Victoria-based superannuation funds Catholic Super and National Catholic Superannuation Fund (NCSF) have signed a heads of agreement that will lead to a merger by early next year.
Prior to the completion of the merger, which is expected to take place on 31 March 2010, both public offer funds will conduct reviews on all service providers, Catholic Super chief executive Frank Pegan told InvestorDaily.
"Since Catholic Super is the successor fund, we've undertaken as part of the merger to review all service providers," he said.
"Our intent is that the majority of providers that Catholic Super currently uses will be reappointed, or will remain in place."
While Catholic Super and NCSF both use the same custodian, National Custodian Services, the funds will carry out a due diligence process into their separate insurance providers, Pegan said.
"We use different insurers - we've just appointed new insurer Tower - and NCSF has a different insurer to us. So we're going to go through a process to make sure their members can get equivalent rights under our insurance arrangement," he said.
"So we're going to go through a due diligence process, but the intention is that since we're the successor fund we end up appointing a majority of the providers after due process."
The merged fund will have around 73,000 members, $3 billion of funds under management and a presence in every state and territory, Pegan said.
"The aim of the merged fund will be to try and provide the best investment superannuation services and financial services to our members at an effective price," he said.
