Multi award-winning Bendigo SmartStart Super^® celebrates 10 years since launch

It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed, but on this day in 2011, Sandhurst Trustees, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank, launched Bendigo SmartStart Super, our multi-award winning simple and easy to understand, low-fee superannuation product with a diversified portfolio of great investment choices.

Now with over 20,000 members and with more than $1.67 billion under management, our in-house management team has also grown significantly to enable us to deliver high quality, great value superannuation choices.

Paul Rohan, General Manager Wealth at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank and Executive Director of Sandhurst Trustees, said “It’s been an incredible journey for Bendigo SmartStart Super since launch. Our aim was to provide customers with a low fee, high support retail superannuation fund where fees were kept to a bare minimum and performance was solid - and we have stayed true to this aim”.

“We’re proud to continue to provide our members a better super offering with low fees, strong long-term performance and continuity of care from a bank they trust. Along the way we have transformed the customer experience and provided valuable resources, readily available on the education hub so that customers can better understand and engage with their retirement savings”.

“It’s been a listening journey too. Many of our customers told us that it would be great if they could extend their personal commitment to a low-impact lifestyle to their SmartStart Super fund as well, so we delivered the Bendigo Socially Responsible Growth Fund as another choice within SmartStart”.

“We also built Bendigo MySuper, which is a default option for those with a less ‘hands on’ approach to their super, featuring an age-based lifecycle investment strategy where the member’s investment mix automatically changes as they get older, moving from investments aiming for higher returns when younger, to more stable, conservative investments as they get closer to retirement”.

“Another addition has been Bendigo SmartStart Pension, awarded Best Value Retirement Product in Money Magazine’s Best of the Best Awards 2021”, SmartPension is an easy-to-use solution for members in or as they transition to retirement, designed as an account-based pension with a limited investment menu where investment management fees are built into the unit prices of the various investment options under a master trust structure.

“The awards picked up by Bendigo SmartStart Super over the past 10 years reflect the consistent and outstanding value our team has been able to deliver to Bendigo SmartStart Super customers”.

“Other highlights include being chosen as Money Magazine’s ‘Best of the Best’ award for Australia’s Cheapest MySuper product of the Year in 2020, a ‘4 Apples’ award by Chant West for both our super and pension products in 2021 and multiple positive ratings from across Australia’s superannuation and personal finance analysts and ratings houses”.

“I look forward to Bendigo SmartStart Super’s next decade of growth and innovation and congratulate the Sandhurst Trustees’ management team for their dedication, professionalism and commitment to our customers”, Mr Rohan concluded.