Equip has announced that the fund’s recent merger with the former Rio Tinto Staff Superannuation Fund will see its 70,000+ members receive total fee and insurance premium reductions of more than $12 million in fiscal 2019, showing that mergers do indeed often result in member benefits.
Equip’s chief executive, Nicholas Vamvakas, pointed to the merger as a key reason for the reduction.
“The homework we and the trustees of the Rio Tinto fund did ahead of the merger identified that we would achieve substantial savings that would benefit the members of both funds,” he said.
“I am pleased to say that the reductions occurring from 1 July are absolutely aligned with the analysis. Fee reductions passed onto members next year will amount to around $9 million, while insurance premium reductions will be around $3 million.”
Vamvakas said that more mergers could be on the cards for the fund.
“We still believe in the benefits of scale and we are continuing to explore opportunities for more mergers and additional corporate superannuation plans. We expect these will be by far the biggest contributors to our growth in the foreseeable future.”
He also said the consolidation of member accounts into a single database by Mercer enabled a flow-on of member benefits, such as giving access to Equip’s NextGen website and app to former Rio Tinto Fund members.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
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