The Aon Master Trust (Aon MT) will transfer IOOF NZ clients (formerly known as Plan B) to other yet-to-be-revealed options after closing a range of underlying funds this month.
According to an amended prospectus published earlier in July, Aon closed the ‘Global Pre-set Investment Strategies’ to new investors as at June 24 with members to be “transferred to investment funds with similar characteristics”.
“As at the date [of the prospectus], this transfer process is yet to complete and is ongoing,” the latest Aon MT prospectus says.
The ‘Global Pre-set Investment Strategies’ were managed by listed Australian financial services firm IOOF, which purchased the Perth-based Plan B in 2012 including its NZ operations.
Plan B modeled its investment strategy on the passive-style Dimensional Fund Advisors, which has been replicated in the recently-renamed IOOF Integral Master Trust via its ‘QuantPlus’ strategies.
The latest IOOF Integral Master Trust unaudited accounts show its NZ portfolio investment entity (PIE) funds had about $530 million under management as at December 2014.
According to the Aon MT 2014 accounts, the five Plan B/IOOF funds totaled about $3.2 million under management.
As well as signaling the ‘Global Pre-set’ move, the Aon MT prospectus also confirmed similar changes revealed in its underlying manager roster as its KiwiSaver scheme – essentially swapping Milford Asset Management out of its previous role as alternatives manager in an ANZ fund in exchange for Nikko.
Aon also declined to comment in detail on the rumoured sale of its NZ super administration business published on Investment News NZ (IN NZ) a fortnight ago, except to issue this statement: “Across New Zealand and Australia, and all other markets where Aon has a presence, we are always looking at our various business units, undertaking strategic reviews and investigating opportunities for growth and diversification.”
Previously, Janet Hayden, Aon NZ general manager, said the group’s super admin business had not been sold.