Australia’s superannuation system can weather financial shocks, geopolitical fragmentation and liquidity crises, but the biggest threat to its stability might be the perception that it can’t. An Investment Magazine roundtable, held in partnership with Northern Trust, has heard that funds need to be just as mindful of shocks to member confidence as they are to financial risks.
The Conexus Institute executive director, Dr David Bell, and research fellow, Dr Geoff Warren, discuss key legislative reforms currently in the pipeline that need to be expedited by the government to support funds in their development of better outcomes for members.
While other asset owners grow increasingly cautious on the United States – even as regulation, peer comparison and plain old FOMO keep them from moving away from it – Mercer Super chief investment officer Graeme Miller told Investment Magazine’s CIO Series podcast that those worried about concentration risk are missing a bigger picture.
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund has returned 11.7 per cent over the last 12 months, growing to a record $269.1 billion and shrugging off a turbulent March quarter shaped by the Iran conflict and stagflation fears.
Mercer Super chief investment officer Graeme Miller believes the traditional investment frameworks that asset owners have used for decades remain fit for purpose – but that technology is the one force reshaping everything fast enough to demand a genuine portfolio response. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Miller argued that while equity markets will … Read more
The nation’s largest profit-to-member super fund has selected Ignition Advice as its partner to roll out digital financial advice to 3.6 million members starting later this year. The move comes as a growing number of funds turn to digital services to improve the access and affordability of advice to members, especially as they transition into retirement.
The prudential regulator has written to super funds to warn them that their information security practices and governance are struggling to keep pace with an increasing number of AI threats – especially those posed by “high capability frontier models” like Anthropic Mythos.
Founded in 2024, Retirement Magazine is a print and digital publication for decision-makers in and over Australia’s retirement system, including superannuation fund C-suite executives and trustee boards, regulators, policymakersand influencers including academic researchers, industry and consumer advocates. Its goal is to be a “nudge” to the system to encourage world-leading policy and business settings for the decumulation phase of superannuation.
Former Morningstar Investment Management APAC chief investment officer Matt Wacher will join JANA as its new CIO as rival asset consultant Frontier Advisors prepares to bring its own outsourced CIO solution, powered by the former State Super investment team, to market.
Superannuation complaints to AFCA are on track to exceed 8000 this year, a second consecutive year of around 30 per cent increases. Heather Gray, who is retiring in May after six years as lead ombudsman for superannuation, told the authority’s Member Forum that the answer to reducing complaints lies in empowering funds’ IDR teams and communicating with complainants and AFCA early. The forum heard that handling unreasonable people is a critical skill.
More than 1.5 million Australians aged 65 and over are sitting in accumulation phase, paying tax they don’t need to pay. The Actuaries Institute has a plan to fix that, and it doesn’t ask funds to do anything the government and regulators aren’t already pushing them to do.
The $170 billion fund has cut administration fees from 0.16 per cent to 0.08 per cent, following a platform migration completed in 2022 and a pension book that has roughly doubled in five years. Head of retirement income Darren Williams says that for now the fee is as low as it can go.
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Updates on the latest industry policy developments and regulation
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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.
