Funds should be looking for a “CPI-plus” framework which was outcome-oriented, and not benchmarked. In particular the emphasis for post-retirement should be on delivering returns in excess of inflation but with a minimum of downside risk.

In addition, funds should be looking for tail-risk hedging, and also at some larger community pool for the post-85 age group, he said.

Annuities were not necessarily the answer, Cooper warned, for at least two reasons.

First, annuity rates did not reflect the credit risk that retirees were taking on, and second, they ignored the behavioural issues of trying to entice people to spend huge amounts of money now to get income in 20 or 30 years. “Most people just won’t do this,” he said.

The Post-Retirement Conference is on Thursday, March 10, at the Sofitel on Collins in Melbourne. For information, go to http://guest.cvent.com/d/7dqtvb