The Future of Super

AIA partners with Ending Loneliness Together to combat chronic loneliness, helping improve the mental health and physical health of members and staff by reducing the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and premature death.

Jeremy Cooper, former chairman, Retirement Income at Challenger, and Kate McCallum, director and wealth adviser, Multiforte Financial Services, bring to life the realities of retirement advice – where it is now, how it can be better and what to retiring Australians really need to know. Both Cooper and McCallum praise Michelle Levy’s Quality of Advice Review for its call for bold reforms in the sector that they believe will remove barriers for more Australians to access good advice.

David Knox, senior partner and actuary, Mercer Australia and Deborah Ralston, professorial fellow, Monash University and guardian board member, Future Fund, talk to Julia Newbould, managing editor, Conexus Financial on the need to broaden the super system to increase equity for both PAYG and the self-employed, low income earners, high income earners and home owners , non-home owners, men, women and those who retire voluntarily and unexpectedly.

Skye King, head of ESG and Responsible Investment at NGS Super, and Fiona Mann, head of listed equities & ESG and LGIA Super and Energy Super – now Brighter Super, talk to Fiona Reynolds, chief executive, Conexus Financial about ESG and what it means to investors today. With ESG now in the mainstream, leading superfunds are turning to their relationships with managers to ensure responsible investment considerations are integrated at all levels of decision making. Making sure managers are best in class in seeking out responsible investment considerations is essential to integrating ESG into portfolios.

Kim Bowater, director of consulting at Frontier Advisors, and Ian Fryer, general manager at Chant West, talk to Julia Newbould, managing editor, Conexus Financial about the performance test outcomes. Second year results were recently released which provided few surprises - five products failed to meet the benchmark this year, including four that failed for the second time. A further five products that failed last time passed this year and while APRA has said this shows funds are doing better than last year, it’s not the full story. Treasury is now asking for submissions on the Your Future Your Super performance test. So now is a good time for our experts to look at its effectiveness and the way forward.

Emily Barnes, head of insights and design at Equipsuper, Andrew Inwood, global head and founder of research consultancy CoreData and Julia Newbould, managing editor, Conexus Financial discuss how superannuation funds are laser focused on the numbers around cost and performance for members, but aren’t always up to par on member experience, particularly post-retirement. When facing a difficult choice between keeping fees as low as possible or investing some revenue in better systems to help members engage, data shows members are willing to pay for a better experience.

Jacki Ellis, head of retirement segment, Aware Super, Dr David Bell, executive director of The Conexus Institute and Julia Newbould, managing editor, Conexus Financial talk all things retirement income policy. We start with a brief history of retirement income policy, take a look at present retirement income policy and finally explore the principles-based approach of the Retirement Income Covenant which gives funds the flexibility to focus on the best outcomes for individual members despite challenges remaining in measuring success and providing tailored advice.

Cate Wood, a former national chair of Women in Super and past president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees speaks in depth with Robbie Campo, a Cbus executive and passionate advocate for the economic security of women in retirement about equity in super, why women are still falling behind their male peers, the thorny issue of tax concessions and the problems which will be faced by an aging Australia.

Garry Weaven, former ACTU assistant secretary and renowned industry fund builder, calls on funds to build a public case for themselves in preparation for inevitable years of negative returns and for a review into the SMSF sector in a conversation with Stewart Hawkins, editor, Investment Magazine.

Luke Barrett, general counsel at Unisuper and David Gallagher, a visiting fellow at the RoZetta Institute, discuss size, influence & concentration of the superannuation industry in private and capital markets. Moderated by Matthew Smith, managing editor, Investment Magazine.

AIA general manager group distribution, Anthony Clough, and Mercer partner, Tim Jenkins, speak to Investment Magazine’s Stewart Hawkins about insurance in super – how the new stapling rules may affect outcomes for members and what the future holds for insurance products in the industry.

ACSI CEO Louise Davidson and Aware Super CIO Damian Graham speak to Investment Magazine’s Stewart Hawkins about two issues affecting Australia’s super landscape – Globalisation and Governance. Are super funds in Australia running out of local assets to invest in? If so, where are the opportunities? Are they mainly off shore? And what are the challenges involved in engaging with companies which are operating in different regulatory environments?