Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund was established in 1981 as a profit-to-member fund that assisted members from the Catholic education, healthcare, aged care and welfare sectors with their retirement savings. It is the super fund of choice for the Catholic sector and as a public offer fund, it is open to anyone who is eligible for super. As a values-based fund, Australian Catholic Superannuation’s mission is to empower its members to live their best possible retirement.

Australian Catholic Superannuation is self-administered, which means that the administration of all contributions and benefit payments are handled internally, focusing on delivering member outcomes and excellence in member service. As the fund doesn’t pay dividends to shareholders, all profits go back to members in the form of improved products and services, including a variety of investment options, over-the-phone service, a self-service online portal, workplace visits and seminars at no additional cost.

Her Purse

80% of Australian Catholic Superannuation’s membership consists of women who work in the education sector.

Women are paid on average 14 per cent less or $253.60 per week less[1] but are expected to live 4.1 years longer than men[2]. Women are also more likely to take time off from work to care for a child or family member. In fact for those aged 60 to 64 years in 2016-2017, women’s average super balances were 17.4% lower than those of men[3].

Given the above statistics and the fund’s mostly female demographic, the fund believes that it’s important that its female members are equipped with skills and knowledge to enhance their financial wellbeing. However, the fund lacked financial management information tailored to the needs of its female members.

To fill this gap, the fund created Her Purse, a set of financial guides for women to suit females in different life situations.

The fund coined the phrase ‘Her Purse’ as the brand of the initiative as a purse can be regarded as a symbol of a women’s financial independence. Just as there are various purse designs to suit the needs of different women, the fund created several financial guides to cater to the financial needs of different female personas.

Her Purse was launched at the end of February 2021, shortly before International Women’s Day on 8 March.

While Her Purse was borne out of an initiative to assist Australian Catholic Superannuation’s female members, the financial guides are available for download by non-members. By making these guides readily available, anyone can share the content with the women in their lives. The fund believes that when women experience the benefits of the information in Her Purse, they can inspire other females – students, daughters, nieces, friends and relatives – to care for their financial wellbeing.

To ensure that Her Purse resonates with readers, the fund surveyed a sample of people who’d shown interest in the financial guides.

There were 25% more respondents who said that they were either confident or very confident about managing their finances after reading Her Purse compared to before reading the guides. Below are some of the verbatim feedback received:

• “Informative and well written.”
• “Easy to read and understand.”
• “It is innovative.”
• “Directed at where I am at the moment.”

Given the statistics shared earlier in this document, it is imperative that women feel empowered about their finances. Consequently at the time of writing this report, the fund is in the process of creating a flyer about Her Purse to raise awareness about this initiative amongst its female majority membership. This flyer will act as a conversation starter for the fund’s relationship managers when they meet with school staff members.  

In conclusion, the fund sees Her Purse as a vital tool to encourage more female members and non-members to take control of their finances today and into the future.

For information on Australian Catholic Superannuation, visit catholicsuper.com.au

 

[1] Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australia’s gender pay gap statistics 2020 (Accessed 28 January 2021).

[2] Based on life expectancy in 2017-19 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Gender Indicators, Australia, Reference period: 2020 (Accessed 27 January  2021).

[3] Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Women’s economic security in retirement insight paper (February 2020) (Accessed 27 January 2021).