From the CEO - Oct 2022

If you asked me what was the single most important quality to have through 2021/22, I would say ‘resilience’. ‘Resilience’ is ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties’, according to the Oxford dictionary. For two and a half years, the difficulties thrown our way by COVID19 have had profound impacts, both at work and outside of work. How we responded varied from individual to individual and we all have our own techniques to be resilient. At legalsuper, we continued through 2021/22 to consciously focus on the resilience of legalsuper, its members and our people.

Global investment markets and economies were volatile through 2021/22. Almost all Australian super funds ended the year with negative returns. In this challenging landscape, legalsuper was the fifth highest performing super fund in 2021/22.¹ This strong performance was due to both our conviction in active management and downside protection measures built into the portfolio. Further information is in the Investment Update later in this Communique.

Our member service team had 30% more contacts with members during 2021/22 compared to the prior financial year (2020/21). During the year, phone calls increased to an even higher level of 72%. This increased contact answered questions and addressed uncertainties about the impact of COVID19 on members’ retirement savings.

The mental health of people working in the legal community was further challenged by COVID19. We have continued to support Mental Health First Aid Training across the legal community. This training teaches people the skills to be confident and prepared when someone needs help.

^{1) For the MySuper balanced investment option, where most members are invested}

In 2021/22 nine Board meetings were held. This was three more than the usual program of six meetings a year with three additional Board meetings held to brief the Board on COVID19 matters. Our first four Board meetings continued to be held via video conference. The next four meetings were a welcome return to face-to-face meetings.

Most of 2021/22, our people continued to work from home. To nurture the resilience of our people we employed a range of initiatives including weekly buddy calls rotating across the team, fortnightly whole of team meetings, periodic team-building activities via video conference and on-line sessions with the Resilience Group. These initiatives were all designed to keep our people connected, help them share coping mechanisms and build their resilience. We have transitioned our Melbourne office from the CBD to South Yarra which yielded a material reduction in office rental costs.

2021/22 has certainly been another year in which being resilient has been key. We have worked through 2021/22 to build the resilience of our members’ retirement savings and also the resilience of our people. Resilience will continue to be important for us to live the life we aspire for in 2022/23 and beyond. I wish you the very best for the coming year. The team at legalsuper will continue to focus on delivering strong returns and information and support so our members can build wealth for their life in retirement.