Industry superannuation fund Professional Associations Super (PAS) will consolidate its four divisions into one fund and will rebrand to reflect the new structure.
PAS will rationalise its investment options and create a single MySuper product for the consolidated fund.
The $2-billion fund currently has four divisions: RecruitmentSuper, which is by far the largest fund, Accountants Super, Australian Enterprise Super, and a pension division, Smart Pension, which all sit under the trustee, PAS Limited (PASL).
"RecruitmentSuper is certainly the main part of our product offering, but the four funds that exist under PASL - as part of moving towards the new product under MySuper - we will be badging as one fund," PAS chairman Ross Fisher told Investor Weekly.
"In fact, we are repositioning the fund to present one brand name. Obviously, we will have both types of products: the MySuper product and the option (choice) product under the one banner.
"It will operate under a unified brand."
The new brand would replace the existing brands, he said.
"PASL will stay as the trustee, but the brand will be a new name with a new theme and it will accommodate Australian Enterprise Super, RecruitmentSuper and Accountants Super," he said.
Under the move, the fund will cut the number of investment options it currently offers in the separate divisions.
"There will be rationalisation of investment options so that there is a standardisation under the brand," Fisher said.
"A number of things will occur as a result of that; of course, cost will be reduced.
"There will be reduction of the number of PDSs (product disclosure statements) and compliance documents that you need to have."
The restructuring of the fund could also see a reduction in staffing levels, he said, but that might take place over several years.
"It will have some impact," he said.
"Whilst there might be some short-term changes - 18 months-type changes - there will be other changes that we won't fully see the impact of possibly for five or six years."
RecruitmentSuper celebrates its 20-year anniversary this year. It was established in 1992 by the National Association of Personnel Consultants.
Fisher said he was optimistic about the future of the fund, but the nature of its client base left it relatively more exposed to the government's proposed auto-consolidation requirements.
"We tend to attract a lot of people who are entering the workforce and in many cases they take a series of temporary jobs as part of their progress into more permanent jobs," he said.
"So, we tend to get people who tend to be at the beginning of their superannuation journey, so it can take them 12 to 18 months before they get up to $1000."
But he said the impact would not exceed 10 per cent of its membership.
"We have done a fair bit of modelling already in relation to what is likely to happen and we think that the initial transfers - those being the inactive and under $1000 - that will have an impact, but the impact is not huge. It is under 10 per cent," he said.
"And it will be both ways: there will be some that stay and some that we'll lose. That will soften the impact.
"We believe it is manageable."
