Universal hedge fund standards in sight: David Neal

Institutional investors are reaching tipping point in persuading hedge funds to adopt customer focused practices, David Neal, chief executive of the Future Fund, told a meeting of  investors in Melbourne last week. If enough hedge fund managers sign up to the Hedge Fund Standards Board then such service will become the norm, believes Neal. Most … Read more

Catholic Super prefers Mercer’s admin for retirement

Catholic Super has started the process of switching its administration to Mercer, partly to gain flexibility in providing complex retirement products. The fund has around a quarter of its members in the retirement phase and offers 10 tailored retirement investment options, but it now wants to add hybrid options which give members a measure of … Read more

Equip adapts MyPension after customer feedback

Equip has introduced the flexibility to take between 4-7 per cent income from its MyPension product launched in July last year. The product is currently live with 20 members, with several hundred pre-retirees registering an interest in signing up. Feedback from the latter group has led to the original setting of 7 per cent income … Read more

My memories of Mavis: Colin Tate

Colin Tate, the chief executive of Conexus Financial, remembers industry legend Mavis Robertson who died on Tuesday. As a young ad sales guy on the trade title Investor Weekly I was very unsure of how to take Mavis the first times we met. She was the formidable and seemingly dominating woman that knew everyone and … Read more

Mavis Robertson remembered

Two of Mavis Robertson’s closest colleagues have paid tribute to her role in the creation of superannuation as we know it and her inspiration to those within the industry. Together with Garry Weaven, chair of IFM Investors and ME Bank, she was one of the instigators for a compulsory superannuation system for all Australians. Weaven … Read more

Tax break for rich worst public policy since white Australia

Tax breaks in superannuation for the rich is the worst piece of public policy since ‘white Australia’, Garry Weaven pioneer of industry funds said at Conexus Financial’s 18th annual Investment Administration Conference. Addressing over 200 superannuation professional Weaven spoke on how most countries view Australia’s system as close to perfection, but despite this significant changes … Read more

The Future Fund sees data governance as critical

The Future Fund says it is incumbent on investors to analyse data to understand and reduce costs. The fund is augmenting and enriching its custodian’s data with information from other providers, like Bloomberg, to run stress and crash testing on a daily basis, identifying currency and derivative exposure. Campbell McCulloch, head of investment operations at … Read more

AustralianSuper contemplates foreign outposts

AustralianSuper has posed the question of whether it should have its own investment management and currency hedging teams based in Europe and America. Peter Curtis, head of investment operations at the $85 billion fund, who was speaking at the Investment Administration Conference in Sydney, said this was a model used by larger pension funds internationally. … Read more

There is no one-size-fits-all best practice for super: APRA

There is no-one-size-fits-all way of complying with prudential standards, an APRA representative told delegates at the Investment Administration Conference. Robyn McMahon, general manager, diversified institutions division at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, urged funds to look at the intent of the standards and to think about what they were able to do to fulfil its … Read more

Branton is CareSuper’s new general manager investments

Suzanne Branton has been appointed as the new general manager, investments at CareSuper, after eight years at Equip Super as a senior portfolio manager with responsibility for asset allocation. She moves to the $10 billion fund after Greg Nolan’s decision to step down as general manager, investments. An additional two people will also be recruited … Read more

Asset recycling vital for protecting vulnerable people in NSW

The only way to protect the vulnerable in society is to protect the budget, Premier Mike Baird asserted ahead of next month’s election in New South Wales, in defence of his program of asset recycling. New infrastructure projects funded by the sale of existing assets are the lynchpin of the Liberal Premier’s plan to protect … Read more