Susan Thorp: The economic impact of super
Is the world’s fourth-largest pool of retirement savings being put to good use? University of Sydney Business School economist Susan Thorp discusses this at a forthcoming FEAL conference.
David Bell: Sitting on the bench as industry consolidates
Demographics and industry dynamics, along with the funds flow from retail to industry funds and from smaller funds to bigger players, have culminated a situation where most of the industry is in net outflow, says former Mine Super CIO, David Bell.
Risk aversion trumps fund balance in life-cycle fund design
A key issue in life-cycle fund design is setting the right ‘glide path’ for switching from growth to defensive assets over time. As it turns out, risk aversion is far more important than pension fund balance.
IIF: Investors highly exposed to leveraged loans and CLOs
While the world’s banks are the largest holders of leveraged loans and CLOs, new data has revealed about 40 per cent of these instruments are owned by asset managers, private equity, and hedge funds.
Evolving the City of Austin pension fund
David Veal, CIO of the $3 billion City of Austin Employees Retirement System, discussed private equity, managing strategic relationships, internalisation and adopting Norwegian investment beliefs at a recent Fiduciary Investors Symposium.
Protecting Your Super: Mythbuster
The Senate Economics Committee has recommended that the Putting Members Interests First bill be passed, further restricting default insurance in super.
ASFA’s Martin Fahy flags a change in sentiment
Group insurance can do better, but it’s wrong to say the system is broken, argues ASFA chief, Martin Fahy.
QSuper names Charles Woodhouse as new CIO
The $90 billion QSuper industry fund has promoted Charles Woodhouse to the position of CIO. He succeeds Brad Holzberger who will retire in September after serving as the fund’s investment head for 20 years.
Merger to create a $120 billion investment giant
First State Super will merge with VicSuper to create Australia’s second largest profit-to-member super fund, managing $120 billion in retirement savings for more than 1.1 million members.
HESTA appoints new investment execution head
HESTA, the $50 billion superannuation fund for health care professionals, has appointed Gerard Brown as head of investment execution.
Rediscovering fixed interest at Nebraska
The $27 billion Nebraska Investment Council is conducting a deep dive into its fixed income portfolio, inviting up to 25 current and potential external managers to pitch their best ideas. The process begins by wiping any preconceived notions around the allocation’s role in the overall portfolio and justifying its place as if from scratch. It ends two years later with the issuing of mandates.
APRA – the definition of insanity
To the surprise of no-one, the result of the capability review found that APRA was not capable of fulfilling its most basic mandate, Pat McConnell says.
