Tower Australia has recruited IOOF’s former general manager of operations to service its $600 million group insurance account with AustralianSuper.

Paul Rohan joined Tower in December and is currently assembling a team to manage the account with the $28 billion AustralianSuper, the biggest group insurance contract in the domestic market, which was won from CommInsure in September 2009.

Jim Minto, managing director of Tower Australia, said the team will include staff from AustralianSuper, its administrator Superpartners and Tower, and will accrue resources as claims from the fund’s 1.4 million members roll in.

“It won’t be that large initially, but it will get bigger in time. We will have a team of ‘x-size’ in year one, but it will keep building as the number of claims builds,” Minto said.

He said there were a number of forces shaping the composition of the team: the services required by AustralianSuper; the mixture of people included from the fund, Superpartners and Tower; and the impact of the Cooper Review on the future delivery of superannuation.

In collaboration with Superpartners and Tower, AustralianSuper aimed to minimise delays in the underwriting process by improving its online and tele-underwriting services, Greg Staunton, senior insurance manager at the fund, said when the contract was awarded to Tower.

Minto said: “In partnership, we’re trying to design processes that help members get access to cover by whatever means they choose.”

In July 2009, Rohan lost his position at IOOF after the company’s merger with Australian Wealth Management (AWM) saw his responsibilities split between AWM’s chief information officer and general manager of operations.

Before the merger, Rohan was responsible for integrating Global One, formerly Australian Skandia, into IOOF.