About two to three small corporate funds have been rolling into Christian Super each week, ahead of its merger with the Australian Baptist Retirement Fund (ABRF) this month.
Christian Super CEO Paul Beckmann says since the announcement of the merger, there’s been a steady stream of interest from Christian organisations and campsites wanting to join the fund, but the approaches are coming from small employers rather than big denominational funds.
Many of these employers previously used other industry funds or master trusts. Many have less than five employees and the largest had 120.
The merger, which took place on April 1, with ABRF will result in a not-for-profit, multi-employer fund for Christian organisations across Australia, called Christian Super, which will have combined members of roughly 11,000 and around $155 million in assets.
Beckmann says the number of members on Christian Super’s board has been increased to 10 to accommodate the merger, but will fall back to eight in 2004. Garry Humphries, Bert Guy and Graeme Mitchell will join the board from ABRF while former Christian Super representative Paul Campey has resigned.
In addition to enhancing the funds insurance offering with an income protection choice, the number of investment options have been increased by three to eight. Christian Super’s fee structure has also changed to a fixed charge of $1.60 a week from being a combination of fixed fee and percentage of assets.
