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.
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.
Business strategy
‘True organic growth’: AMP CEO hails super inflow turnaround
AMP’s superannuation and investments business has recorded its first positive half-year net cashflows since 2017, with chief executive Blair Vernon crediting strong returns and a beefed-up digital offer for bringing members to the fund directly.
CIO Series
How Jonathan Armitage is building portfolios for more ‘violent’ markets
Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage believes the defining change of his 34-year career is speed – and that portfolios now have to be built for markets that can fall as far in days as they once did in months.
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
3 – 4 February, 2027
Chair Forum
Analysis
Prime Super merger shows small fund problems aren’t going away
The $8 billion Prime Super’s move to pursue a successor fund transfer with Aware shows that the existential problems facing small funds aren’t going away. In fact, with administration and retirement dominating boardrooms and headlines, they might be getting worse.
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.
Member engagement
What is really going on behind the Epic Retirement Tick v2.0
The Epic Retirement Tick, launched last year by the Epic Retirement Institute and Chant West, provides consumers with an overview of super funds deemed to be doing a good job for members in retirement. The criteria behind the Tick are designed to evolve, and to reflect changing practice among funds.
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.
Industry & regulation
Cbus CEO wants SMSF guardrails, but says funds ‘asleep at the wheel’ on engagement
In a wide-ranging interview with Investment Magazine, Cbus chief executive Kristian Fok called for more guardrails to be put up around SMSF establishment while also conceding that profit-to-member funds need to do more to keep the members they are haemorrhaging to the vehicle and upstart retail platforms.
Investments
Robeco CIO says AI winners and losers will be decided within a year
Asset managers that underestimate the importance of artificial intelligence to their businesses do so at their own peril, according to Anton Eser, global chief investment officer of Robeco, who thinks that many have less than a year to get across the “most important transformation” the industry has seen since the beginning of the index business more than 25 years ago.
Investments
Mercer Super expands into frontier market debt, builds out PE program
The $80 billion Mercer Super has delivered a fourth consecutive year of double-digit returns to most members of its SmartPath lifecycle product. Global equities did a lot of heavy lifting, but chief investment officer Graeme Miller tells Investment Magazine that the fund is now looking further afield for returns.
