With around $8 billion of assets and nearly 30,000 members, the APSS is a large and healthy super fund. However, because the APSS is closed to new employee members, its assets and membership will naturally reduce over time as members draw down their super. So now is the right time to ensure that your APSS benefits continue to be managed on a strong and sustainable foundation long term. 

The decision to merge with Australian Retirement Trust is based purely and simply on our goal to support better retirement outcomes for members. We believe that merging with a like-minded and growing superannuation fund like Australian Retirement Trust will give APSS members access to more choices, services and support to achieve their own retirement goals, while continuing their existing APSS benefits on a strong and sustainable foundation. 

You do not need to open an account with Australian Retirement Trust yourself. When your benefit transfers on 30 April 2022, which will be automatic, this will establish your new Australian Retirement Trust account without you having to do anything.

Once your new account within Australian Retirement Trust has been created for you, you may then wish to change some arrangements (e.g. switch investment options, change a beneficiary or make a new binding nomination) but that will be your choice. To make a new binding nomination, you need to lodge a new binding nomination form with Australian Retirement Trust. Refer to the FAQ below on 'Will my binding beneficiary nomination continue?'.

Merging with a bigger fund will help APSS members in a number of ways, including:

• More investment choices (beyond the four choices you have now).
• Potentially lower administration fees in the long term (for non-employee members, as Australia Post pays these fees for employee members).
• Ability to have super contributions from other non-Australia Post employers or a future employer going into the same fund.
• Potential for greater ease of transacting and changing personal details, leveraging new online technology and capabilities.
• Wider and more flexible insurance options.
• Access to a wider range of in-person and online seminars and advice, and calculators to plan and manage your personal retirement strategy.

At the same time, your existing APSS benefits will be protected:

• APSS Defined Benefits will continue, using the same APSS defined benefit formula , with Australia Post continuing to support them at no cost to employee members.
• APSS Member Savings, Rollover, Spouse, and Pension accounts will simply transfer to Australian Retirement Trust to operate in much the same way as they do now, with total flexibility to change those arrangements at any time as required.

You will have a new member number that will be issued to you by Australian Retirement Trust along with instructions on how to log into your new Member Online account.

The Trustee Board of Australian Retirement Trust will look after your super and protect your best interests from 30 April 2020.

The Trustee Board of Australian Retirement Trust will have:

• 6 Member Representative Directors;
• 5 Employer Appointed Directors; and
• 2 Independent Directors.*

*The Board will initially include two Independent Directors and move to three Independent Directors within four years of the merger.

In comparison, the APSS Trustee has three Member Representative Directors, three Employer Representative Directors and one Independent Director.

It’s important to note that under our laws, anyone who has the privilege and responsibility of being on a trustee board must always act in all members’ best interests, regardless of which organisation nominated or appointred them.

Because Australia Post will be a major employer participant in Australian Retirement Trust, a committee will also be formed to monitor and evaluate the APSS Plan in Australian Retirement Trust.  We anticipate that this committee will have both Australia Post and union representatives, so that if you are a member of the CEPU or CPSU, your union will continue to have good visibility of the super fund you are in.

The merger will proceed under what is known as a ‘Successor Fund Transfer’ (SFT). An SFT allows a trustee to legally transfer members, beneficiaries and their benefits, without their consent, from one regulated superannuation fund to another where certain strict legal requirements are met. In particular, the trustees of both the transferring fund (i.e. APSS) and the receiving fund (i.e. Australian Retirement Trust) must be:

• satisfied that the transferring member’s rights to benefits upon transfer are on an overall basis at least equivalent to those offered in the current fund in respect of the benefits; and
• of the opinion that the transfer will be in the best financial interests of members of both funds when considered as a whole.

Subject to finalising all legal and administrative requirements, it is expected that the transfer will occur on 30 April 2022 but, if this date changes, you will be sent an updated notice.

• Your APSS defined benefits will continue under what’s called a 'successor fund transfer'. This means that by law, you receive equivalent rights to your super benefits in the merged fund as you had before the merger, and APSS Defined Benefits will be maintained in the merged fund on equivalent terms as those applying in the APSS today. The formula used to calculate your defined benefit will be the same after transfer as it is currently, so the amount of your defined benefit will not change at the date of transfer.
   
• Employee members will be transferred to a dedicated Australia Post division of the merged fund (the APSS Plan) to manage your defined benefits. Death/TPD cover would also continue as before at no cost to you. 
   
• Employee Member Savings accounts associated with APSS Defined Benefits will also transfer across to comparable investment options in the merged fund, with members also able to select other investment options from a wider range of choices at any time. 
   
• Read your Significant Event Notice for more information.

