Equipsuper has recruited a director of operations from ComSuper to manage its outsourced administration and insurance arrangements.
Peter Devenish replaced Matthew Halpin as manager of member administration at the $4.4 billion multi-employer fund last December. While at ComSuper, the administrator for a range of superannuation schemes run for Australian public servants, Devenish worked in the military and pensions group. Devenish will manage the fund’s outsourced administration contract with Citistreet, in addition to its outsourced insurance mandate. The fund has 44,500 members. Halpin crossed over to Citistreet in November 2007 to become head of operations at the member administrator. A spokesperson for Equipsuper said Devenish was well-suited for the role since the $2.6 billion Military Super, with which Devenish worked, is a hybrid fund, running both accumulation and defined benefit schemes. “We’ve got a significant number of defined benefit members, so we were looking for someone with substantial defined benefit expertise, and to run accumulation,” the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, a federal government review of Military Super completed in December 2007 found that one of it components, the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme (MSBS), fell “well short of best practice contemporary superannuation and does not contribute significantly towards recruitment and retention.” Another component of MilitarySuper, the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits scheme, was rated below the MSBS. The review recommended that a newly-implemented scheme should be a taxed and funded accumulation system offering a range of retirement benefit options including indexed pensions. Also, given the nature of military service, it should issue generous defined benefits for death and disability. The proposed accumulation plan would deliver individual accounts built from employer contributions that correspond with members’ lengths of service, at 16, 23 and 28 per cent of superannuable salary upon passing specified terms of service, and voluntary personal contributions.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
