Australian Retirement Trust (ART), one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, has completed a Successor Fund Transfer (SFT) with Woolworths Group and Endeavour Group, welcoming over 25,000 new members from Australia’s largest employer.
It is the second largest SFT ART has undertaken to date, bringing in an additional $4.3 billion into the Fund and taking total funds under administration to more than $260 billion and total member numbers to more than 2.3 million.
ART’s Chief Commercial Officer, Dave Woodall, said that the latest SFT signals the strength of ART’s offering for corporate clients and their employees and the Fund’s growth trajectory.
“The Woolworths decision came soon after Australia Post also transitioned its staff superannuation arrangements to Australian Retirement Trust, with $8 billion and 28,000 members transferred,” Mr Woodall said.
In addition, a number of further transfers are inflight, including Commonwealth Bank Group Super, AvSuper and Alcoa Super. All are currently underway and expected to be completed during this financial year.
“We are also very pleased to have welcomed Oracle and The Lottery Corporation this year transferring another 2,500 new members.
“At Australian Retirement Trust, our vision is to be Australia’s most chosen and trusted retirement partner, and our recent mergers signal the confidence from corporate Australia in what we offer.
“We’re very proud that major Australian employers trust us to manage the retirement outcomes of their employees today and into the future.
“We have a very experienced inhouse transition team, allowing us to deliver a positive member experience during the transition and provide the employer with the opportunity to refresh their value offering for their employees.
“Our offering is twofold in that it supports both employers and employees. Being member centric during a key moment – like transferring someone’s super account – is really important to instil confidence and engagement in the process. Ease in the relationship and our support is also important. We’ve built infrastructure to support corporate Australia in reducing the time, effort and risk to deliver on their employee superannuation benefits via an employer platform that provides clearinghouse services and bespoke payroll administration – an often underrated benefit of our ecosystem.
“Delivering on our key purpose of helping members retire well with confidence is assisted by being able to work effectively with their employer. We are increasingly seen as a critical partner of the People or HR teams at large organisations, supporting them with their remuneration and benefits agenda and making super a key part of their employee value proposition.
“The Woolworths and Endeavour transition comes during a strong growth period for ART, which includes the launch of a new brand Australia-wide. It’s exciting to see how our new name and brand is creating momentum and attracting both members and employers. We’re expecting our total inflows in the current financial year in excess of $40 billion by 30 June 2024.
The latest SFT follows ART’s recognition as Corporate Solutions Fund of the Year at the 2023 Chant West awards for the 8th year in a row. The award acknowledged the super fund working the hardest in the best interests of their corporate plan members, including by harnessing economies of scale.