The $150 million Air New Zealand Superannuation fund will roll over into a master trust, scheme chair Stephen Jones confirmed last week.
Jones said the standalone Air NZ super scheme, which the national carrier established in 1990, would transfer to the AMP-managed New Zealand Retirement Trust (NZRT) prior to the December 1 Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) deadline.
“The scheme will sit as an option under the NZRT,” he said.
Air NZ already uses the NZRT to house its other staff retirement savings product, the approximately $600 million KoruSaver, which offers members the choice of a KiwiSaver or traditional super fund.
The $2.6 billion NZRT recently bumped up its underlying fund roster from 18 to 27 with new products supplied by ANZ, ASB, Fisher Funds and Nikko as well as sister firm AMP Capital Investors.
Air NZ’s old-school scheme uses AMP Capital (global shares, domestic fixed income and cash), Harbour Asset Management (Australasian shares), ANZ (property) and the Fisher Funds version of global bond manager PIMCO.
Mercer acts as administrator for the about-to-be-transitioned Air NZ scheme with Russell as investment consultant. According to the 2016 Air NZ Super accounts, the scheme paid out about $740,000 in investment fees and almost $300,000 in “professional and administration fees”.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MOBIE) also collected just over $40,000 in regulatory fees from the Air NZ scheme over the 12 months to March 31, 2016.
Under the FMC the cost of doing business for traditional super schemes is expected to rise sharply, forcing many smaller employer-based funds to either wind-down or roll over into master trusts.
As reported here earlier this month, about 150 traditional superannuation schemes have been listed as regulation-ready in the latest FMC ‘order in council’. However, the final count of stand-alone schemes is expected to shrink further as the FMC deadline draws nearer.
About 20 employer and industry-based schemes have to date registered FMC-compliant documents on the MOBIE-run website, Disclose, including the Maritime Retirement Scheme (MRS) and the Meat Industry Superannuation Scheme (MISS).