The global CEO of the US$10.4 trillion ($16.7 trillion) Vanguard Group says investors and regulators are right to be cautious on private markets but that the index giant would consider partnering with managers to bring the asset class to its customers for a lower price tag. The comments follow ASIC’s landmark report into how super funds are investing in private assets.
Entireti will rebrand the former AMP licensees it acquired last year to Akumin. Entireti acquired AMP’s financial advice businesses, including AMP Financial Planning, Hillross and Charter Financial Planning, which had been temporarily operating as NewCo. Akumin houses those offers including AMP Financial Planning, which will be rebranded to Akumin Financial Planning. Late last year, Entireti … Read more
Australia’s sovereign wealth fund has thrown its weight behind one of the most influential activist investors in Japan as it builds out its exposure to active equities.
The delegation of super fund leaders and lobbyists that headed to Washington DC and New York last week was a milestone moment for the industry’s global influence and may have even aided Australia’s economic relationship with the US. But some funds say the trip failed to meet their best financial interests duty assessment, and attendees are now being asked by the Senate to justify the costs.
The prudential regulator’s latest fund-level expenditure data shows funds’ advice costs totalled $1.7 billion in FY24, including $1.52 billion paid to external advisers. Funds spent just $82 million on intrafund advice, and $99 million on their own advisers.
The superannuation industry should develop its own customer code prescribing minimum service standards for fund members before government fills the gap and imposes ill-fitting regulation on it, the Investment Magazine Chair Forum has heard. This will only become more important as member demands for service increase, and the sector becomes a higher profile target for fraud and scams.
Investors have plenty of reasons to be bullish about China’s financial markets in 2025, according to Peking University professor and one of the country’s top economists, Yao Yang. The optimism stems from tech stocks’ continued rally and expectations that the central government will soon shift to a looser macroeconomic policy stance.
As superannuation funds grapple with their obligations under the Retirement Income Covenant, Brighter Super is creating advice capacity by building on expertise it inherited when it merged with Suncorp Super. Chief executive Kate Farrar says there’s been “a lot of learning” on how to work with advisers, but already more than a quarter of the fund’s members have received advice.
Conexus Financial is pleased to announce the appointment of leading financial services reporter Lachlan Maddock as senior journalist at Investment Magazine following the relocation of Darcy Song to Singapore as Asia-Pacific correspondent. The new line-up underscores the growing and global influence of Australia’s institutional asset owners.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has confirmed it will proceed with a public consultation on capital settings for annuity products.
Super funds’ operational infrastructure, be it internal or outsourced, has struggled to keep up as funds have transitioned from a cottage industry into large, complex financial organisations servicing many members. The Conexus Institute is concerned that underdeveloped infrastructure is holding back the industry from delivering high quality retirement income strategies.
As Treasury consults on a set of principles for delivering optimal retirement income solutions, it’s clear that super funds must develop a much deeper understanding of members. But earlier submissions to Treasury on the retirement phase of superannuation showed that funds still struggle when it comes to gathering what they need to know about members to inform important decisions, with gaps in their knowledge and difficulties accessing shared information.
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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.
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