Eligible rollover fund Ausfund has been taking advantage of its growing number of industry fund clients, matching member details across funds in its ongoing bid to reconnect more people with lost super.
The fund has also returned $4.3 million in lost or unclaimed super to 107 members over the past seven weeks. Ausfund, which looks after $570 million in unclaimed super, targeted 12,000 of its oldest and largest account holders in the marketing blitz, and achieved an 8.8 per cent response rate. One member was reunited with $202,600, in an account that had been held with Ausfund for over 12 years. Warren Fawcett, manager at Ausfund, said the account was around $90,000 when it was received, but had grown substantially due to the fund’s strong performance. He said the address of the member had been known for some time, and the fund had been in contact, but no response had been received until now. “Some are happy to leave their money in Ausfund until they decide what to do with it,” he said. While the vast majority of Ausfund members belong to industry superannuation funds, the large balances come mostly from corporate super funds. “Many people move corporations without leaving instructions for their superannuation,” Fawcett said. Following the collapse of Ansett Australia, for example, hundreds of accounts with no instructions (and some quite substantial balances), suddenly came under the management of Ausfund, he said. Ausfund currently has 1.8 million members.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
