The Supereasy local government superannuation scheme is set to drop AMP Capital from a long-held mandate in August, ending an almost 20-year relationship.
Both the Supereasy traditional employer and KiwiSaver schemes will swap out AMP Capital – which managed growth assets for the funds – next month, according to the group’s latest annual accounts.
“… Harbour Asset Management were appointed as a new manager of the Scheme, replacing AMP Capital,” the document says. “A transition period for the change will be commencing on August 1.”
Supereasy chief, Ian Brown, said the move comes after a review of the restricted scheme’s funds and structure last year in conjunction with asset consultant Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW).
“We’ve had a long, successful and pleasant relationship with AMP Capital for about 17 years – and received splendid service,” Brown said. “But we are continually reviewing our structure and managers.”
Supereasy offers low-cost passive investment options to members of the superannuation and KiwiSaver schemes – open to local council employees and associates.
Under the revamp, Harbour will manage Australasian listed real estate and passive NZ equities for the group while remaining incumbent, ANZ Investments, will take up the slack in global equities and fixed income. ANZ previously managed only the income and cash assets for Supereasy.
Collectively, Supereasy – part of Civic Financial Services (which Brown heads) – held almost $500 million including $380 million in the KiwiSaver scheme as at the end of March. AMP Capital manages about $375 million across the Supereasy schemes (that invest the same way).
The restricted scheme includes four risk-weighted investment options as well as the Automatic Fund, which rebalances member allocation between income and growth assets each month based on age.
About 85 per cent of members use the automatic option, Brown said.
Already one of the lowest-cost schemes in the market, Supereasy has reduced its base management fee from 0.5 per cent to the current 0.4 per cent over the last couple of years.
The scheme also charges annual member administration fees of $54 for KiwiSaver members and $72 in the super fund with in-fund costs ranging between .03 to .06 per cent.
He said Supereasy was committed to driving fees lower over time.
In 2017 the scheme replaced ASB with ANZ as underlying manager at the same time as a restructure at the wider Civic group that saw it exit the insurance business.
The smaller Maritime Retirement Scheme (MRS) also replaced AMP Capital as manager this year for its local fixed income and offshore equities assets – comprising roughly $65 million. MJW is investment adviser and administrator of the MRS, which formed in 2016 in a merger between two sea-based retirement funds.
Post the changes, ANZ picked up the global equities and local fixed income portfolios previously managed by AMP Capital while Fisher Funds came on board the Maritime scheme as Australasian equities manager (sharing the role with existing provider, Salt Funds).
MRS reported over $193 million under management at the end of March 2020, including $13 million in its KiwiSaver scheme.