Leadership & profiles
The ‘brutal pursuit’ that shaped Aware Super’s new CIO
The new chief investment officer of the $230 billion Aware Super expects that the fund will be around for the next 100 years. To make sure it keeps delivering for members, he’s optimising the work already done to build its portfolio, thinking hard about the best way to access assets, and embracing the risk management lessons he first learned as a trader for Chemical Bank.
2026 Fiduciary Investors Symposium NSW
Why policymakers need to prepare for AI boom – and unrest
Economist and former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin told the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium that AI doomsayers aren’t grasping the economic opportunities it will create, but that policymakers still need to be prepared for social unrest arising from displacement of jobs by AI.
Industry & regulation
Treasury proposes sweeping YFYS changes to supercharge ’emerging asset classes’
Treasury is considering a new benchmark for “emerging assets” under proposed changes to the Your Future Your Super performance test meant to discourage the index-hugging behaviour that has characterised super fund investments since its introduction in 2021.
Investments
With YFYS changes, the nation-building poker game is reaching showdown
The performance test ‘side pocket’ proposal in the just-released Your Future Your Super consultation paper removes barriers to investing in nation-building, but that does not mean that there will be more investment as a result. Understanding why requires looking at both sides of the table.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Opinion
What I took away from the world’s ‘festival of private capital’
The on- and off-stage antics at the extravagant Milken Global Conference in Los Angeles tell us a lot about where institutional capital is right on the money – and where it is putting its head in the sand. And while the event retains the extraordinary intellectual and financial firepower that has always been its signature, something has shifted. The absences are as instructive as what’s on the program.
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
Retirement income products off the performance test hook – for now
Treasury has deferred extending the superannuation performance test to retirement-phase products until the Retirement Reporting Framework begins publishing data in 2028, leaving about $500 billion in assets and 1.4 million member accounts outside the test’s scope.
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.
Governance
Super switching paranoia drives misinformation campaign
The Super Members Council representing profit-to-member funds claims younger and lower-balance Australians are being transitioned by advisers to “risky” platforms and SMSFs, while the Financial Services Council has fired back with data suggesting it is mostly older, wealthier consumers being advised to switch their super. Aleks Vickovich writes the truth, as usual, is probably somewhere in between.
Industry & regulation
Diversa applies for $239m First Guardian government bailout
Diversa Trustees has applied to the government for a bailout of First Guardian investors worth approximately $239 million, arguing the losses were a result of fraud and it will be in the best financial interest to members.
CIO Series
Why Mercer Super’s CIO won’t sweat US tech dominance
While other asset owners grow increasingly cautious on the United States – even as regulation, peer comparison and plain old FOMO keep them from moving away from it – Mercer Super chief investment officer Graeme Miller told Investment Magazine’s CIO Series podcast that those worried about concentration risk are missing a bigger picture.
Investments
The world won’t wait for the investment committee
The institutions managing long-term savings might not be built to respond at the speed the world now moves. The gap between knowing and acting – which, ultimately, is where all risk lives – is one they can’t afford to keep open.
