Legalsuper has announced structural changes to its executive team, resulting in the departure of chief operating officer (COO) Trevin Erichsen.
Erichsen joined legalsuper in October 2022 as COO and also worked as interim CEO for seven months after the departure of Andrew Proebstl at the end of 2022 after 20 years.
The fund went on to appoint Luke Symons as CEO who joined the fund in April 2023. Symons is a former CEO of financial planning at ANZ and director of advice channel performance at AMP.
Prior to joining legalsuper, Erichsen worked as head of operations at Australian Retirement Trust (ART) and spent 14 years at Sunsuper prior to its merger with QSuper.
Writing on LinkedIn, Erichsen said: “I’m particularly proud of the fund’s continued strong performance, investment in capability and culture, and most importantly the ongoing uplift to the value proposition offered and outcomes delivered to legalsuper’s members, Australia’s legal community,” Erichsen said.
A statement from Symons to Super Review said his departure is part of a wider executive team change including recruitment for a new chief financial officer.
He said: “We have created a new chief financial officer role to drive excellence in strategic operations across our business with a strong focus on our financial decision making and management to support our growth agenda, as well as complementing our demonstrable strengths in members services, investment strategy and performance, delivered through our high-performing team culture.
“We are working with global executive search company, Odgers Berndtson, on the recruitment for this crucial executive role and look forward to advising members and stakeholders of our decision in the near future.
“As a result of this change at executive level, we have reached a decision with our chief operating officer, Trevin Erichsen who left legalsuper to pursue other opportunities. Trevin goes with the gratitude and very best wishes of the board, executive team and all legalsuper colleagues for his strong contribution during his tenure.”
In its pre-election policy document, the FSC highlighted 15 priority reforms, with superannuation featuring prominently, urging both major parties to avoid changing super taxes without a comprehensive tax review.
The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
Super funds delivered a strong 2024 result, with the median growth fund returning 11.4 per cent, driven by strong international sharemarket performance, new data has shown.
Australian Ethical has seen FUM growth of 27 per cent in the financial year to date.