Iress to supply tech core for merged Spirit, Care entity

Spirit Super will extend its long-standing partnership with Iress, with the wealthtech developer announced as a key supplier for the to-be-merged Spirit and CareSuper entity’s technology foundation.

The merged Spirit and CareSuper fund will deploy Iress’ Acurity Registry for its registry system, alongside the complementary Acurity Online portal to support front-end digital member engagement, including mobile app support.

A one-stop-shop back-office administration platform, the Acurity Registry supports a range of superannuation products, investment and insurance options as well as fee structures.

The platform also boasts built-in legislative and compliance updates, as well as straight-through and exception-based processing.

According to Iress, in deploying Acurity Registry, super funds can effectively “consolidate legacy or disparate systems on a single registry, automating transactions such as contributions and processing through the platform”.

The complementary Acurity Online platform is a digital front-end engagement platform to support members in managing their super accounts and associated insurance, as well as options to trade shares and support for consolidating or switching funds.

Iress is a long-standing tech supplier to Spirit Super, which makes use of the wealthtech’s all-in-one financial advice platform Xplan Prime to support in-person, online or phone interactions. The company will continue to provide Xplan for the merged entity.

In June this year, CareSuper and Spirit Super announced they had entered into a binding agreement to merge the two funds. The merger is expected to be complete by late 2024.

The merged entity will have a combined fund with more than 500,000 members and almost $50 billion in funds under management.

Iress chief executive of superannuation, Paul Giles, said: “Iress is delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with Spirit Super. Since 2000, we’ve supported the fund to grow and transform through previous mergers and further enhance its ability to deliver for members.

The wealthtech notes that it will work closely with Spirit Super and CareSuper over the next 12 months of the merger process, assisting with the migration of member data from CareSuper’s former administrator.

Iress boasts that its software is used by more than 9,000 financial services businesses and 500,000 users globally, including existing partnerships with super funds Guild Super, ESSSuper, and Vision Super.