Christian Super, the $1.5 billion faith-based superannuation fund, has restructured its investment options and launched two new ethical funds as a result.
Christian Super CIO, Tim Macready said the two new options – Ethical Index Shares and Ethical Growth Plus – take the same ethical approach as the existing funds but have different risk/return profiles to give members more choice.
“We’ve been looking at ways to refresh our product to ensure that what we offer our members is broad enough to meet their full range of needs,’ he said. “As part of that refresh, we’ve introduced an Ethical Growth Plus Option for members who want an even more growth-oriented strategy that still maintains a strong allocation to impact investments. ”
Macready said Ethical Index Shares, is a low-fee option for members who want diversified equity exposure that incorporates Christian Super’s ethical screens. “This means that, for members who wish to make an investment choice, our offering is bookended by pure equities and pure cash strategies, with five diversified choice options in between ranging from 30 per cent to 95 per cent allocations to growth assets.”
The Ethical Index Shares option is 50 per cent invested in Australian shares and 50 per cent in global shares. According to the super fund’s July 2019 Investment Guide, the Ethical Index Shares product has a ten-year plus time horizon, charges a fee of 0.30 per cent per year and has a cost ratio of 0.08 per cent.
This option would suit members between the ages of 18-45 year who are paying down a mortgage; their financial priorities are typically over the short to mid-term, but their superannuation focus is long term, according to the guide.
The Ethical Growth Plus option, which has an 84 per cent allocation to growth assets and 16 per cent to defensive assets, aims to achieve a 3.5 per cent average annual return above inflation. It charges an investment fee of 0.49 per cent each year and has an indirect cost ratio of 0.53 per cent, according to the guide.
This product provides a mid-point between Ethical Growth (with a 95 per cent / 5 per cent growth defensive split) and Ethical Balanced Growth with a 67 per cent / 33 per cent growth defensive split.
The guide says this product will suit an older demographic – members aged between 45-65 whose debts and expenses are either reducing or paid off, or who are planning for retirement.
As of 1 July 2019, the fund is offering members eight investment options in total.
