Why super’s home country bias isn’t a bad thing

Super funds have more than doubled their exposures to global equities in the past 15 years, but it is a misconception that the surge came at the expense of Australian stocks allocation. At the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium, investors examined the changing portfolio role of Australian equities and whether it remains a strong market for active management.

‘A completely different paradigm’: Blackstone on generating returns from the energy transition

The global energy transition is accelerating, driven by rising power demand across the electrification ecosystem. The Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard how private capital at scale can harness electrification trends to create attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors.

‘It’s crazy’: More gold than bonds in AMP MySuper portfolios while funds rethink defensive plays

The shifting global economic landscape and its impact on currency markets are forcing asset owners to re-think the defensive portion of portfolios as traditional hedging techniques become less effective and new ones emerge. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard that for one fund that’s led to gold overtaking government bond allocations.

Anna Shelley on the investment opportunities of a fragmented world 

AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley thinks that “pervasive” macroeconomic and geopolitical changes will effect markets for years to come and fundamentally alter the investment landscape for asset owners.   Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Shelley argued that supply chain fragmentation, defence spending and the capital demands of AI are just some of … Read more

CFS builds partnership alliance in retirement income push

Australia’s second-largest retail superannuation fund, the $136 billion Colonial First State, has pulled together a multi-partner model do deliver integrated retirement income solutions to members. CFS Superannuation chief executive officer Kelly Power tells Retirement Magazine the fund has responded primarily to the needs of members and demands of advisers, rather than directly to regulatory pressure arising from the Retirement Income Covenant.

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.