AMP’s takeover of the AXA Group has left both fund managers’ customers more likely to switch their superannuation to another manager than the industry average.
According to analysis by Roy Morgan Research, the two heavyweights had the highest proportion of its products reported as being “very likely” to switch fund manager in the next 12 months with 7.7 per cent and 7.5 percent respectively, which is above the industry average of 5.1 per cent.
This may be related to the merger of the two firms in the first half of 2011, with members weighing up their options in regards to switching their super.
The least likely to switch were self managed funds, with only 1.9 per cent considering it “very likely” that they would do so.
“Industry funds represent 42.1 per cent of the superannuation products that are ‘very likely’ to be switched in the next 12 months, which indicates that the high level of churn experienced in the last 12 months is likely to continue into the future,” the research predicted.
“Also of note is that while AMP has the highest proportion of products ‘very likely’ to switch, they are also the largest retail source of future switched products with 8.4 per cent of the total.”
Of the major funds, the AXA Group has the highest proportion of members “very likely” to switch, with 7.7 per cent of products rated as “very likely” to switch in the next 12 months.
The Roy Morgan survey found that this was likely due to members reviewing their holdings in light of the AMP takeover.
The decrease of products “very likely” to switch at AXA has gone from 10.0 per cent to 6.2 per cent, which suggests that the high results were largely relevant at the time of the takeover, but may now be falling as members accept AMP as the new owner of their respective products.
Roy Morgan Research said it had chosen to continue to treat AXA and AMP as two separate entities for research purposes as, while AMP has completed the purchase, integration of the businesses is still in its infancy and has not had any direct impact on consumers or how they perceive the brands.
For more information on the report, click here.
