Unit Prices and How They Work

Your investment in AvSuper’s accumulation and/or income stream divisions is unitised.

You can see how many units you have in each investment option by logging into AvSuper Online (AOL) or reviewing your annual member statement. The degree of fluctuation in unit prices for your super will depend on the investment option(s) you select and each option’s investment performance.

What is unitisation?

Unitisation is similar to buying and selling company shares or stocks, with unit prices (or the value of your investment) changing in value frequently. Each unit has a price that can vary each time it is declared.

You are allocated a number of units depending on your account balance and your chosen investment option(s). Units are allocated to you each time we receive a contribution for you, or if you rollover money from another super fund. Your unit holding reduces when you make a withdrawal, leave AvSuper or when we deduct fees, taxes and insurance premiums from your account.

Unit prices rise and fall depending on your investment option and the performance of the investments. Unit prices are based on the value of the investment option’s assets minus any liabilities divided by the number of units held by investors in that option.

An allocation (buying price) applies when we receive your contributions and rollovers, and a selling price applies when you withdraw from your account. For members, the buying and selling price for units is the same each day as AvSuper doesn’t currently charge a buy-sell spread.

How does AvSuper unitisation work?

AvSuper’s unit prices are set daily (it was weekly prior to 30 November 2020) and apply from the close of business each business day, generally being posted to the unit prices chart the following business day.

When money moves in or out of your account, it will be converted to units based on the unit price set on the previous business day. Therefore, even regular contributions will probably convert to a different number of units each time.

The value of your account is calculated by multiplying the number of units you hold by the unit price. The number of units that each contribution buys or each deduction sells is calculated by dividing the amount of the contribution or deduction by the unit price.

How is the unit price calculated?

The unit price for each Investment Option is calculated daily using asset values, an estimate of fees and, where applicable, tax. Unit prices will move up and down depending on investment returns.

Step 1 At the end of each day, we value all the assets in each investment option.
Step 2 We then deduct fees, such as administration and investment manager fees and tax on earnings to devise a net asset value for each investment option for that day.
Step 3 The net asset value of each investment option is divided by the number of units issued for that investment option to declare the unit price.
Step 4 The number of units allocated to your account is multiplied by the daily unit price to determine the current value of your account with AvSuper.

You can find current and historical unit price information on our website for each of our investment options.

The process is the same for super and income stream investment options, but the prices vary because they have different fees and generally income stream investment earnings are not taxed.

The AvSuper Trustee, together with our external investment advisers, regularly reviews the medium and long term outlook for all of the Fund’s investments and the impact on each of our investment options.

Latest declared price

It is important to know that your account balance in AOL is calculated using the latest declared unit price rather than that day’s unit price.  It generally takes one business day to receive the day’s transactions and valuation information from all our investment managers, verify and collate all this data for each investment option, and then to calculate and declare the unit price.

It is also important to know that each investment option has its own unique unit price.  For example, if you and Fred both invest 40,000 units, but your money is in the Growth option and Fred’s invested in the Cash option, their values will be different as higher investment earnings may be experienced in the Growth option. At a given point, yours may be worth $41,600 (40,000 x $1.04) whereas Fred units are valued at $40,100 (40,000 x $1.0025).

Unit price restrictions

The Trustee may suspend transactions due to extreme or sudden material market movements, or where the risk of material arbitrage is identified. Suspending unit pricing and the processing of transactions during extreme market movements ensures that members are not unfairly advantaged (or disadvantaged) by redeeming (or purchasing) units at artificially high (or low) unit prices.

Email: avsinfo@avsuper.com.au  |  Local call: 1300 128 751  |  Phone: 02 6109 6888  |  www.avsuper.com.au

This information is of a general nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives, situation or needs. Before making a decision about AvSuper, you should consider your own requirements and the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and Target Market Determination (TMD). For a copy call us or visit the AvSuper website, www.avsuper.com.au. AvSuper Pty Ltd (ABN 46 050 431 797, AFSL 239078) is the Trustee of the AvSuper Fund (ABN 84 421 446 069). FS3000.5 02.2021