Australia’s super funds are not yet equipped to assist all member types into suitable retirement solutions. From dormant members to those seeking trustee direction, the decision support services needed to cater for a diverse member base remain either only partially formed, or missing entirely.
The prudential regulator has no successor or interim appointee to replace deputy chair Margaret Cole, who stepped down today, leaving the more than $3 trillion APRA-regulated super sector with no supervisor-in-chief as scrutiny on its platform segment grows.
Whenever super fund CIOs are asked what they’re doing about AI risk, “diversifying” is always the answer. But as cross-portfolio exposures to the thematic grow and grow, that answer is no longer good enough.
Global equities have driven most of MLC’s FY26 return so far, but its exposures to insurance-linked securities and “esoteric” credit have also put in the hard yards and helped the fund diversify beyond the AI thematic, according to chief investment officer Dan Farmer.
The nation’s two largest super funds are at odds over potential changes to the performance test, with AustralianSuper saying it supports further developments to the CPI + X benchmark that could be used to evaluate “emerging assets” after Australian Retirement Trust rejected the model due to its potential to increase systemic risk.
With key inputs for AI infrastructure and renewable energy primarily found within emerging economies in Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific, we think EM investors will be beneficiaries of the global race for resources.
For a generation of institutional investors, emerging markets (EM) meant one thing: a monolithic growth bet correlated to the same macro cycle. Jan de Bruijn, client portfolio manager for Robeco’s emerging markets team, thinks that framing is now obsolete, and that EM provides the geopolitical optionality that asset owners are desperate for.
In an exclusive exit interview with Investment Magazine, APRA deputy chair Margaret Cole has warned that super funds need to prepare for a radically different threat environment and that controversial changes to director tenure limits are aimed at future-proofing a “precious system” against mounting cyber and AI risks.
In Episode five of the Pension Policy Series, Allianz Retire+ chief executive David Kane joins Conexus Financial acting co-chief executive and editor-in-chief Aleks Vickovich to assess the commercial landscape for retirement income solutions across super and advice.
Retirement remains only a small part of Australia’s $4.5 trillion superannuation pool. Kane says funds have been slow to implement the Retirement Income Covenant, and many responses to date have been cut-and-paste. Funds have built strong accumulation capability over more than three decades, but they lack the balance sheets to guarantee retirement income, raising the prospect that without the right solutions, members may be left carrying longevity risk themselves.
ESSSuper, the Victorian state fund with $12 billion in accumulation assets, has rebooted the private equity program it wound up over a decade ago in a bid to boost returns, with chief investment officer Daniel Selioutine telling Investment Magazine that exit pressures in the asset class mean it’s a good time to buy.
Neurologist Professor Matthew Kiernan says a rewarding, fulfilling and dignified retirement has as much to do with what goes on inside a member’s head as it does with money. But with funds conditioned to focus on the financial aspects of retirement, issues such as brain health aren’t getting the recognition or support they need, and members are the potential losers.
Australia has built one of the world’s most successful retirement savings systems. The challenge now is ensuring every Australian can access affordable, timely advice to turn those savings into sustainable income. Achieving that requires coordinated action across policymakers, regulators and industry – and a commitment to treating advice as a public good.
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Investment Magazine provides in-depth, monthly analysis of trends and developments for all the businesses in which superannuation funds engage‚ including asset allocation, investment manager selection, custody and fund accounting, member administration, group insurance and compliance.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land upon which Conexus Financial sits, the Cadigal of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respects to them and their culture, and to Elders both past and present.
