Financial Advice
New pathways to retirement as govt green-lights new class of adviser for super funds
Super funds will find it easier to provide guidance and advice to members under regulatory reforms announced by the Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino. Trustees who breach their obligations will also be required to remediate members for losses, and the government will crack down on predatory lead generation.
Financial Advice
ART says advice fee ban would leave members worse off
Australian Retirement Trust says banning advice fee deductions from members’ accounts would deny members access to a service the fund believes leaves them better off.
Roundtables
Building resilient portfolios amid increasing macro complexity
The forces currently shaping fixed income markets are fundamentally different to those of the post-GFC era creating both opportunities and challenges for investors. Asset owners are once again turning their attention to this foundational asset class, with its enduring relevance as part of a diversified portfolio. Investment Magazine in partnership with T. Rowe Price recently assembled leading investment experts to discuss the evolving role of fixed income in building resilient portfolios; the case for active management and customisation; and the AI and hyperscaler opportunity.
Industry trends
AustralianSuper advice play bodes well for DBFO resurrection
The nation’s largest superannuation fund has heeded the call of regulators to lift its risk appetite and embark on personal financial advice to members. Even with the counsel of top lawyer Michelle Levy, the megafund will find it challenging to navigate the complex advice laws as they stand, but its bullishness is likely a positive sign for the future of advice reform.
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
3 – 4 February, 2027
Chair Forum
18 – 20 May, 2027
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Technology
The real warning in the Future Fund’s new AI prediction
The Future Fund’s new position paper is useful for anybody trying to imagine the possible futures of our increasingly wild present, but it is the AI threats that are already emerging that investors should spend their limited attention budget on.
Leadership & profiles
GESB CEO calls time: ‘Past regime of default super’ no longer sustainable
GESB chief executive Ben Palmer is set to leave the Western Australian government super fund, ending a 13-year tenure after steering the fund through the most significant change in its history. In a rare interview, Palmer examines the past, present and future of super and explains why GESB is treating platforms, not profit-to-member funds, as its benchmark.
Profiles
Why HESTA’s ‘joined-up thinking’ is one of its CIO’s favourite things
Sonya Sawtell-Rickson joined HESTA as the health industry workers’ super fund was taking steps towards investment internalisation and a total portfolio approach. She says the moves have been vindicated not only by member returns but in the “joined-up” conversations the now-$96 billion fund has with the companies it invests in.
Retirement
Govt to ban unlicensed super communications
Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino will unveil the government’s response to the Shield and First Guardian incident and “harmful lead generation” in the super system in a milestone address to the National Press Club on Wednesday. Among a suite of new regulatory measures, the government is expected to introduce a ban on “real time” super communications issued by unregulated entities.
Governance
CGT, negative gearing reforms reflect Australian values
Labor has built a generational political brand, and one that endures in the face of some major challenges here and abroad, Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate told the 50th ALP National Conference in Adelaide. But it must push back against extreme demands on AI and technology if it is to boost productivity and seize a huge economic growth opportunity.
Industry & regulation
Super complaints expected to reach 8000 in 2026: AFCA
Superannuation complaints to AFCA are on track to exceed 8000 this year, a second consecutive year of around 30 per cent increases. Heather Gray, who is retiring in May after six years as lead ombudsman for superannuation, told the authority’s Member Forum that the answer to reducing complaints lies in empowering funds’ IDR teams and communicating with complainants and AFCA early. The forum heard that handling unreasonable people is a critical skill.
Business strategy
ASFA taps Linda Elkins as chair amid peak body battle
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia has nominated former Colonial First State executive and AMP director Linda Elkins as the new chair of its board, as the peak body jostles with the Financial Services Council for primacy in representing the $3 trillion APRA-regulated super sector.
CIO Series
CFS CIO warns on AI ecosystem’s tangled capital web
The scale of the financial web that binds the corporate AI ecosystem together has never been seen before in markets, and investors have little understanding of how and where it could break in the event of a serious repricing, according to Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage.
Investments
Why UniSuper’s John Pearce thinks the data centre party is winding down
The demand for AI driving data centre construction might be “insatiable”, but the chief investment officer of the $166 billion UniSuper thinks that investors could be taking on technology debt and misreading the regulatory tea leaves as they rush to buy digital infrastructure.
