2025 Fiduciary Investors Symposium NSW

Financial markets and domestic and foreign policy by nation states are increasingly interwoven, with governments intervening more frequently in the real economy and investors reacting to seemingly endless political change. This keynote briefing will provide long-term investors with an assessment of the material geopolitical trends being reshaped by a highly disruptive and unorthodox US federal administration. It will question the prospect of a more assertive Europe and examine the fallout from discarded trade and security alliances.

This opening panel will hear from investment leaders about how they are building portfolio resilience and determining asset allocation in a climate of macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility. It will examine the implications of big secular trends and rising government intervention in the economy as well as questions around US exceptionalism and the world’s largest sharemarket. It will question capital assumptions and the outlook for inflation and monetary policy.

Includes table discussion

This interactive fireside chat will delve into the market implications of Donald Trump’s shifting economic policies and recalibration of the US’s role in geopolitics. It will provide insight into how asset owners can navigate this complex and quickly changing landscape, including a close look at how these macroeconomic trends are impacting the inflation outlook.

This session will unpack the trajectory for institutional asset owner investments in green energy and renewable infrastructure, against a backdrop of declining corporate and government support for environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives in some jurisdictions.

This session will examine the outlook for heightened volatility in financial markets, and opportunities and risks emanating from sharp geopolitically-induced spikes in the VIX index, known as the market’s “fear gauge”, and dispersion of performance and pricing in the global sharemarket.

This interactive session will draw on the discipline of behavioural finance to help provide frameworks for institutional investors to make important decisions amid heightened stress and a climate of constant change and instability. It will opine on the latest academic research on optimal market design and retail and institutional investor behaviour.

Includes table discussion

This session will place the current market conditions within a historical context, with insights from a seasoned US investor with four decades of lived experience across credit cycles. It will examine the changing interactions between public and private credit exposures in institutional portfolios and outline the “new rules for credit investors”.

This session will provide delegates with an update on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s work on domestic private and public markets and concerns around the opacity and risk profile of some unlisted asset investments. It will unpack the regulator’s recent discussion paper on private markets and the implications for local institutional investors.

This session will debate the merits of the trend towards increased exposure to private markets in institutional portfolios, with a focus on private credit. It will examine asset owner demand and proficiency, as well as overall hygiene of the booming market and emerging and diverse sub-sector opportunities.

Includes table discussion

This session examines the role of insurance-linked securities in diversified institutional portfolios, trends in the market including the development of emerging new securities, and how climate change is likely to affect ILS strategies as both the frequency and severity of natural disasters looks set to increase.

This panel will unpack the trend towards ‘tokenisation’ of financial assets on the blockchain and the efficiencies and challenges it creates for capital markets. It will examine the outlook for blockchain -based technologies under a sympathetic US government and place for cryptocurrency and digital assets exposure in institutional portfolio, along with a case study of AMP Super’s historic allocation to bitcoin.

This session will interrogate the vast exposure of Australian institutional portfolios to the US sharemarket. Are the capital assumptions underpinning US equities still accurate? Is there any meaningful alternative? It will also debate the prospects of the so-called Magnificent Seven tech stocks and investment opportunities and risks inartificial intelligence technology.

Includes table discussion

In this highlight session, one of Australia’s investment leaders will outline the sovereign wealth fund’s position on the geopolitical and macroeconomic climate and its portfolio implications, with a focus on currency and foreign exchange risk. It will also examine the fund’s unique “joined up” approach and investment strategy.

In this interactive session, The Conexus Institute will extrapolate on major research project on systemic risk in the superannuation system, drawing out the implications for Chief Investment Officers and their teams. It will address some concerns around institutional investment exposures, while also myth-busting some of the narratives around risks of super to the economy.

Includes table discussion

This session will draw on the global readership of Top1000Funds.com, Investment Magazine’s sister publication, to showcase the strategy and thinking of a leading international peer in the institutional asset owner community. It will explore the US$351 billion CalSTRS’ move to a “one fund approach”, the creation of its Total Fund Management Division and how it’s responding to current market volatility against a backdrop of sweeping changes in how asset owners around the world invest. 

Unlisted asset valuations and funds’ liquidity management practices continue to attract the attention of regulators. Their practices were tested again when President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, sending equity markets plummeting and raising the spectre of potential knock-on effects for unlisted assets. This session will look at how unlisted asset valuations are being shaped by these changing market conditions, as well as the concerns of regulators.

This session will investigate global approaches to managing and adapting portfolios operated by defined contribution schemes as members move into retirement phase. It will consider liquidity, asset allocation and organisational best practice to support decumulation.

The final session of the symposium will see investment leaders take sides in a formal Oxford Union-style debate on the motion “that funds need to be large to deliver good investment outcomes”.

Closing remarks