Equity Trustees expands super division with new clients

In total, the two funds – the Guild Retirement Fund and Clearview Retirement Plan – will add an additional $5 billion in funds under supervision for the specialist firm.

This, Equity Trustees said, means it will now have responsibility and oversight of a further 110,000 super fund members.

GuildSuper, the super fund for the pharmacy and childcare industries, transitioned to Equity Trustees as part of existing client Future Group’s acquisition of Guild’s superannuation business in December of last year.

The fund, as at 30 November 2023, had just shy of 100,000 members who were expected to benefit from a reduction in administration fees through the transaction. It also includes Child Care Super, a separate brand that operates within the same fund.

Commenting on the announcement, David Warren, Equity Trustees general manager for client and strategic planning, said he is pleased that the two funds made the decision to trust the firm with such an important governance responsibility.  

“We are honoured that now 14 super funds have engaged us as their independent trustee and trusted partner supporting them by overseeing the management of products and funds for nearly 800,000 members with around $59.8 billion of funds under supervision,” Warren explained.

“We see it as a testament to the benefits of having an independent trustee which sits at arm’s length to the commercial and operational aspects of managing a superannuation fund and its products.”

Warren further highlighted that the appointment reaffirms Equity Trustees as the “foremost provider of independent superannuation trustee services in Australia”.

In September, the independent trustee company saw funds under supervision rise to $50 billion, up from $41 billion at the end of the last financial year and from $2.9 billion in 2017.

According to its most recent financial results, the superannuation trustee business now services more than 630,000 super fund members, partly thanks to the recent inflow growth in Centric Super Fund that was launched in December 2020 and had recently doubled its funds under administration.