Industry & regulation
Super seat vacant at APRA as platform woes grow
The prudential regulator has no successor or interim appointee to replace deputy chair Margaret Cole, who stepped down today, leaving the more than $3 trillion APRA-regulated super sector with no supervisor-in-chief as scrutiny on its platform segment grows.
Leadership & profiles
ESSSuper revives private equity program
ESSSuper, the Victorian state fund with $12 billion in accumulation assets, has rebooted the private equity program it wound up over a decade ago in a bid to boost returns, with chief investment officer Daniel Selioutine telling Investment Magazine that exit pressures in the asset class mean it’s a good time to buy.
Industry & regulation
ART says ‘inferior’ proposed YFYS changes increase systemic risk
The $370 billion Australian Retirement Trust says that the proposed introduction of a CPI+X benchmark for “emerging asset classes” or the move to a simple reference portfolio in the Your Future Your Super performance test would heighten system-wide risk without improving investment outcomes.
Governance
HESTA seeks answers over ‘deeply concerning’ Richard White allegations
HESTA wants answers from WiseTech on how it will manage the role of executive chair Richard White after reports emerged that the Australian Federal Police are investigating him over human trafficking and visa fraud allegations.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Culture
‘Every opportunity has to earn its place’: How the Future Fund built a TPA culture that scales
The total portfolio approach has allowed Australia’s sovereign wealth fund to capture the themes that will power markets and economies for decades to come, said director of thought leadership Craig Thorburn – but that doesn’t mean it’s not hard to scale.
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
Pension Policy Podcast: Relieving members of the longevity risk burden
In Episode five of the Pension Policy Series, Allianz Retire+ chief executive David Kane joins Conexus Financial acting co-chief executive and editor-in-chief Aleks Vickovich to assess the commercial landscape for retirement income solutions across super and advice. Retirement remains only a small part of Australia’s $4.5 trillion superannuation pool. Kane says funds have been slow to implement the Retirement Income Covenant, and many responses to date have been cut-and-paste. Funds have built strong accumulation capability over more than three decades, but they lack the balance sheets to guarantee retirement income, raising the prospect that without the right solutions, members may be left carrying longevity risk themselves.
Featured Homepage Posts
Why governance beats TPA label when it comes to performance
The narrative around the total portfolio approach is rife with claims about how much performance it can add over the traditional strategic asset allocation model, but Paul Newfield, deputy director of consulting at Frontier Advisors, argued a good governance structure is a more reliable driver of returns than whichever portfolio construction method an asset owner adopts.
Governance
Why funds need to deal with TPA’s ‘free rider’ problem
More and more super funds are pivoting to the TPA approach, but will need to confront the long-standing issues with accountability that come with it if they want that model to be sustainable into the future.
Industry & regulation
Super funds must adhere to governance standards they demand of others
Director tenure limits are embedded in governance codes across every major capital market. As Australian superannuation funds become retirement institutions, they should be held to the same standards that they expect of the companies they invest in.
Investments
Super funds grapple with hidden AI cross-exposures as boom runs on
As super funds work to understand their total portfolio exposure to the artificial intelligence thematic, a complex picture of hidden betas and “attachment points” is gradually emerging. They also need to figure out how to play the same thematic in the “tricky” China market.
Investments
How asset owners are looking through private equity pain
The dispersion between private equity and listed market returns is near the widest in history. For some asset owners, that’s a reason to hold on through the pain – even as the SaaSpocalypse looms in the background.
