Australian Retirement Trust has now published its investment portfolio holdings across the Super Savings account options and QSuper account options.
The country’s second largest super fund, formed by the merger between QSuper and Sunsuper, said it welcomed any measure that improves transparency across the super sector.
“Acting in our members’ best financial interests is our key priority, so we’re committed to improving the level and format of our disclosures to continue to be transparent with members,” said Australian Retirement Trust CEO Bernard Reilly.
“Australian Retirement Trust’s members can rest assured their retirement savings are in excellent hands – our experienced investment team have a track record of managing our investment portfolios to deliver strong, long-term investment returns.”
The government announced last November that super funds would be required to disclose information about the identity, value and weightings of their investments, with the first report due by 31 March this year and subsequent submissions every six months.
“Reviews of the superannuation system have found that superannuation portfolio disclosure is unduly opaque, does not meet global best practice and that requiring the disclosure of portfolio holdings would provide greater transparency and allow members to understand where their superannuation is invested,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said at the time.
Mr Reilly said that the super fund previously responded to member enquiries about portfolio holdings individually with nearly 30,000 conversations related to investments during the last financial year.
Information will now be made available on the Australian Retirement Trust website for Super Savings account options and the QSuper website for QSuper account options.
“We recognise there is more to be done, but this is an important first step,” said Mr Reilly.
“Going forward, we’ll update our portfolio holdings disclosures at 30 June and 31 December each year in line with the requirements of the law, with additional information to help members better understand how we invest their super savings.”
Australian Retirement Trust also pointed out that the portfolio disclosures were as of 31 December last year, before the super fund divested its Russian holdings.
“When looking at the disclosures it is important to note that there have been significant changes in the market over the last three months,” said Mr Reilly.
“For example, on 1 March we instructed our investment managers to sell any remaining debt and equity investments and not to make any new investments in either Russia or Belarus.”