If you are an employee member of the APSS and you have an APSS Member Savings account, the balance of that account will transfer to an Additional accumulation account in the APSS Plan within Australian Retirement Trust. If you are an employee member with an APSS Rollover account, the balance of that account will also transfer to and be merged with your new Additional accumulation account.

Like your Member Savings account in APSS, your Additional accumulation account will enable you to continue accumulating super  in addition to accruing your defined benefit (i.e. it's labelled 'Additional' because it is in addition to your APSS Defined Benefit, which continues to accrue based on the same formula that applies now).

If you'fre a non-employee member with a Rollover or Spouse account, then your new account in Australian Retirement Trust will simply be an Accumulation account because it won't be additional to a defined benefit.

A relatively small number of Employee Members have one or more ‘offset accounts’ in the APSS. Check your last APSS benefit statement to see if you have one.

An offset account is created if you have accessed some of your defined benefit entitlement early, for example, to start a transition to retirement pension, because of financial hardship or as part of the COVID-19 early release scheme in 2020.

If you have more than one type of offset account in the APSS, on transfer, they will be combined into a single offset account within the APSS Plan in Australian Retirement Trust, as explained on page 16 of your Significant Event Notice .

If you also have an APSS Member Savings account and one or more offset account(s), your APSS Member Savings will be used to reduce your offset account balance at transfer date.

If you have any APSS Member Savings as at the transfer date, as well as one or more offset accounts, your APSS Member Savings will automatically be used to reduce the balance of your new, combined Australian Retirement Trust offset account. For example, suppose you have $20,000 in an APSS Member Savings account and a $15,000 offset account balance. In this case, $15,000 will be automatically transferred from your APSS Member Savings account to your offset account balance to reduce it to $0 at the transfer date. That will then leave you with $5,000 of APSS Member Savings in your new Additional accumulation account in the APSS Plan within Australian Retirement Trust. This means your offset account balance will be closed.

Important! If you do not want any Member Savings you have to be used to automatically reduce your offset account balance(s), be sure to read the Transfer guide that Australian Retirement Trust will issue, which includes more information. you will need to make sure that you email  Australian Retirement Trust before the transfer to 'opt out' of this automatic reduction of Member Savings and offset accounts, or call them on the 1800 652 643 transition hotline.

If you are ceasing your employment with Australia Post or an Associated Employer between now and the merger date of 30 April 2022, please read pages 24-25 of your Significant Event Notice .

The deadlines to provide your benefit payment instructions to the APSS after ceasing your employment are:

• 5pm; 18 April 2022 to open a new APSS Pension account (if eligible).
• 5pm; 22 April 2022 for all other benefit payment instructions.

If you receive the paperwork to provide your benefit payment instructions to the APSS before these deadlines, please do so immediately. This should minimise any delays with your transaction during the temporary limited service period from mid-April to mid-May 2022 while we finalise the accurate and careful transfer of member records and benefits to Australian Retirement Trust. 

If you cannot meet these deadlines, don't worry. Your paperwork will be automatically forwarded to the Australian Retirement Trust and you will receive information directly from Australian Retirement Trust about how to access your benefit and the member services available to assist you. Your instructions can then be progressed by around mid May. 

• If you have a Rollover, Spouse or Pension account in the APSS at the time of the merger, it will be transferred to the Australian Retirement Trust to operate in much the same way as it currently does, with flexibility to change those arrangements if you choose. 
   
• Comparable investment options in the Australian Retirement Trust will be identified for each of the APSS investment option(s) you are invested in at the time of the merger.  
   
• If you have insurance through your Rollover or Spouse account, you will continue to be insured in Australian Retirement Trust. 
   
• Read the relevant Significant Event Notice for Rollover & Spouse and/or Pension members for more details.

APSS Pension accounts migrate to new Australian Retirement Trust Income accounts (i.e. a Super Savings - Retirement income account or, if using your APSS Pension to transition to retirement, a Super Savings - Transition to retirement income account with Australian Retirement Trust).

Please read your Significant Event Notice for all the details.

APSS Pension payments that are due in April will be paid on Friday 22 April ahead of the ANZAC Day public holiday on 25 April 2022. 

Following 22 April, the next payment due will be paid to your same bank account via your Australian Retirement Trust Income account.

If your payments are currently made twice per month, the 22 April payment will be a double payment (i.e. the 22 April payment plus the payment that would have otherwise been paid on 11 May if this merger was not happening at this time). Your first income payment after 22 April from your new Australian Retirement Trust Income account will be made on 18 May, then fortnightly after that (i.e. on every second Wednesday). 

Refer to your Significant Event Notice for more information.

Australian Retirement Trust will issue you a new Centrelink Schedule that will include the new Customer Reference Number (CRN) and will provide instructions on anything you need to do.

