2026 Insurance in Super Summit
The three insurance ‘battlegrounds’ MLC Super wants to win
MLC is in the early stages of consolidating the patchwork of group insurance arrangements it inherited during years of mergers and acquisitions by its parent company Insignia Financial and its predecessors. MLC Super chief executive Dave Woodall wants insurers pitching for the business to think well beyond price.
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.
Member engagement
Retirees sour on fund services as expectations go unmet
New research from CoreData and Conexus Financial finds retirement satisfaction with super funds recorded its sharpest plunge on record this year, and it’s not only members approaching retirement who feel let down. The Best Possible Retirement study shows that pre-retirees’ expectations of how much they’ll need to be comfortable has leapt, and members already well into retirement also feel abandoned.
Industry & regulation
APRA deputy chair appointment sparks political backlash
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has appointed APRA insider Therese McCarthy Hockey and former Labor Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury to the prudential regulator to replace Margaret Cole, citing “increasing scale and complexity in the financial system”. But Bradbury’s appointment has sparked swift backlash from the Liberal Party.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
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.
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
Retail, small funds pull ahead on member retirement satisfaction
The CoreData/Conexus Financial Best Possible Retirement research reveals a gap in member satisfaction between small funds and large funds, and between industry funds and retail funds. But the message for all funds is clear: members want and need more support not only as they move into retirement, but also after they’re in it.
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.
Governance
Shield, First Guardian reforms must not become a covert operation to restrict competition
There is broad consensus in industry and Canberra that the collapses of the Shield and First Guardian master funds – and failures that led to them – demand a regulatory response. But getting that response wrong could create an uneven playing field in the industry and some counterproductive consumer outcomes.
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.
Investments
As the Magnificent Seven fade, CFS looks further afield for returns
Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage says a shift away from reliance on US mega-cap tech stocks is reshaping portfolio resilience, with emerging markets, private debt and catastrophe bonds helping to drive returns across the portfolio.
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.
