Being able to afford to do things in the future, whatever they may be, means having a plan to put money aside now and make it grow. You want to save as fast as possible, yet you want it to be as easy as possible.
AMP’s New Zealand Retirement Trust (NZRT) is a flexible, portable and affordable way for employees to do this. It's not surprising more employees support NZRT than any other employer sponsored super scheme in New Zealand.
Why NZRT ?
The New Zealand Retirement Trust is an innovative retirement scheme to help your staff plan for their retirement.
The NZRT is New Zealand's largest multi-employer superannuation Master Trust. Currently the NZRT has over 29,000 members and approximately $950 million in assets managed for over 760 employers.
The main features of this scheme include:
Investment Options
There are nine investment options available from five different investment managers (AMP, ASB, ING, BT and TOWER). These funds have different levels of investment risk – conservative, moderately conservative, balanced or aggressive – depending on how much risk the employee wants to take. Investment options are very flexible and can be spread amongst any or all of these managers.
Lifesteps Investment Programme
AMP has developed a new investment option within the New Zealand Retirement Trust that helps to manage retirement savings.
This investment option is called Lifesteps. It provides the simplicity of a single investment choice with the flexibility of an investment that changes over time. Investment risk reduces automatically as you get older, so members don’t need to continually reassess their investment strategy.
Portability
Membership can continue under the NZRT even when members leave employment. They don’t need to withdraw their money and set up a new individual arrangement. This lets a new employee choose a long-term strategy, regardless of how long they’ll be in the job.
Ease of Administration
The plan is structured to keep administration needed by the employer to a minimum. Generally the employer only needs to forward contributions to AMP regularly (or in-line with pay days) and send a schedule detailing each member’s contributions.
Salary sacrifice
Contributions by employers to superannuation funds for the benefit of their employees are generally subject to specified superannuation contribution withholding tax (SSCWT) at a flat rate of 33%. This gives higher income earners the opportunity to reduce the impact of tax by investing in a superannuation scheme through employer contributions.
To achieve this tax saving, contributions are made through a 'salary sacrifice' process. Salary sacrifice means that the individual agrees to a reduction in salary for future work periods, and the employer agrees to contribute equivalent gross amounts to a registered superannuation scheme like the NZRT.
Competitive fee structure
By spreading the fees across 29,000 employees participating in the NZRT, AMP has been able to maintain an extremely competitive product.
For a copy of the New Zealand Retirement Trust Investment Statement, visit the NZRT webpage (and go to 'Reports').
Want to know more? Contact Us for more information about how company superannuation could help you and your employees.
A disclosure statement is available on request and free of charge.