If you are receiving Centrelink benefits, you will need to provide this new Centrelink Schedule to Services Australia (Centrelink) to advise them of the change in CRN. Centrelink will then request electronic information from Australian Retirement Trust going forward.

If you are not receiving Centrelink benefits, you may still wish to advise Services Australia (Centrelink) of the new CRN that will be coming your way from Australian Retirement Trust. 

Investment performance comparisons over 3, 5 and 10 years to 31 December 2021 can be found in your Significant Event Notice   but please remember that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

Remember that no fees whatsoever apply to defined benefits!  

Fees on member savings  
There are two types of fees - the fees charged by the fund itself to cover administration costs and the fees and costs that the fund itself pays to invest your member savings.

• Administration fees: For APSS members who are employed by Australia Post or one of its Associated Employers, Australia Post covers the cost of admionistration and will continue to cover them in Australian Retirement Trust. This means, just like now, there will be no administration fees charged to employee members when transferred to Australian Retirement Trust.

For other (non-employee) APSS members, the administration fees are currently just about the same between the APSS and Australian Retirement Trust but  Australian Retirement Trust is set to reduce its administration fees from 1 July 2022, whereas the APSS may have had to increase fees per member to cover costs if we continued to go it alone.

• Investment fees/costs: These are fees that a super fund pays to its external investment managers, brokers and other financial service providers to buy and sell assets and manage investment portfolios. Generally, Australian Retirement Trust has lower investment costs than the APSS, because it is a bigger fund and can pass on economies of scale to members. The investment cost to you depends on which investment option you are in and the asset mix in that option but remember, those costs have already been deducted before you receive your investment return. Your returns are therefore net of all investment costs.

Download your 4 March 2022 Significant Event Notice for a detailed comparison of fees and costs.

There are more than enough assets in the APSS to pay the total of all benefits if every member took their money out today. Although this isn’t going to happen, it is a good way to measure the financial health of a defined benefit fund. Our surplus is a strong indicator that the APSS is in good financial shape. This provides comfort to both the your Trustee, as the guardians of your benefits, and also to Australia Post, which contributes the money that pays for APSS defined benefits.   

The surplus funds that exist in the APSS today will go across to Australian Retirement Trust in the merger but they will be held separately within the APSS Plan in Australian Retirement Trust. That means the surplus will be kept exclusively to pay APSS defined benefits. Since your defined benefits will continue to grow in future, the surplus funds will go towards covering that growth, together with the future contributions that Australia Post will continue to make for defined benefit members.
 

Binding beneficiary nominations will be reset to ‘preferred’ on 30 April, which means you will need to make a new binding nomination if you already have one, noting that non-lapsing binding Death Benefit nominations are not currently available in Australian Retirement Trust. That means your binding nominations will need to be re-confirmed or updated every three years in Australian Retirement Trust.

Additional contributions can only be split with your spouse by the super fund that actually received the contributions. If you intend to split any of your super contributions made during 2020-21 and/or from 1 July 2021 into your spouse’s account, call 1300 360 373 before 22 April 2022.

You will have to ensure the correct paperwork has been completed and submitted before 5pm on 22 April 2022. If your complete and correct paperwork has not been received by this time, your opportunity will be lost to split contributions for the 2020-21 financial year and/or the 1 July 2021 to 29 April 2022 period.

After transfer, once full processing resumes in Australian Retirement Trust, you will be able to contact Australian Retirement Trust to discuss your contribution splitting options for the remainder of the 2021-22 financial year and beyond.

No, you will need to cancel any direct debit/recurring personal contributions from your bank account to the APSS, such as BPAY, before 30 April, then reset them to direct to your new Australian Retirement Trust account from 2 May 2022.

Superannuation law recognises that a merger between two funds is a decision that a fund trustee can make without asking the permission of every member. The law requires that a merger can only go ahead if members’ benefits are fully protected, equivalent overall and preferably enhanced. That is why we emphasise that APSS benefits will continue in the Australian Retirement Trust, but you will also get the added benefit of more choices and services and, in the long-term, lower costs.

We also conduct regular member surveys of several hundred APSS members. While these surveys don't ask every member, we get a good sense of how members are feeling from such a wide sample. In one of those recent surveys, we asked for specific feedback about the planned merger and the response showed a very high awareness about the merger and that a majority of members were positive or comfortable about the merger.

Australian Retirement Trust is the super fund formed through the merger of Sunsuper (i.e. the fund we started our merger discussions with), and QSuper. 

On 6 December 2021, Sunsuper and QSuper announced that their merger plan and, on 28 February 2022, Sunsuper and QSuper formally  merged to become Australian Retirement Trust.

Suncorp is a separate financial services group. There was never any connection between it and Sunsuper, and it has no involvement in our merger with Australian Retirement Trust.