Goldman Sachs & JBWere Superannuation Fund

Goldman Sachs & JBWere Superannuation Fund

Established around 2000, the fund originated as the employer-sponsored superannuation scheme for Goldman Sachs Australia Services Pty Ltd and JBWere Limited, the Melbourne-based wealth manager. JBWere's subsequent acquisition by National Australia Bank expanded eligibility to NAB employees within the JBWere business. The fund was structured as a not-for-profit entity with BEST Superannuation as its trustee and Goldman Sachs Australia Services as the principal employer. During its operational life, the portfolio was managed under a diversified multi-asset mandate spanning Australian and global equities, fixed income, property, and cash equivalents. The trust deed permitted exposure to both direct real estate holdings and pooled investment structures. In its final phase, the fund undertook a liability-management program: defined benefit members were transferred to a Challenger-managed retirement product in 2024, clearing the path for the residual accumulation members to be folded into the Mercer Super Trust in June 2025. The fund never publicly disclosed its total member assets or headcount, though its association with two premier financial-services employers — Goldman Sachs and JBWere — implied a membership base concentrated in high-income, investment-literate professionals. The trustee, BEST Superannuation, is a boutique provider of fiduciary services to corporate superannuation plans in Australia. The fund maintained signatory status with the UN Principles for Responsible Investment since 2009, reflecting an early commitment to ESG integration within its investment approach. The critical structural fact is its orderly dissolution. Rather than operate indefinitely as a sub-scale corporate fund, the trustee executed a sequential exit: first isolating and transferring the defined-benefit obligations, then merging the accumulation pool into a large, open master trust. This two-step dismantling is the cleanest expression of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's long-standing push to consolidate under-performing or sub-scale superannuation vehicles.