Your savings in the scheme are pooled with those of other members and spread across many individual investments. Those investments fall into two basic categories: growth assets and income assets. Growth assets are best suited to long-term saving. Income assets are best suited to short-term saving. Here’s why.
Growth assets (e.g. shares, which are also known as equities) tend to be volatile (up and down). You need to have time to ride out the highs and lows in the hope of a better return over time.
Returns from income assets (e.g. fixed interest) tend to be more consistent but lower over time. There's a chance returns may not keep pace with inflation over the long term.
UniSteps
With UniSteps, the mix of growth and income assets changes automatically as you get older. Up until age 45, your savings are invested in approximately 80% growth assets. From then, the percentage of growth assets is reduced gradually to approximately 20% from age 69. Here’s how it works.
UniSteps uses three of the base investment options below – Growth, Balanced and Conservative – to transition your savings from predominantly growth assets to predominantly income assets over time. The investment mix changes on 1 November each year, not on your birthday or the anniversary of the date you joined UniSaver.
UniSteps is the default investment option if you don’t tell us how you would like your savings invested when you join UniSaver. We can change the default investment option from time to time.
Other investment options
If you prefer, you can create your own mix of growth and income assets by choosing one or a combination of four base investment options made up of growth and income assets mixed in different amounts. These options are Growth, Balanced, Conservative and Cash. You can choose to invest your savings in one option, or a combination of, the four options. Remember, if you put 50% in Growth and 50% in Conservative, you are effectively investing in Balanced. You can see how different combinations of the options look on the secure part of the website. Log in, select ‘Your investments’ and then the ‘Investment choice planner’ link. You can also choose different options for your existing account balances and for future contributions. You cannot mix and match between UniSteps and the four base options.
These percentages are the benchmark asset allocations for each investment option. Our investment manager may occasionally move away from the benchmark temporarily within specified ranges. See pages below for detailed benchmark asset allocations for each option.
Growth
Benchmark asset allocation, investment objective, historical returns and current holdings for Growth, plus fact sheets for the funds Growth invests in.
Balanced
Benchmark asset allocation, investment objective, historical returns and current holdings for Balanced, plus fact sheets for the funds Balanced invests in.
Conservative
Benchmark asset allocation, investment objective, historical returns and current holdings for Conservative, plus fact sheets for the funds Conservative invests in.
Cash
Benchmark asset allocation, investment objective, historical returns for Cash.
New lower carbon option
We aim to introduce a new lower carbon growth-oriented investment option on 1 May 2025. Register your interest.
Investment basics
Information to help you gain a basic understanding of investments and how the strategy you choose can affect the amount you receive from the scheme.
Choosing an option
General advice on choosing an investment option to suit your investment horizon and personal circumstances.