QSuper is one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds with a membership base of over 540,000 current and former Queensland Government employees and their spouses. QSuper directly has over $32 billion funds under management. QSuper members have very high average account balances and this has come from a strong commitment to adequate savings for retirement.  The vast majority of contributing members have a default contribution of nearly 18% of salary.  This commitment to adequacy shapes the thinking of the Fund.

QSuper has embarked on a new way to approach the investment strategy development for default defined contribution members. Rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all “balanced” strategy commonly applied in Australia, or mechanical target date funds as seen in the United States, QSuper's default defined contribution approach will group members into reasonably homogeneous cohorts. Grouping is based on individual member characteristics like age, account balance, contribution rate, salary, gender and retirement age. Cohort-level investment objectives are set relative to achievable projected retirement outcomes. Stochastic modelling, based on asset liability management methodology, is used to determine optimal cohort-level investment strategies. The Fund has a conservative bias in its strategy decisions which focuses on the reduction of risk of downside outcomes. Initial structures and processes are basic in their nature, but provide scope for significant improvement in sophistication until the ultimate aspiration of completely individualised solutions.