Plum's innovative calculator at the forefront of the Australian superannuation industry

30 October 2008

Plum has launched a leading-edge superannuation calculator, taking ease of use and customisation to a higher level – helping people determine their superannuation goals.

The calculator, available under the Calculators and online resources tab, allows users to see what the impact of numerous life events on their superannuation will be.

What sets the calculator apart from similar calculators in the industry, is that it allows users to apply as many of these changes as they want to the one calculation, giving a much more in-depth and accurate result.

According to Plum's Education and Online Communications Manager Michelle Brown the beauty of the tool is its simplicity and useability yet it is very comprehensive in the information it delivers to users.

'This is really taking online superannuation calculators in Australia to the next level,' Ms Brown said.

'The tool dynamically evolves with you, allowing you to manipulate four major common variables and then the really interesting bit starts... by applying a whole range of life events you can see the impact on your super and continue to adjust each of these to see different scenarios.'

In step one, the user inputs data to give four variables such as age, gender, income and superannuation account balance, using the latest slider system as opposed to manually inputting, making the tool easier and more user friendly. In step two the tool provides a basic snapshot of the user's retirement adequacy based on known factors. To this point, the calculator is the same as many in the industry at the moment.

The final step is what really differentiates the calculator. The third step allows users to make selections on different life scenarios to determine projected outcomes. The life scenarios presented to the user also change, depending on the user's age and life stage.

'We've identified a number of likely life events that happen at different stages and then come up with scenarios that are appropriate to each age group,' Ms Brown said.

'For example, it is unlikely an 18 year-old will be looking at retirement but they may be interested in buying a car, saving for a holiday or looking to move from a part time to full time job.

We've considered a wide range of life events that can have an impact on superannuation, including putting an inheritance into super, taking a career break or leaving work to study part or full time.'

'In effect, what we’ve done with this calculator is take an offline member behaviour and adult learning model, and put it online.'

According to Plum's Managing Director Paul Carter, the calculator was implemented in response to feedback from members via independent research conducted for Plum in 2007*.

'Plum's members told us they wanted to see what the impact of making a number of different life decisions would have on their super. With the assistance of AHC Pacific we designed this calculator to assist our members better understand their retirement goals and how to get there.'

'In fact, we think it's so good that we have made a conscious decision to put it on our public site so all Australians can access it, not just Plum’s members.'

The data used as the basis for the calculator is Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC) Industry standard member information, instead of Plum's specific member base information, to ensure the relevance of the calculator across the Australian population, according to Mr Carter.

For Plum members, the superannuation calculator will pre-populate the calculator with their information so they don’t need to enter it in.

*Member research conducted by Forethought Research on behalf of Plum Financial Services in 2007.

Download the media release on the Innovative calculator for Plum (PDF 28kB).