News and updates

Notice date: 12 November 2019

Nature of event or change:

1. Reduction to your insurance premiums – effective 1 December 2019

We regularly complete a comprehensive review of the insurance arrangements offered through Virgin Money Super. Following the review of the insurance policies and premiums, OnePath Life Limited ABN 33 009 657 176 AFSL 238341 (OnePath) has been re-appointed as the insurer for Death, Total & Permanent Disablement (TPD) and Income Protection (IP) cover for another three years. Effective from 1 December 2019:

• Premiums for Death, TPD and IP cover will be decreasing. The premium rates are decreasing by about 21% for Death Only cover, 22% for Death & TPD cover and 20% for IP cover. The cost of insurance cover (if any) will continue to be deducted from your account balance at the end of each month.
• As a Virgin Money Super customer, if you hold insurance in your super account, there is no change to the way your insurance cover is calculated, and how the cost is paid.
  

Both the new and current insurance premiums can be found in Schedule A.

2. Changes to Lifestage Tracker investment option and Choice investment options - effective 1 January 2020

Virgin Money Super offers a range of investments, which have different investment styles or asset classes, including a LifeStage Tracker investment option and a range of Choice investment options.

The LifeStage Tracker investment option is an age path option based on the year of your birth. Each LifeStage Tracker age path aims to outperform the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by a certain percentage each year, for a certain time period.

Looking ahead, we believe economic growth will continue to be slow with investment returns generally expected to be lower than in recent years, particularly with respect to defensive investments such as fixed interest investments, which are sensitive to the low interest rate environment.

For this reason, to enhance the probability of the investment options meeting their investment objectives, effective from 1 January 2020 we will be:

• Increasing the growth allocation by 5% for all LifeStage Tracker age paths;
• Amending the investment objectives for a number of the LifeStage Tracker age paths; and
• Increasing the growth allocation by 5% for the Enhanced Index Growth and Enhanced Index Conservative Growth investment options.
  

You find details of changes to your asset allocation under the ‘Asset Allocation Table’ in Schedule B.

Full details of both of these changes are included in the Notice.

If you are a customer with Virgin Money Super and have questions regarding how these changes might affect your super please call the Customer Care Team on 1300 652 770.

Watch the replay of this special ausbiz event sponsored by Virgin Money Super. The panel of industry experts shed light on the latest super news, how you could turn their tips and tricks into a super fit future, and answer questions submitted by the audience.

This event was filmed on 20 August 2021 and featured:

• Suzanne Haddan, BFG Financial Services
• Christopher Sozou, Virgin Money Australia
• Kylie Willment, Mercer Australia

Notice date: May 2019

Nature of event or change:

Protecting Your Super Package Significant Event Notice
From 1 July 2019, legislative changes known as the Protecting Your Superannuation Package will come into effect.

Impact of the change:

• No exit fee. From 1 July 2019 Virgin Money Super will no longer charge an exit fee when you withdraw funds from your super account.  This includes both full and partial withdrawals. This is across all funds, regardless of your account balance.
• Fees will be capped at 3% p.a for low balances. From 1 July 2019 for all super accounts with a balance below $6,000, there will be a cap of 3% p.a on administration and investment fees to maximise your savings in retirement. Virgin Money Super customers currently receive one of the lowest fees in the market.
• Insurance. On and after 1 July 2019, if a contribution has not been made to a super account for a continuous period of 16 months, and a person has not opted in to take out or maintain their insurance, the insurance benefits with the super fund will be ceased. 
• Inactive low-balance accounts. From 1 July 2019, customers with inactive low-balance accounts below $6,000 will have their account transferred to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). An inactive low-balance account is defined as customer who hasn’t made a contribution to a particular super fund account for 16 months or more, and has an account of $6,000 or less. There are some other activities outside of contributions that do stop a customer being considered inactive including nominating or changing a beneficiary or opting in to retain insurance cover. Once a customer’s super is transferred to the ATO they will then attempt to merge the inactive amounts in the active super account (if there is one, and if the total of the combined balance is greater than $6,000). If the ATO can’t combine the balance automatically, it will remain with them until it is claimed.

If you are a customer with Virgin Money Super and have questions regarding how these changes might affect your super please call the Customer Care Team on 1300 652 770.

Significant Event Notice notifying members of change to administrator in December 2015.

Virgin Super introduced some exciting new services and features for our members. For a limited time, there were interruptions to some of our services. There were also changes to the way members manage their Virgin Super account from 14 Dec 2015. Please refer to important changes to Virgin Super OVERVIEW, Oct 2015 and important changes to Virgin Super FAQs, Oct 2015 for specific information about these changes.

The Government’s Stronger Super reforms include two very important changes: 

• MySuper – making it easier and more transparent for people to compare default super products. Super funds will need to offer a low cost product for members who haven’t made a choice.
• SuperStream – makes processing super transactions easier, faster and cheaper by introducing electronic payment systems and standardising data.

Virgin Money Super LifeStage Tracker® is a MySuper authorised product.

About MySuper

By 1 January 2014, all employers must pay contributions into a MySuper authorised product for any employee who has either not made a choice of fund or an investment option within the fund.

MySuper product must be authorised by APRA and include:

• A single diversified investment option.
• Same fees for all – fees must be the same for all members and there must be no entry fees, adviser fees or commissions.
• Automatic Insurance – to ensure all members are protected, automatic death and total & permanent disablement insurance will be added to every account which members can tailor or opt-out completely.

Please note that the addition of automatic insurance is a regulatory requirement for MySuper. We’re pleased to announce that Virgin Money Super Lifestage Tracker is now an authorised MySuper compliant product.

About SuperStream

SuperStream aims to make processing super transactions easier, faster and cheaper by introducing electronic payment systems. There’s no action for you as an individual member of a super Fund, it just means that processing super across the board will get faster and more efficient. We’ve included a snapshot of some of the changes in legislation in case you’re interested:

• July 2013: the SG Contributions will increase from 9.00% to 9.25%.
• July 2013: employers will need to report the super contributions actually made on employees payslips.
• July 2013: the upper age limit for paying super to an employee is being removed to encourage mature workers to remain in the workforce. You may need to make SG Contributions for eligible employees aged 70+.

Jan 2014: if an employee doesn’t make a choice of fund or investment strategy within the default fund, employers will have to make all default payments to a MySuper compliant product. We expect Virgin Super Essentials to achieve MySuper authorisation later this year. Please keep checking this page for the latest updates.

The verdict is in: a staggering 80% of Australians find the jargon used around Super confusing; meaning they’re potentially missing out on billions of dollars at retirement. 71% think that language is a barrier to managing their funds effectively. 9 out of 10 Aussies said they’d support a campaign to simplify superannuation terminology - and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Tell me more