The Australian Retirement Fund, also know as ART, is a superannuation fund firm, founded recently in 2022, and located in Brisbane, Queensland. Born from the largest merger in the industry in history, between QSuper and Sunsuper, the firm has grown to manage close to $300 bn in assets, and has 2.3 million members.

In Australia, superannuation is similar to pension funds you see across the rest of the globe, where you are required to put 11.5% of your income into a fund to access when you retire (this will be increasing to 12% as of 1 July 2025). Nicknamed ‘super,’ this is invested to aim to grow the money you’re saving for retirement, hence you can choose different firms to manage your super. There are a lot of firms in the industry, including Aware Super, AustralianSuper, and more. These firms can appeal to consumers in different markets, like UniSuper, which is for employees in the education and research sector, or Qantas Super, which was for employees and their families of the aviation firm Qantas.

ART has recently announced a merger with Qantas Super, gaining $9 billion in assets, adding to the number of mergers already accessed by ART in the past year – $19 billion worth of mergers (https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/boss-of-260bn-super-giant-steps-down-after-historic-merger/news-story/b2b5468f352881d414b6d817a96a861d). This will also grow ART’s members by 26,000 from Qantas Super, further demonstrating their strength in the market as “trustees and corporate Australia are choosing [ART],” spoken by ART chairman Andrew Fraser.

Given Qantas Super was one of the best performing firms for returns on investment the past year, at 10.1% for the fiscal months of 2024, the merger holds many benefits for ART, and promise for its future.

Seeing as ART won the Corporate Solutions Fund of the Year 2024 at Chant West’s fund awards, whilst being finalists for Super Fund and Pension 2024, the growth and merger for the firm will allow it to develop more, and see more dominance within the industry.

Summary

• Superannuation in Australia is a compulsory percentage of income from working Australians that enters a pension fund, only to be accessed at retirement
• Australian Retirement Fund, ART, with close to $300 bn in assets, has merged with Qantas Super, $9 bn.