Mercer has been authorised by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) to provide a MySuper product from the 1 December this year, with default members set to be transferred from 1 January 2014.
Mercer has dubbed its MySuper offering ‘SmartPath'. It stated that members of its Mercer Super Trust who have superannuation contributions invested in its default investment option will be switched to SmartPath from the start of next year unless they choose to opt out of the change.
Mercer Financial Services Business Leader Ben Walsh said SmartPath would contain a whole-of-life investment strategy which would group members in five-year age bands and offer lower fees for older members.
Walsh said these were designed to adapt to member's circumstances as they aged and to prevent older members subsidising younger members who may access riskier assets with higher investment costs.
He also stated the product would continue to offer life-cycle investment management past retirement age, exceeding the age limit requirement of the MySuper legislation.
"We know around two thirds of individuals' retirement income will come from returns earned during the post-retirement phase. We therefore believe it is important for retirees to maintain some exposure to growth assets," Walsh said.
Future Group is set to take on nearly $1 billion in funds under management (FUM) and welcome more than 100,000 new members following two significant successor fund transfers.
Insignia’s Master Trust business suffered a 1.9 per cent dip in FUA in the third quarter, amid total net outflows of $1.8 billion.
While the Liberal senator has accused super funds of locking everyday Australians out of the housing market, industry advocates say the Coalition’s policy would only push home ownership further out of reach.
Australia’s largest superannuation fund has confirmed all members who had funds stolen during the recent cyber fraud crime have been reimbursed.