Systematic trading that encouraged high volatility over the past week has benefited stock pickers, according to John Pearce, chief investment officer of UniSuper. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 3.56 per cent on August 24, one of its largest ever one day falls creating stock picking opportunities for funds. Pearce said the falls … Read more
Funds experienced a higher than usual number of members switching out of growth assets in the market turmoil of the past few weeks, but nowhere near as high as the switching levels of 2008. Better communications have been attributed for the lower levels of switching as US markets experienced one of their largest ever one … Read more
The position of chief investment officer at AMIST Super was made redundant on Friday after an internal review of business needs. Megan Pham was chief investment officer at AMIST Super for five years, joining the super fund in 2010 after working at NGS Super as the assistant investment officer and at Mercer as a research … Read more
The job of Rob Fowler, chief investment officer of HESTA, is about to change significantly. He still has the same job title, but a team restructure means he will spend less time on day-to-day investing, and more on strategy and innovation. HESTA has joined the ranks of the world’s most sophisticated funds by raising the … Read more
Industry bodies have given mixed reactions to the Assistant Treasurer’s issuing of a consultation paper which is seeking stakeholders’ views on changing the financing of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to an industry funding model. The new model would be based on the Government’s Cost Recovery Guidelines where the cost of regulation would … Read more
Out of the largest 15 superannuation funds women are most satisfied with the financial performance of self-managed super funds (SMSFs). Based on a survey of 16,431 women with superannuation accounts Roy Morgan’s research shows 78.8 per cent were satisfied with SMSFs while the highest ranked institutional fund was QSuper at 72.7 per cent (see box). … Read more
Open competition is one way of reducing fees, but is no guarantee of higher returns. Tom Garcia, chief executive of AIST, makes the case for collective ideas on reducing fees that do not impact on returns. Plenty of people seem to think super fund fees are too high, but like many of the meaty issues confronting Australia’s … Read more
A confident public speaker and a voice on investment trends and macroeconomic conditions, Brian Parker joined Sunsuper in the newly created post of chief economist in June, after nearly 10 years at NAB Asset Management. He shares with Investment Magazine his perspective on what has been driving share prices to fall. It’s not just the last … Read more
AustralianSuper aims to substantially boost its level of digital advice engagement with members over the next 12 months, according to a senior member of its advice team. “Traditionally industry funds have had a very high level of disengagement…but we are starting to see, as people are in the system a bit longer, that’s starting to … Read more
The Government’s change to the threshold at which inactive funds can be transferred to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) will hit membership numbers and put upward pressure of fees, agrees the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and SuperRatings. The current $2,000 threshold will increase in two phases—first to $4,000 from December 31, 2015, … Read more
More attention needs to be paid to different age groups in assessing the gender gap in superannuation savings, believes Equip. Last week the Melbourne based research house Roy Morgan released a study which showed, in the 12 months to June 2015, women with superannuation had an average balance of $101,900 compared to men with an … Read more
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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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