One deal in the hand, another in the balance for AAS

Tasplan has committed to becoming the second client of AASpire, the new platform from Australian Administration Services (AAS), as another industry super fund reviews its contract with the administrator.

In September the $1 billion Tasplan will complete its transition from the UltimAAS system to AASpire for a three-year contract, Neil Cassidy, Tasplan chief executive officer, said. “We believe it is prudent to go onto that platform… [since] UltimAAS is outdated and is not meeting our requirements,” Cassidy said. The fund’s contract with AAS recently expired but Tasplan did not put it to tender. Meanwhile Legalsuper is running an internal review of its administration contract with AAS. Andrew Proebstl, chief executive of the fund, and Maxine Jacona, its chief operating officer, are conducting the review. “We thought that it would be a way to get deeper and closer interest into the options out there – to get the unfiltered view,” Proebstl said. AAS has provided member administration to the fund since it was created from the merger of the Legal Industry Superannuation Scheme and the Law Industry Superannuation Trust in 2005. Tasplan’s Cassidy said that a comprehensive and efficient administration service was becoming more important since fund members were better educated about super, asking more frequent and detailed questions and thus increasing administrative workloads. “If administration isn’t up to scratch then we’re behind the eight-ball,” he said. In other news, Proebstl said that Legalsuper had doubled its default insurance cover from two units to four. Members would now pay $6 each week and could qualify for a payout of $440,000 at age 45, compared to a distribution of $156,400 for weekly payments of $3 under the previous arrangement, he said. “Legalsuper has always been able to attain high levels of death and TPD compensation because we have a predominantly white-collar membership and are therefore low-risk.” ING provides insurance to the fund’s members.