Momentum is building within the sector for super funds to move beyond a traditionally risk-averse culture to one that encourages well-managed risk-taking, especially around designing innovative retirement income products for members, according to latest survey from FEAL.
If anyone needs a measure of the superannuation system’s growing clout in global geopolitics, look no further than Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to prioritise a meeting with industry super fund bosses in Sydney over meeting the Australian Prime Minister. It’s a reminder that in the face of an increasingly hostile relationship with the US, the so-called “middle power” nations are using pension capital to rewrite the rules.
Funds wanting to earn an “Epic Retirement Tick” from the Epic Retirement Institute and researcher Chant West will face more stringent criteria from later this year. Institute founder Bec Wilson and Chant West general manager Ian Fryer say that funds are starting now to improve their services in response to the original criteria, after initial hostility to the consumer-facing assessment tool.
Aware Super has driven a significant increase in the number of retired members drawing down more than the minimum amount from their account-based pensions, in the pilot phase of a new digital advice platform. The $210 billion profit-to-member fund expects the impact to be replicated when it makes the platform available to all members.
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.
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