The Australian Retirement Trust has become the second largest super fund in the country with over two million members and over $230 billion in funds under management.
In a statement on Monday, the new fund announced plans to reduce fees for its members from 1 July 2022.
The fixed weekly administration fee for Australian Retirement Trust Super Savings account members will be cut from $1.50 to $1.20 per week, and from 0.16 per cent to 0.15 per cent p.a. for Australian Retirement Trust QSuper account members, subject to final approval by the Australian Retirement Trust Board.
“As the second largest super fund in the industry, we’ll leverage our size and scale to seek out world-class investment opportunities for our members and deliver enhanced products and services and lower fees,” said Australian Retirement Trust’s chief executive officer Bernard Reilly.
The QSuper and Sunsuper merger process began in March last year, after the pair signed a heads of agreement.
“Over the next two years, we will also continue to fully integrate the two funds, including our investment portfolios and technology platforms,” said Mr Reilly.
He confirmed that Australian Retirement Trust would continue Sunsuper’s legacy in the employer and external financial adviser markets, but did not specify any details.
In August last year, Sunsuper teamed up with Iress to launch a solution that enables financial advisers to efficiently access clients’ superannuation data.
“At Sunsuper, we know the value of advice and the role external advisers play in driving member outcomes, which is why we invested in working with Iress to activate data feeds,” Sunsuper’s head of advice and retirement, Anne Fuchs, said at the time.
Can’t use a Super fund where the Advice fee is turned off at day 364 of the relationship. Can’t use a Super fund that doesn’t follow the legislation. The legislation is in place for a reason.
Hey Anne, great that you have activated data feeds for Xplan, but what about the other systems. Until this is standard across all systems, I cannot work with you.
Devil’s advocate question…Unless you have a live data feed you won’t use a Super Fund?
Dan, there are alot of other super funds that have live data feeds. So that I can track the progress of clients, it is important to have up to date info.
I have two options – use one with live data feeds, or use one that doesn’t and charge my clients more for the manual work that is required. It is in my clients best interest to use one that has live data feeds.
nailed best interest duty right there.
If you aren’t using xplan in 2022, you aren’t compliant.
TFU, there is a reason advisers are leaving Xplan. There are so many better alternatives
I completely understand. We are working through the process of activating datafeeds for other advice platforms for those clients with a Super Savings Account (the old Sunsuper) with Australian Retirement Trust. We are very keen to get this completed as we understand this is crucial to support affordability of advice services. We also understand this is important for those advisers with clients with a Q account. This functionality will take a bit longer and fits into work required as part of the merger integration. Best, Anne