AMP NZ has offloaded a $200 plus million legacy superannuation scheme with the retirement-focused Lifetime Income Group picking up the asset.
In a deal confirmed this morning, Lifetime will take over as manager of the adviser-supported scheme AMP Superannuation Master Trust (SMT) by the end of February.
According to the just-released SMT disclosure documents, AMP “has agreed to retire as the manager of SMT andappoint Lifetime Asset Management Limited (Lifetime) as the new manager. The change has been subject to the approval of The New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Limited who is SMT’s Supervisor.”
The SMT, one of several legacy schemes in the AMP fold, services about 3,400 members – most of them close to retirement.
Last year Lifetime bought the similarly sized Aon superannuation master trust from Fisher Funds for $3.2 million.
According to a release, the “combined scale” of Aon and SMT would see “lower administration and management fees for both schemes”.
Following the change of ownership, Lifetime will also ditch the underlying diversified AMP wholesale funds (mostly managed by BlackRock) for a range of strategies offered by Fisher Funds, Macquarie, Simplicity, Mercer, Kernel, Vanguard, State Street and Westpac.
The scheme includes several diversified funds as well as some standalone strategies.
In a note sent to advisers, Lifetimes says it has “selected a range of underlying fund managers in its investment suite, where all equity (excluding Australia), global bonds and property asset classes will be index-managed – only Australian equities, cash and NZ fixed interest asset classes will use actively managed funds”.
From the handover date, Lifetime will assume all administrative duties including processing adviser commissions under the same terms as previously offered by AMP. Lifetime has appointed the Wellington-based Adminis to administer the SMT.
Ralph Stewart, Lifetime founder and managing director, said in the statement that “the retirement of AMP and the appointment of Lifetime reflects Lifetime’s commitment of helping Kiwis make the transition from saving for retirement to living in retirement”.
Lifetime converted its original guaranteed income product to a strategy akin to an allocated pension in 2021.