Maritime Super

Mergers aren’t costless and big super can’t necessarily be counted on to clean up the long tail of unsustainable small funds. Solving the problem might require thinking outside the box.

The two funds have now committed to exploring a proper merger after announcing a pooled superannuation trust (PST) arrangement in 2021 that drew the ire of members of the Morrison Government. Hostplus and Maritime Super have signed a memorandum of understanding and will commence joint due diligence with an intention to merge in 2023, with…

The 88,000 members of Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund (ACSRF) are about to be very confused. As are members of some other big super funds. Forty-year-old members in ACSRF’s default MySuper product, LifetimeOne, will be told they just earned an average 20.9 per cent from their super (after fees and taxes for the year…

Despite APRA’s move to name and shame 13 underperforming funds, it’s clear that Your Future Your Super (YFYS) is a work in progress. More needs to be done to make it a true and fair test. Call them the Dirty (Baker’s) Dozen: 13 funds named and publicly shamed for their failure of the YFYS performance…

Last week was a big one for the chief executives of AustralianSuper and Cbus. Their funds announced record-setting returns for the financial year and the next day they both took another hammering from a Commonwealth parliamentary committee. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, chaired by Tim Wilson, a Liberal MP, is often enlivened…

It’s approaching orthodoxy that a merger is always in the best interests of members. But is bigger always better? What is the true price of scale? Leeanne Turner, Spirit Super’s inaugural chief executive, told a CMSF audience in May: “If you’re not considering a merger then you either have your head in the sand or…

Maritime Super, the 53-year-old $5.8 billion industry fund for maritime and waterside workers, plans to merge its investments with those of Hostplus, the 35-year-old $53 billion industry fund for the hospitality industry, but retain its separate board, self-administration and branding. The announcement last week (February 11) followed earlier and lengthy discussions between Maritime and Mine…