve net investment performance that exceeds CPI over rolling ten year periods by at least 7 per cent per annum; and minimises the possibility of a negative net investment performance in any year.’ Rosario stressed this reflected no underlying change in the approach of the Target Return portfolio, which only currently speaks for $25 million in its own option, but also comprises 42.5 per cent of Westscheme’s default option. Meanwhile, Westscheme has also recently improved its insurance offer to members through Tower, with $2 a week now buying $100,000 of death and TPD cover compared to the previous $75,800.