AXA Investment Management has launched a new equity fund product that aims to address the increasing life expectancy and, thus, longer retirement phase among Australians.

The Global SmartBeta Equity pooled fund provides long-term investors with a diversified way to achieve improved equity market returns by capitalising on market inefficiencies and avoiding the drawbacks of indexing, the firm said in a statement. The SmartBeta product per se was launched in May 2012 and since then has been developed to harvest beta from equity markets and fixed income. 

The launch of the new fund is based on findings from the paper "Thoughts About the Rise in Longevity," which predicts that retirees dissave to maintain their standard of living despite their lower income and switch to less risky assets as their risk appetite reduces, having far-reaching consequences on their retirement savings.

"Longevity is increasing at a pace difficult to apprehend, in many countries, half the babies born today could live 100+ years. As we are living longer superannuation shouldn't just be seen as a drawdown option after retirement age," said Craig Hurt, director for Australia and New Zealand. 

AXA IM currently manages over A$4 billion ($3.8 billion) across its SmartBeta strategies globally.