• Maintaining the low  cost-base for funds will continue  to be important. Costs have not  come down as far as increased scale  may have suggested because funds  continue to enhance their service  offerings.  • The need to find good  people to work in funds and on  the boards will continue to be  important, to make sure they are  aligned with the low-cost mission  of the not-for-profit sector.  “That’s why the trustee model  is so important,” Reynolds says.  “People talk about ’professionalising’  the boards but I think that would  be the end. Having a board  with individuals from diverse  backgrounds adds a lot. The role  of the board after all is to oversee  the fund, they’re not running the  day-to-day operation. And to make  sure the right strategies are in place.

The diversity of experience on the  boards is a key to their success.”  She adds that trustees will need  to look more closely at succession  planning because many have been  on their boards for a long time.  “Funds need to talk to their  sponsoring organisations to ensure  there are plans in place for new  people coming through, such as  on committees or as alternative  directors. Succession planning  could be managed better.”  AIST runs a program called  “Super Cadets” which looks to help  the succession problem. Young  graduates are sought to be placed to  work for a year or two with various  participating employers, such as  AIST itself, SuperPartners and  some large funds.  Dawn Ah Gee, a 27-year-old  AIST Senior policy and research  analyst, was a Super Cadet who  worked with Super SA, says: “My  friends and I want to work in  something which we care about.

Working with not-for-profit funds  allows us to align our personal and  work interests. It’s a huge plus and  these funds will continue to attract  people who care.”  She also cares about efficiency  and, therefore, some continued  inefficiencies in super and funds  management.  “I think there should be more  modernisation in information  flows. Everything is still so paperbased  compared with, say, the ASX  and the CHESS system [for share  trading],” she says.  All the money in “lost super”  – an estimated $13 billion –  and inadequate use of tax file  numbers to track people, is “simply  ridiculous”, she says.  Given that her generation, and  increasingly the older generations,  are looking for more online  transaction and informationgathering  activity, funds could  become more savvy with their webbased  services, she believes.  Of course, more fund mergers  will reduce the overall demand for  trustee directors, if not professional  staff at funds.  AustralianSuper’s Ian Silk says  he is surprised there have not been  more mergers in recent years.