Spaceship Super to land somewhere new

Seven years on from its launch, Spaceship Super is being merged into a larger offering.

Following a due diligence process, Spaceship's trustee Diversa has chosen to undertake a successor fund transfer that will see Spaceship become a sub-plan of OneSuper.

Spaceship and Diversa said the decision has been made because they are "passionate about delivering strong member outcomes for all Spaceship Super members."

The transfer is to take place on May 17, with Spaceship saying members will see immediate benefits in the form of reduced administration fees and costs. And, while investment fees will increase, the reductions seen elsewhere will ensure members are overall better off.

Currently, members in the GrowthX option are paying administration fees and costs of $78 plus 0.693% per annum. Following the merger, they will pay $78 plus 0.570%. Meanwhile, their investment fees and costs are currently 0.157% and will become 0.237%. Overall, they'll see a total reduction of 0.043%.

Meantime, for the Global Index investment option members, they'll go from paying admin fees and costs of $78 plus 0.577% to $78 plus 0.470%. However, they will begin paying an investment fee of 0.080%. Still, they'll receive an overall reduction in fees of 0.027%.

Spaceship Super was launched in 2017 as a sub-plan of the Tidswell Master Superannuation Plan. At the time, it had a waitlist of roughly 22,000 members that it hoped to convert, estimating this would give it about $1 billion in funds under management.

About seven years later, it's still yet to achieve such numbers. As at December 2023, Spaceship had 21,340 member accounts and $773 million in assets.

The fund it's merging into, OneSuper, has recently received a significant boost when ING's Living Super merged into it, adding $3 billion in funds under management and bringing its total to about $4.5 billion. It also has about 74,000 members now.