AustralianSuper unleashes raft of investment and fee changes

AustralianSuper has unveiled a raft of changes to its investment exposures and fees which came into effect July 1.

Across its MySuper, Choice and TTR Income products, the super fund has removed its exposure to listed infrastructure and listed property. In addition, it changed its exposure to other asset classes.

As a result, it increased exposure to Australian shares, international shares, private equity, infrastructure, and fixed interest. It also reduced its exposure to credit and cash holdings.

AustralianSuper also updated its fees and costs for investments and transactions, impacting the overall annual fee for numerous products.

For its MySuper Balanced option, investment fees have increased from 0.50% to 0.52% p.a. and reduced transaction costs from 0.06% to 0.05%.

The changes mean that for an account with $50,000 the estimated annual fee would increase from $382 to $387.

For the Choice Income product, investment fees were reduced from 0.09% - 0.59% (depending on the option selected) to 0.07% - 0.58%.

In addition, transaction costs were reduced marginally from nil to 0.08% (depending on the option) to nil to 0.07%.

The changes mean that for someone with a balance of $50,000, the estimated annual fee would be reduced depending on the investment option, for example:

• High Growth - $387 to $382
• Balanced - $382 to $387
• Socially Aware - $422 to $412
• Conservative Balanced - $367 to $362
• Indexed Diversified - $157 to $142

The section that has been removed said: "For advice fees, other than for over-the-phone retirement planning advice mentioned above, the fund claims Reduced Input Tax Credits (RITCs) of 55% on GST it pays and passes the benefit on to you in the form of a lower advice fee deducted from your account. This means that the advice fee deducted directly from your account is less than the full fee otherwise charged."

"For example, if the advice fee is $3300 (including $300 GST), AustralianSuper will only deduct $3135 from your account. The difference of $165 represents the RITC (55% of $300 GST)."