Investments
Why switching to a reference portfolio metric for YFYS is risky
Treasury’s proposal for a new single-metric performance test may seem refreshing, and sound like progress to a jaded industry, but potential dangers for funds, their members and the system at large lurk underneath.
2026 Fiduciary Investors Symposium NSW
Super funds warned on ‘a bloody big fall in the market’
The scale of superannuation funds and their allocation to growth assets – particularly US equities – illustrates a systemic risk that could arise if the US market were to decline significantly. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard that the probability of zero or lower real returns for a decade or more isn’t trivial, and that a decline, if it comes, is less likely to be a short, sharp shock than a slow grind downwards.
Leadership & profiles
AustralianSuper’s new CIO faces $410b renovation job
Shaun Manuell becomes chief investment officer at AustralianSuper at a point when the nation’s largest super fund is under pressure on short-term investment and member performance. With the fund projected to hit $1 trillion in assets by 2035, the AustralianSuper insider’s legacy in the role will be defined by whether the fund can become more operationally sharp, globally coordinated and high-returning as its portfolio and the investment landscape grow increasingly complex.
Operations
Funds scramble to link the Payday Super data chain
Payday super changes have been touted as addressing the issue of unpaid super and as putting members’ contributions to work sooner, earning them more in the long run. But the member benefits will only become real if every link in the chain between the employer and the member’s account works as it must, and there’s still a few yet to be joined up.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
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.
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
The biggest game in town: Inside AustralianSuper’s retirement income strategy
Since Jacki Ellis joined the nation’s biggest profit-to-member super fund as head of retirement just over one year ago, she’s been assessing and building the fund’s capabilities with the aim of delivering a fully personalised experience to all members by 2035. But that’s not to say there won’t be benefits for members who retire before that.
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
Third HESTA exec heads for the door in less than 12 months
The departure of the $100 billion HESTA’s chief operating officer Stephen Reilly follows those of chief executive Debby Blakey and chief risk officer Andrew Major, and is part of a shake-up among the broader senior ranks of Australian super funds.
Business strategy
Aware in growth mode after TelstraSuper merger, bucks outflow trend
The $237 billion megafund says that it’s ready for more mergers but that it won’t be a “buyer of complexity” in an already rapidly consolidating super system – even as it reverse the competitive outflow trend that has dogged profit-to-member super for years.
Investments
How asset owners are looking through private equity pain
The dispersion between private equity and listed market returns is near the widest in history. For some asset owners, that’s a reason to hold on through the pain – even as the SaaSpocalypse looms in the background.
Alternatives
Defining the digital infrastructure investment opportunity
Modern artificial intelligence is all about scale, and technology leaders are racing to build that scale in an effort to preserve and grow their competitive advantages. That’s creating opportunities for asset owners to invest alongside world-leading technology companies that are making transformational advances in their core business, writes Blue Owl’s Alicia Gregory.
