Professional Associations Super has grown by 36 per cent in the past two years to reach $1.7 billion in funds under management (FUM) in February, with the industry fund flagging plans to hit $3 billion by 2012.
The superannuation fund attributes the growth spurt to strong investment returns, efficiencies that have minimised investment fees as well as a strong employment market through its RecruitmentSuper division, which services the direct employees and temporary staff of many recruitment agencies.
Professional Associations Super chief executive Megan Bolton said the fund had focused strongly on member experience and investment performance during the past two years.
“It’s not just about gaining new members, but ensuring our members are making the active choice to stay with us,” Bolton said.
“Retention and consolidation results indicate that members are responding positively to fund improvements and are rewarding us with their loyalty. This has been an important part of our recent growth and will continue to be a focus going forward.
“Working with our management group, eo Financial Services, we redesigned each brand’s websites, overhauled the quality of member communications and invested in research to understand member preferences.”
She said there was also focus on the fund’s investment strategy, appointing a chief investment officer, Paul Kessell, adopting a responsible investing framework and reviewing all its fund managers.
“We’re seeing great investment performance, more members joining and greater member retention,” she said.
While she said the growth of the fund to date had been organic, she did not rule out further expansion through potential merger and acquisition activity.
“We’ve put a lot of time and resources into creating a fund structure that delivers strong returns, but also low costs for members, and our growth suggests we’re getting that balancing act right,” she said.
“It now makes sense to look at how we can build on that success and achieve our growth target of $3 billion by 2012. Consolidation is clearly an option and one that could bring greater scale and efficiency.”
