In the first episode of the new Retirement Magazine Pension Policy Series podcast, Opperman warns that Australia has millions of people “coming over the hill” into retirement with no plan to manage it. The Retirement Income Covenant alone is not enough – he says a strategy without implementation is meaningless, and that there is “a problem on advice and guidance”.
Outgoing Australian Retirement Trust chair Andrew Fraser says superannuation funds can claim some credit for the Albanese government’s handling of geopolitical risk and the volatile Trump White House in a parting ode to the $4 trillion sector’s growing global influence. But the comments to the corporate regulator’s annual forum came alongside a warning from ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant that member experience should be just as paramount as super’s market and economic power.
SQM Research is assessing its next steps after ASIC announced it will take the researcher to court alleging due diligence failures over SQM’s role researching the Shield Master Fund. This is the first time ASIC has taken action against a research house and a potential trial will become a test for the responsibilities of researchers and the extent to which it is viable to research multi-asset funds.
The RBA is keeping a close eye on super funds’ “uneven progress” on liquidity management and their growing allocations to international assets as it tries to spot systemic risks before they arise.
Performance test reforms will be guided by three principles to make sure that member outcomes aren’t watered down by any changes, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia conference.
UniSuper has tipped US$500 million ($765 million) into an infrastructure adjacency strategy from Macquarie Asset Management in a move it says demonstrates the success of its partnerships with a small number of high-quality managers.
As super funds evolve, their needs as limited partners also change, according to Aware Super deputy CIO Damian Webb. And how Aware accesses its investments will differ significantly across asset classes.
Climate investing is here to stay, Robeco says – but while the direction remains the same, “the pace is changing”. Asset owners want decarbonisation, but they want alpha too.
When the government’s intervention in the local energy market leads to reduced supply, that’s the time to invest rather than to draw back, the Fiduciary Investors Symposium has heard. Asset owners at the symposium were also told that they might need to ‘have a little bit of a look’ at how they execute in the renewables market to make sure they’ve got it the right way around.
If the investment team operates in isolation of all the other teams that play a part in meeting a fund’s Retirement Income Covenant obligations, it’s a recipe for failure, according to a panel at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium.
Barrow Hanley is cutting exposure to US markets where valuations have become increasingly stretched despite strong company fundamentals and switching into Europe, Japan and emerging markets. The manager warned that AI’s ability to be monetised is still “an unproven bet”.
The Actuaries Institute has urged the government to get on with the job of finishing its Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms and move on to the introduction of “guidance” as a bridge for super funds to use between fact- or information-based help and full-blown financial advice.
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