2026 Chair Forum

The minister will outline the Albanese government’s top priorities for the 2026 calendar year and second term, addressing policy debates including the financial advice and member standards reforms, Your Future Your Super performance test review and super tax changes, alongside broader economic reform issues.

This session will hear from leading members of the chair community on the big issues facing superannuation, with a focus on mitigating the key operational, reputation, legal and market risks facing funds as the sector grows past $4 trillion in assets. It will assess a range of commercial and regulatory challenges and opportunities facing trustee boards and management teams.

This interactive session will provide a ‘sneak peek’ on exclusive unpublished research conducted by The Conexus Institute mapping the skills matrices, competencies, operating models and conflicts of super trustee boards. It will tap the collective wisdom of the delegation and debate what best practice board governance looks like.

Includes table discussion

Senior representatives of ASIC and APRA will separately outline their enforcement priorities in the superannuation sector for the 2026 calendar year, including compliance with then Retirement Income Covenant, privatisation of markets and member and customer engagement.

The Reserve Bank of Australia will continue its strategic engagement with superannuation leaders, examining the systemic risks facing and emanating from the $4 trillion system. This session will unpack the central bank’s current work around financial shocks and stability, liquidity stress and testing and blockchain/central bank digital currencies, with a view to drawing out the implications for super investors.

Drawing on his unique experience as the uber-popular former Premier of Western Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mark McGowan AC will reflect on his time as a rare national figure in state politics to draw out the lessons for governance and leadership in the superannuation sector.

The private breakfast is attended by chair delegates only (no non-chair trustee directors, speakers, sponsors or staff) and affords those in attendance the opportunity to speak directly, and in-confidence, about issues of common concern and interest. Ahead of the breakfast, delegates will be invited to submit questions and issues on-notice for discussion.

Australia’s mental health crisis continues to escalate amid an inefficient and over-governed federal structure and a string of social and economic accelerators. This session will take a candid, expert look at the mental health crisis, brain science and federal health policy, and ask what role the superannuation industry can play in prevention of illness and encouragement of wellness.

As the government prepares to release minimum service standards for super members, and regulators continue to list customer service and retirement strategy as an enforcement priority, this session will provide chairs with a snapshot of exclusive research on how funds rank on these critical measures. The presentation will be followed by an interactive discussion on how the super industry can meet regulator and member expectations.

Includes table discussion

As millions of members transition to retirement, super funds are being encouraged to provide more advice and guidance to members. But the laws governing advice remain fraught and new risks are emerging on the horizon. This panel will examine the implications of the government’s financial advice law reform agenda and fallout from the Shield and First Guardian scandals.

Super funds are being called on to improve their cybersecurity efforts amid an escalating prevalence of online scams and cybercrime targeting the system. Meanwhile, rapidly developing AI technology presents both risk and opportunities. The session will examine how super funds are implementing technology change in ways that meet regulatory and member expectations, and the role for trustee boards.

This session will present an expert hypothesis on the geopolitical risk facing global investors and financial institutions amid a dramatic reworking of international security and economic relations and foreign and domestic policy pronouncements from an unorthodox US government.

Reflecting on the previous expert keynote, this closing session of the conference will reflect on the role of super funds as investors in a rapidly changing world in which the role of global free trade and the US dollar and economy are being questioned as mainstays of institutional portfolios. The panel will examine how funds are considering and mitigating geopolitical risk and the opportunities and challenges inherent in their increasingly global role as an extension of Australian soft power.

Includes table discussion