Earlier in 2024, it was announced that CareSuper and Spirit Super would merge. Many members of both the original funds will hold disability insurance inside super like TPD, income protection and death benefits. CareSuper has announced that these insurance benefits will, for the most part, remain unchanged. However, it’s important for members to understand what effect, if any, the merger will have on their insurance benefits.
Who is CareSuper
CareSuper is an industry super fund that was originally set up for people in admin and services-based roles. It was initially called the Clerical, Administrative and Related Employees Superannuation Plan, hence the name CARE.
However, anyone can join the fund. In November 2024, CareSuper merged with Spirit Super and announced it would continue to operate under the CareSuper name.
Who was Spirit Super?
Spirit Super is a superannuation fund that was born in 2021 when the MTAA and Tasplan superannuation funds merged and created a new super fund for their members.
Who was MTAA Super?
MTAA stood for Motor Trades Associate of Australia, and the MTAA super fund was a superannuation fund that was initially for people who worked in the car retailers sector (e.g. car salespeople and others in that sector).
Who was Tasplan Super?
Tasplan was a super fund that was based in Tasmania. The fund’s members were predominantly people who lived and worked in Tasmania.
Tasplan was made up of a number of Tasmanian Government workers, including health workers, many of whom had previously been members of the Tasmanian-based Retirements Benefits Fund (RBF) super scheme. The RBF was disbanded around 2017, and most members were transferred to Tasplan at this time.
What will the impact be of the CareSuper and Spirit Super merger?
In November 2024, it was announced that the merger of CareSuper and Spirit Super was complete. After the merger, it was said that the newly merged organisation, CareSuper, has around $53 billion of members’ money invested for around 550,000 members.
Retaining the CareSuper name means that, in effect, all Spirit Super members will now be CareSuper members. However, we are told that, in some ways, the Spirit Super name will remain, but we don’t yet know what this means in practice.
In an announcement, CareSuper said that all of the insurance entitlements (like TPD and income protection) of Spirit Super members would remain the same, and there would be no substantial changes. The exception is some minor changes to some of the relevant definitions. These changes only apply to claims relating to new events (for example, stopping work due to injuries/illnesses) after 1 November 2024. We understand that means, for example, if a Spirit Super member had TPD and income protection insurance before the merger, this cover will continue after the merger at the same levels and with (mostly) the same terms.
The timing of any former Spirit Super TPD/income protection claim is important
Importantly, if you have to claim a benefit like TPD or income protection due to stopping work prior to 1 November 2024, you will be claiming on the policy which was in place for Spirit Super members before the merger.
But if your claim is for stopping work after 1 November 2024, your claim will be assessed under a new insurance policy, which is in place for all members of the new CareSuper super fund (including old Spirit Super members).
In short, the cover you will have and the terms and conditions for paying out any disability insurance claim you make will be relevant to the date you stopped work, not the date you lodged your claim.
The merger of Spirit Super and CareSuper is the latest in a series of mergers of super funds (for example, Sunsuper and QSuper, LUCRF and AustralianSuper, Statewide Super and Hostplus, BT Super and Mercer). These mergers involve a lot of members who will have been a member of one or two other super funds previously.
For CareSuper (since November 2024), the fund will be made up of historical members of:
- The Retirement Benefit Fund (RBF);
- Tasplan;
- Quadrant;
- Spirit Super; and
- MTAA Super.
Get help from a disability insurance lawyer
You may have gone from being an MTAA member to being a Spirit Super member and now a CareSuper member without making any decisions and not even signing a document. These changes are all due to decisions made by those who manage these super funds.
If you have questions about these changes or have to make a claim for insurance benefits and feel that you have been disadvantaged by these mergers and associated changes, please get in touch for some free advice.
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