The employer superannuation master trust sector bled almost $500 million during the volatile March quarter, according to the latest EriksensGlobal survey, for an average fall of 5.6 per cent.
By contrast the much larger, and more conservatively invested, KiwiSaver market dropped 3.7 per cent over the three months to the end of March based on Morningstar figures.
The almost $3.5 billion AMP NZ Retirement Trust (NZRT) fared worst over the quarter as funds under management (FUM) decreased almost 6 per cent, or $215 million. AMP transferred most of the NZRT money to passive strategies managed by BlackRock last year.
Meanwhile, the newly combined – by ownership at least – ASB and SuperLife master trusts saw a FUM decline of just over 5 per cent, equating to a drop of about $173 million.
The NZX bought the ASB master trust late last year in a $25 million cash deal with the ultimate aim of merging the $1.8 billion scheme with its own SuperLife employer super platform.
For now the two schemes underlying assets remain separately managed but the EriksensGlobal survey reported the ASB and SuperLife master trust figures as one for the first time this quarter with a combined tally of almost $3.2 billion.
Similarly, the survey has merged the Aon and Fisher Funds master trust into a single reporting line – just under $830 million at the end of March – despite no official change yet in the underlying investment managers of the former provider.
Fisher took formal ownership of the Aon master trust and KiwiSaver schemes last December, bringing about $1 billion along just as $340 million departed from its now-closed KiwiSaver default fund.
Aon outsources to a variety of underlying managers including Russell Investments, Milford Asset Management, Nikko and ANZ – with the bulk held via the first two providers in the list.
At the time of purchase, Fisher told clients it would “assume the investment management [of the Aon KiwiSaver and master trust schemes] at a future time”.
“There is no date currently planned for this to happen,” the Fisher note says, however, it is understood a transition is imminent.
The EriksensGlobal report says total master trust FUM “decreased by $489 million over the quarter due to outflows from all providers”.
“Growth, Balanced and Aggressive fund categories saw a positive average return over the one-year period while Conservative and Defensive were negative,” the survey says. “The one-year weighted average return for all Growth funds was 2.5%; Balanced funds gained 1.0%; and Conservative funds saw a return of -0.4%. Inflation for the year was 6.9%.”
EriksensGlobal, the actuarial consulting firm founded by Jonathan Eriksen, has been compiling the super master trust survey since 1997.