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.
The sheer weight of investment by superannuation funds in private markets and growing concerns about opaque valuation methodologies has stirred ASIC into action, with the regulator today outlining its planned work on regulatory settings, with a focus on valuation methodologies, particularly when asset values are under stress.
UniSuper has appointed Alec Cameron, Hazel Bateman and Rebecca McGrath to its board of directors.
Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States will stress-test the established rules of politics, trade and investment like never before, and will pose far greater challenges to investors than they faced during his first term. The Investment Magazine Chair Forum heard that the boards and management of superannuation funds must be finely attuned to the coming policy shifts and their impacts.
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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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