Mercer SmartPath MySuper Annual Outcomes Assessment
Each year Mercer Super is required to assess our performance against other super funds and determine whether our products promote the financial interests of our members.
The annual assessment is split into two stages. The Trustee has decided to place equal weighting on both assessment stages when making its determination. When carrying out our assessment, we consider a number of factors including:
- investment options
- investment performance
- costs and fees
- insurance options and fees
- overall size and scale of our fund
| Factor | Rating |
|---|---|
Investment returns  |
Members’ financial interests are mostly promoted. Investment returns, after deduction of all fees, costs and taxes, are above average over 1, 3 and 5 years for the majority of members compared to other super funds. However, some members have received lower returns where we have designed investments to be less volatile. |
Investment risk
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Consistent with the Mercer SmartPath investment strategy, the level of investment risk is higher relative to other MySuper products for younger members and lower for older members. |
Fees  |
Further improvement is required to ensure members’ financial interests are promoted. Whilst investment returns, after deduction of all fees, costs and taxes, are above average compared to other super funds over 1, 3 and 5 years for the majority of members, fees for members who joined Mercer SmartPath as an individual were in the most expensive group compared to all MySuper products at 30 June 2020. So we’ve taken action to improve this outcome by reducing total administration and investment fees by around 0.24% for members on the highest fee level. In addition, members who joined Mercer SmartPath via their employer often receive a discount due to their size and have fees that are lower than the standard fees. |
Stage 2
| Factor | Rating |
|---|---|
Options, benefits and facilities
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Member services rated top 3 in 2020 by Chant West compared to all other retail and industry funds. Overall Net Promoter Score of +13 compared with the industry average of -10. |
Investment strategy
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Annual review of investments completed and small adjustments made to the investment strategy to improve member outcomes. Overall, the investment strategy was concluded to be appropriate. |
Insurance strategy
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. We compared our insurance design to our competitors and found our insurance strategy supports member needs. |
Insurance Fees
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. The majority of members are expected to have insurance fee (premiums) less than 1% of salary which will better ensure insurance fees do not inappropriately erode the retirement income of members. |
Scale
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Scale has been obtained given the product forms part of the Mercer Super Trust. This allows access to significant staffing levels, bargaining power and risk pooling. |
Operating cost
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Outsourced service providers have contracts negotiated regularly and benchmarked to other potential providers. Latest benchmarking concluded that all providers met the market standards on pricing, service levels and quality for funds similar to the Mercer Super Trust. |
Fee structure
|
Members’ financial interests are promoted. Fees charged to members are directly linked to underlying investment costs and outsourced service providers costs. |
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