NGS Super chief investment officer Ben Squires wants the fund to become not just a top quartile but the best-performing super fund in Australia. In an interview with Investment Magazine, he outlines how the fund is betting on deeper in-house capabilities and enhanced data access to get there.
Digitisation and tokenisation are widely touted for their potential in cutting transaction costs and smoothing settlement frictions, but the technology’s real pay-off will come from promoting deeper market liquidity and higher market participation over the long-term, according to a new report from the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre.
Top industry fund, platform and insurance CEOs have advocated for advancing the drawn-out advice reforms, arguing it is critical for the industry to deliver appropriate advice and guidance at scale and adding capacity into the system, which will help prevent Australians from falling into the clutches of scammers and fraudsters.
For Australian super funds navigating scale, illiquidity and member obligations, private market secondaries represent not merely a tactical tool but a structural advantage in delivering sustainable long-term outcomes. But governance frameworks must evolve to handle their inherent conflicts, writes Arthur Marusevich.
In an interview with Investment Magazine, VFMC chief executive Kate Galvin discusses the battle for investment talent in Melbourne’s crowded asset owner ecosystem, the challenging learning curve of taking the top job during the city’s Covid-19 lockdowns, and why she won’t open the doors to external capital.
The Super Members Council has warned of an “alarming spike” in the number of Australians with small super balances and no pre-existing advice relationship switching into platform products and SMSFs, speculating that lead generators – like those implicated in the Shield and First Guardian scandal – may to be blame.
Mark Sainsbury, the first CIO of First State Super, has passed away following a short illness. Friends of Sainsbury remember him as a man of “formidable intellect, sharp investment insight and unmistakeable presence”.
Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino said legislating DBFO remains “a high priority” for the Albanese government despite refusing to commit to a 2026 deadline earlier this month. Mulino told the Advice Policy Summit, hosted by Investment Magazine sister publication Professional Planner, that the fallout of Shield and First Guardian means DBFO needs to be considered alongside stronger consumer protection.
Pensions industry leaders including Australian Retirement Trust chair Helen Rowell, UniSuper chair Mark Armour and Colonial First State audit and risk committee chair Jo-Anne Bloch have urged the Albanese government to prioritise its Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms ahead of the Advice Policy Summit, hosted by Investment Magazine sister publication Professional Planner in Canberra this week. But while they say legislation expanding access to advice is “essential”, further delays cannot be allowed to deter an enhancement of services to members.
Progressing advice reform via the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes is critical to improving retirement standards and will help reduce the risk of a repeat of the Shield and First Guardian collapse, writes The Conexus Institute’s David Bell and Geoff Warren.
In an interview with Investment Magazine, Aware Super CIO Simon Warner says the new investment team structure will help it to tackle “difficult investment challenges”, strengthen whole-of-fund decision making and make sure its portfolio is generating the best possible returns for members.
Margaret Cole’s announced departure as deputy chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has triggered a covert campaign by industry super funds to influence the appointment of the powerful watchdog. AustralianSuper and the Super Members Council deny they lobbied the Albanese government on the APRA vacancy, despite allegations levelled by senior public and private sector sources.
The investment intelligence behind Australia’s largest asset owners and their teams
In-depth interviews with leaders, experts and visionaries in the institutional investment community
Updates on the latest industry policy developments and regulation
The challenges and innovations of custody, technology and operational due diligence
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.
