Jump in Vision Super’s cash flow coincides with 70% increase in financial planning meetings

A concerted effort by Vision Super to ramp up the financial advice it provides has coincided with an increase in positive cash flows, roll-ins and retention rates. The number of financial advice meetings with fund members jumped from 1,431 in 2014 to 2,422 in 2015 – an increase of almost 70 per cent. In addition … Read more

HESTA has not specified return target for impact investment fund

HESTA has not specified a return target for its $30 million impact investment fund, reasoning the range of opportunities (including equity, property and debt) was so wide it would be inappropriate to restrict its fund manager in this way. At the beginning of September HESTA announced it had partnered with Social Ventures Australia (SVA) to … Read more

Kinetic Super pursues diversification at the board level

Kinetic Super has appointed Jodie Leonard as an independent director to its board, concurrently meeting two of its objectives; increased gender diversity, and getting ahead of proposed legislation to have one-third independents. Gender diversity has been advocated by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), with a recently commissioned study showing a doubling (to 20 … Read more

Nicolette Rubinsztein to leave CBA and join UniSuper

Nicolette Rubinsztein is to leave her position as general manager, retirement, at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and join UniSuper’s board as an independent director from December 1, 2015. She will succeed Melda Donnelly, whose term ended in August, as the third independent on the board, bringing with her a skill set in retirement … Read more

Chairs say governance changes are unnecessary and risky

The chairs of AvSuper and CareSuper say proposed legislative changes to superannuation boards will increase risk to a sector that has not experienced wide-spread issues with governance. While the chair of UniSuper, who is an independent, was more reticent in his criticism he too foresaw problems with changing the size of boards – a necessary … Read more

A team of teams – how Innes McKeand is building in-house equities at AustralianSuper

AustralianSuper is likely to have 20 people on its in-house global equities and Aussie large and small caps teams by next year as the fund grows towards $150 billion, with a further 10 looking after external manager portfolios and strategy. Innes McKeand, head of equities, believes the implementation of this strategy will save $150 million … Read more

Aon Master Trust taps colleagues in Retirements and Investments Solutions to support CIO

Janice Sengupta is to pass some of her investment duties onto colleagues in Aon’s Retirement and Investment Solutions business. The move follows her promotion to head of Aon Master Trust, while remaining the chief investment officer and director of the $2.9 billion super fund. Both Aon Master Trust and Retirement and Investment Solutions are part … Read more

Sustainable investors on the “right side of history”

World leaders have called for sustainability reporting by companies to become normal practice and for such metrics to be used by investors. The UN Sustainable Development Summit at UN headquarters in New York has created global goals for stock exchanges, investors and companies. The launch was celebrated with a special closing bell ceremony at the … Read more

CEO of Mine Wealth + Wellbeing resigns

Bruce Watson, chief executive of Mine Wealth + Wellbeing (formerly AUSCOAL Super), will leave the super fund over the coming months after 23 years of service to Australia’s mining community. Watson is the sixth superannuation and investment chief executive to resign since July – the other resignations were from Victorian Funds Management Company, TCorp, QSuper, … Read more

Gloomy forecast for Japanese corporate governance

A pessimistic view of Japanese corporate governance reforms was heard by prominent Australian institutional investors last night at the CFA Market Forecast dinner in Melbourne. Charles Yang, chief investment officer of T&D Asset Management and past chair of the CFA Institute Board of Governors, gave his assessment of the stewardship and corporate governance codes launched … Read more

HOSTPLUS will never divest from infrastructure

HOSTPLUS will never divest from infrastructure, despite record valuations, because of the cash flow it brings into the fund coupled with the rarity of obtaining the asset. At a time of high valuations in the asset class, research by some organisations such as Frontier Advisors, has suggested the selling of infrastructure might be a good … Read more