Australian Retirement Trust

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) is an Australian profit-for-members superannuation fund formed when QSuper and Sunsuper merged on 28 February 2022. It holds and invests retirement savings for members through accumulation and retirement-income products. Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd is the fund’s trustee. The fund reports more than 2.4 million members and approximately A$370 billion in retirement savings. ^[1][2][3]

Formation and predecessors

ART was created through the merger of QSuper and Sunsuper. QSuper traced its origins to 1913 and served Queensland government employees; Sunsuper began in 1987 as a Queensland-based, multi-industry fund. The merger brought the two funds’ members into one superannuation fund, rather than establishing ART as a bank or a government retirement-benefit scheme. ART describes itself as profit-for-members: it does not distribute profits to shareholders. ^[1]

The merger was finalised on 28 February 2022. At that point, ART reported more than two million members and over A$200 billion in funds under management. Those figures describe its size at formation and should not be confused with later measures of its membership and retirement savings. ART identifies Brisbane as its headquarters and has described its operations as having a national presence. ^[1][4]

The merger did not make every member account identical. ART continues to publish separate product disclosure statements for QSuper and Super Savings accounts, including documents for accumulation accounts and retirement-income products. Product terms, available investment choices, fees and insurance arrangements therefore need to be understood by reference to the applicable account and its documents, rather than attributed uniformly to all ART members. ^[5]

Trustee and regulatory setting

Australian Retirement Trust is the fund; Australian Retirement Trust Pty Ltd is the company acting as its trustee. An audited financial-report lodgement identifies the fund’s Australian Business Number as 60 905 115 063 and the trustee’s Australian Company Number as 010 720 840. It also records the trustee’s Australian financial services licence number as 228975. These identifiers distinguish members’ superannuation fund from the legal company responsible for its administration and oversight. ^[3]

As a regulated superannuation institution, ART operates within the framework overseen by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). APRA distinguishes a registrable superannuation entity, such as a regulated fund, from the entity holding the licence to act as its trustee. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) also has a role in the financial-services framework; ART’s financial-report lodgement records the trustee’s Australian financial services licence. These regulatory roles are distinct from the fund’s own decisions about products, investments and member services. ^[3][6]

ART publishes annual reports and consolidated annual financial reports. Its reports page lists material covering financial years from the fund’s formation through 2025–26, together with reports concerning the trustee and a pooled superannuation trust. Annual reporting provides a dated account of operations and financial position. It is a different measure from an undated figure on a fund’s introductory webpage, which may be updated as membership and assets change. ^[7]

Membership and scale

ART’s introductory information reports more than 2.4 million members and around A$370 billion in retirement savings. These are approximate figures reported by the fund, not a fixed amount held for any individual member. The fund’s original merger announcement reported a smaller aggregate size in February 2022; the two sets of figures refer to different points in its history. Changes in a superannuation fund’s aggregate size can reflect investment outcomes, contributions, withdrawals and transfers of members and assets between funds. ^[2][4]

Subsequent transfers have been part of ART’s development. In November 2023, the fund announced that Commonwealth Bank Group Super had merged into ART, describing a A$12.3 billion plan and an expected addition of 63,700 members. In May 2024, ART announced completion of its merger with AvSuper. These announcements document particular completed transactions; they do not mean that all accounts transferred on identical product terms. ^[8][9]

ART and Qantas Super subsequently entered into an agreement concerning a merger. In February 2025, ART announced that the trustees had signed a successor fund transfer deed and said the transfer was scheduled for 29 March 2025. A scheduled transfer date in that announcement should be read as a stated plan, not, by itself, as evidence that the transfer was completed on that date. ^[10]

Accumulation accounts and investments

In an accumulation account, a member’s retirement savings are invested while contributions and investment returns, less applicable taxes, fees, costs and other account deductions, affect the balance. ART offers a default MySuper investment arrangement for eligible Super Savings accumulation accounts and also allows members to choose among investment options. Its published investment menu identifies the Lifecycle Investment Strategy as its default MySuper option and says the strategy changes as a member ages. ART separately states that this strategy is not available to QSuper account holders. ^[11][12]

ART’s investment menu includes diversified options, indexed options and options focused on particular asset classes. The listed choices include Australian and international shares, property, bonds and cash. A diversified option combines different types of assets, while a single-asset-class option gives more direct exposure to the type of asset named. The menu also distinguishes actively managed from indexed options. The presence of an option on the menu does not establish that every member holds it: investment allocation depends on the member’s account and selections, or on the applicable default. ^[11]

The fund’s investment reports provide information on Super Savings options, including returns, holdings, investment managers, geographic allocations and currency exposure. ART also publishes unit prices and performance information. Its explanation of historical returns notes that some series incorporate Sunsuper returns before the 2022 merger and ART returns afterward. That distinction matters when interpreting a performance period longer than ART’s existence under its current name. Published past returns describe historical results, not future outcomes. ^[12][13]

Insurance and retirement income

ART provides insurance arrangements through superannuation accounts. Its published material discusses death cover, total and permanent disability cover and income protection. Death cover can provide a lump-sum benefit following death or, where the conditions are met, terminal illness. Disability and income-protection cover address different circumstances involving an inability to work. The availability and cost of cover depend on the relevant product documents and a member’s circumstances; holding an ART account does not establish that a particular member has every form of cover. ^[5][14][15]

ART also offers products intended to pay income after savings have been accumulated. Its published product documents distinguish accumulation accounts from income accounts and a Lifetime Pension. The fund describes a Retirement Income account as providing regular payments from superannuation savings and its Lifetime Pension as providing payments for life. These are different arrangements: an account-based income stream draws on an invested account balance, whereas the Lifetime Pension is presented as a lifetime-payment product. Applicable conditions and product terms are set out in the relevant disclosure documents. ^[5][16][17]

Place in the superannuation system

ART is one of Australia’s large institutional superannuation funds, but it is not the Australian Taxation Office, a prudential regulator or a deposit-taking bank. It serves members within Australia’s superannuation system by administering accounts, investing pooled retirement savings and offering specified insurance and retirement-income arrangements. Its combination of QSuper and Sunsuper histories, continuing account families and later fund transfers makes the distinction between the institution, its trustee and its individual products particularly important. ^[1][3][5][6]