Emslie becomes AIST president

Angela Emslie, the chair of HESTA, has become the new president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST). Emslie has been a director of AIST since 2007, during which time she has represented AIST on the Strong Super Governance Working Group and helped its fund governance and educational guidelines. One of her ambitions in … Read more

Stronger Super will fail to significantly reduce fees

Stronger Super will only succeed in reducing fees by 0.1 per cent and further competition is needed to match the low investment costs achieved in other countries, a damning report from the Grattan Institute has claimed. The report entitled Super sting: how to stop Australians paying too much for superannuation is authored by Jim Minifie, … Read more

For how long will Japanese equities boom?

After two decades of disappointment Japanese equities posted an incredible 57 per cent return in 2013. Leading institutional investors met in Melbourne to discuss if there is more growth to come. Investing in Japanese equities comes with the baggage of around 20 years of underperformance relative to other developed nations. The causes have been a) … Read more

QSuper segregates pension assets

QSuper has segregated $10 billion in assets held for members in retirement to capitalise on greater tax efficiencies. The change is expected to lead to asset re-weightings to take advantage of the absence of capital gains tax for pension assets. It is also part of a general move to optimise outcomes for different cohorts of … Read more

What is your fund doing about this graph?

Over 13 years of writing about pensions the graph below is one I have barely seen, but over the last few weeks it has popped up three times. Twice it was used to illustrate post-retirement product innovation and once on TV to illustrate a point about the benefits of people retiring at 70 instead of … Read more

Tackling lawyer led insurance claims

Some of the most influential people in the group insurance space met in Sydney in March to discuss the sustainability of the sector. The group discussed initiatives to limit lawyer-led insurance claims and to improve data standards. The superannuation member who makes a total and permanent disability (TPD) claim through a lawyer and ends up … Read more

Cbus wants impact study of pension at age 70

Cbus is to undertake an examination into the potential impacts on its members of shifting the pension age to 70. The fund has 700,000 members in the building, construction and allied industries, many of whom find it hard to continue manual work until their sixties. David Atkin, chief executive of the $22bn fund, said that … Read more

Door opens onto full Chinese equity market

The diversity of Chinese equity portfolios is to increase when the number of companies accessible to foreign investors doubles at the end of 2014. The China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Securities and Futures Commission is to allow international investors access to companies listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, where previously they were limited to … Read more

The great post-retirement opportunity

Australia has the opportunity to lead the world in post-retirement products and export its know-how, according to Moshe Milevsky, the internationally renowned author and academic from Canada. The finance professor at York University in Toronto, who is an author of several books on retirement income, spoke at the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Investment … Read more

Managers bullish on Chinese and Indian corporate debt

Australian investors are being urged to increase their exposure to Chinese and Indian credit, owing to imminent political change, low default rates and high yields. Corporate emerging market debt represents only 5 per cent of the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Corporate Index, but AXA Investment Managers has double this exposure in several of its strategies. … Read more

Super Fund Awards’ finalists announced

The finalists of the Chant West/Conexus Financial Super Fund Awards have been announced by the research house Chant West. The fund ratings firm has named finalists across 10 categories, including Super and Pension Funds of the Year. Those nominated for Super Fund of the Year are AustralianSuper, CareSuper, Equip, HOSTPLUS, MLC, Plum, QSuper, REST, Sunsuper, … Read more