Assure master trust to close
THE Assure master trust is set to close afterAXAannounced it will consolidate all of its platforms intoSummitas part of its single-platform strategy.
Summit general manger Annette King confirmed its operation of the Assure platform will cease when the $500 million ofMonitor Moneyfunds under advice have been transferred to Summit, which is due to take place by the end of next month.
This will result in the loss of 70 staff in Sydney, but King says there will be more jobs created in Melbourne as Summit expands.
The transfer of funds from Monitor Money to Summit was flagged in November last year with King saying Assure will remain within the AXA group given its sizeable client base.
However that has since dropped away with the five groups using the Assure platform in the middle of last year —Chifley, Monitor Money,Symetry,NetwealthandHillross— moving away from the platform.
The most recent of these was Symetry, which withdrew its funds from Assure last week by mutual agreement. This follows on fromMerrill Lynch’s withdrawal from Summit and news that theIPACplatform will also be merged into Summit during the next 12 months.
“The moves were connected with profitability and gaining scale. We have developed a single-platform strategy and this has resulted in the consolidation of the number of the platforms held by AXA,” King says.
King says the reason behind consolidation was profitability and operating smaller platforms was not economic. With the departure of Symetry from Assure, the platform would have been left with about $500 million of funds under advice.
The withdrawal of Merrill Lynch was due to the company closing its retail products in Australia. This led to a $187 million outflow from Summit.
“The minimum of funds under advice a platform needs to have to survive is about $5 billion and Summit now has $16 billion, including IPAC.”
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