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Plum awarded for innovation at ASFA awards

August 2007

Plum Financial Services has won two distinguished awards for Marketing Communications Innovation and Excellence at the 2007 Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Communications Awards this week.

Plum's was awarded the Alchemist's Award for Innovation in Communication and the Excellence Award for Member Marketing and Education Communication for the Escalator Program.

Plum's research told us that Australians were not only not saving enough for retirement, but that they knew their super savings were falling short and yet they were still not taking action.

Plum's Escalator Program fills this gap. The program automatically increases member's superannuation contributions when they have a salary review. Typically contributions automatically increase by a nominated percentage, such as two per cent each year to a cap of 15 per cent. Plum was the first superannuation provider in Australia to offer a program of this type, and MasterKey Business Super have recently adopted Plum's program.

If the member is earning less than $58,980 annually, participating in the Escalator program may also automatically trigger the government's co-contributions benefit which will add to the member's super savings balance and significantly help towards them having an adequate retirement income.

'These awards are a terrific endorsement of Plum's efforts to offer members and employers practical solutions to increase retirement adequacy,' said Plum's Managing Director Mike Fitzsimons.

'Our firm belief in behavioural finance and our own research has been backed up by promising results from our employer clients who have adopted Escalator. We are very proud of this achievement.'

'These awards recognise the hard work all our Plum people have put in to make Escalator such a success, from our communications and marketing team, education team, relationship managers, operations and our business development team. By working together as a team, we have seamlessly communicated to, and implemented this program with, our clients.' The 2007 ASFA Communications Awards were presented at Crown Melbourne on Thursday, 30 August. ASFA is the peak Australian superannuation industry body and has recognised excellence in marketing and communication campaigns for more than twenty years.