13 July 2011

• Perpetual Monthly Income and Mortgage Funds – open for new and additional investments. Distributions continue unaffected. Update on June quarter withdrawal process. More
• WealthFocus Investment Funds, Super Plan, Pension Plan – applications not being accepted and quarterly withdrawal process for four funds/options. Distributions continue unaffected. Update on June quarter withdrawal process. More

Beware of unsolicited offers to purchase your investments

Over past months investors in the Perpetual Monthly Income Fund, Perpetual Wholesale Monthly Income Fund and Perpetual WealthFocus Investment Funds - Perpetual Mortgage Fund have received unsolicited offers to purchase their units for substantially less than their current value. These offers were made by Direct Share Purchasing Corporation whose sole director and company secretary is David Tweed.

Please beware of any unsolicited offers to purchase your investments and scrutinise such offers very carefully before accepting them. If you receive such an offer we urge you to obtain financial advice and/or legal advice.

What is the status of our mortgage funds?

In late 2008, Perpetual, along with a number of other mortgage fund managers, changed withdrawal and/or application processes to manage withdrawals in an orderly way and ensure that fund assets are managed in the interests of all investors.

The changes were made to protect the interests of investors, following the introduction of the Federal Government’s bank deposit guarantee in October 2008, which resulted in a marked increase in withdrawals in mortgage funds across the industry. We have implemented quarterly withdrawal processes for our monthly income and mortgage funds to better reflect the liquidity of the underlying assets.

Hardship claims to access mortgage funds

Perpetual has received special relief from the regulator to allow us to pay withdrawals for mortgage funds with restricted withdrawals in certain cases of hardship.

Criteria for investment funds

The following case of hardship apply for investment funds:

• severe financial hardship
• unemployed for at least three months
• medical costs
• accommodation or transport modifications
• funeral and related expenses
• care for the terminally ill
• home mortgage foreclosure
• binding financial obligation made prior to suspension
• permanent incapacity
• other compassionate grounds
• investor is deceased and beneficiary of the estate is suffering from one of the above grounds of hardship

The specific criteria to meet these hardship conditions of release are detailed in the  statutory declaration that you will need to complete in order to be considered.

Our handling of your personal information will be administered in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Criteria for superannuation funds

In the first instance, members of superannuation funds will need to meet one of the following conditions of release under superannuation law and provide evidence to be eligible:

• terminal medical condition
• permanent incapacity
• severe financial hardship
• compassionate grounds

Please contact us for details of the specific criteria to meet these hardship conditions of release.

How to make a hardship claim

Investment funds
You must complete the statutory declaration and submit relevant supporting documentation. To make a claim you must have exhausted all other means of accessing funds to meet your needs including, realising other liquid assets, applying for financial hardship through your superannuation fund and applying to Centrelink for assistance.

Superannuation funds
Please contact us for details of the forms you need to complete and supporting documentation you need to submit. To make a claim you must have exhausted all other means of accessing funds to meet your needs including realising other liquid assets and applying to Centrelink for assistance.

Our handling of your personal information will be administered in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

How claims are processed
1. We will consider hardship claims on a case by case basis according to the ASIC hardship criteria.
2. The maximum payment allowed by ASIC is $100,000 per calendar year (for investment funds). We will pay a lesser amount if we determine that the hardship being experienced can be addressed by a lesser amount.
3. You can only make four hardship claims each calendar year as an investor in a mortgage fund (for investment funds), or where you are a beneficiary of a deceased estate invested in a mortgage fund (for investment funds) and you meet the hardship criteria. This is subject to the overall cap of $100,000 per calendar year.
4. We will process claims as they are received. However, to enable us to manage the cash available for all hardship claims, we will only make payments twice weekly.
5. You can still participate in the quarterly withdrawal process for your mortgage fund while your claim is being assessed.

Payment amounts for Perpetual mortgage funds
Whether we can make a hardship payment will depend on the amount of cash available in the mortgage fund. Therefore, we cannot guarantee to make a hardship payment even if your hardship claim is approved.

Payments for WealthFocus underlying funds
Investing in a fund or investment option through the WealthFocus platform means you are investing in a fund, which in turn invests in an underlying fund. Our ability to pay a hardship claim will be based on the underlying fund’s ability to provide hardship payments. Where hardship payments are not made available from an underlying fund, any cash received by us through the underlying fund’s withdrawal process, will be paid for hardship claims prior to any payment to other investors.