Target date funds; the start of a big adventure

This article contains the views of AMP, Mercer, ASIC, Frontier Advisors and Michael Drew professor of finance at Griffith Business School on the subject of target date funds. Three to four million Australians are about to embark on a very exciting experiment. They are to choose a date when they envisage finishing work and then … Read more

Tasmania super merger edges closer

The first stage in the potential merger of all three prominent Tasmanian based superannuation funds drew a step closer after Quadrant and Tasplan agreed merger talks. The two funds are to enter into a Heads of Agreement to investigate whether a merger would create an improved provision of superannuation services to the members and employers … Read more

State Super to gain admin savings of $65bn fund

State Super is to gain the economies of scale of sharing a common administration platform, due diligence, manager appointments and reporting with TCorp and the Safety, Return to Work and Support Division. The NSW treasurer and the minister for finance and services have announced the merger of activities to gain greater cost efficiencies for each … Read more

CBUS members welcome income projections

CBUS has gained a 97 per cent approval rate from members for statements which confront them with an estimate of their income in retirement in today’s dollar value. The building industry fund conducted the exercise with 20,000 members to raise awareness that taking the lump sum was not the only option on retiring. Since the … Read more

Sunsuper: a growing provider of private capital

Sunsuper is expanding its investment team to help it take greater advantage of investment opportunities. The fund, which runs $28 billion in assets, is increasingly using its size to negotiate exclusive partnership deals with fund managers to purchase property, loans, infrastructure and private companies. Currently around 29 per cent of the fund is invested in … Read more

How new privacy laws impact trustees

The most significant suite of changes to privacy law in over twenty years take effect on 12 March 2014. In order to comply trustees must have a privacy complaints process and a new type of privacy policy. Most importantly they must control how the personal information they collect is stored, accessed and used, or risk … Read more

ASIC guidelines on advertising MySuper

The culture of performance and fee comparison that the MySuper product dashboard will bring about in the coming years, poses a grand opportunity for funds to advertise their relative successes. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission is closely watching for any misleading product comparisons, it would prefer if funds did not emphasise short term performance … Read more

Cost of Stronger Super leads to Media Super cutting CIO role

The cost of Stronger Super compliance and product development has led Media Super to cut the role of chief investment officer. Jon Glass left the fund on Monday and the responsibility for the $3.8 billion investment portfolio will be assumed by chief executive Graeme Russell, who in his time at First Super also acted as … Read more

Sunsuper expands investment team to 18

IFM Investors' COO Lounarda David

Sunsuper has increased the size of its investment team to 18 with the appointment of Lounarda David to the newly created role of investment operations manager. She joins from Mercer and will be responsible for reviewing the $26 billion fund’s risk management, performance reporting, unit pricing, custody operations, document management, legal and tax. David Hartley, … Read more

QSuper creates 36 styles of communication

In QSuper’s bid to create mass personalisation of retirement outcomes it has created 36 different types of communication for members. Speaking at the Post Retirement Conference in Sydney, Michael Pennisi, chief strategy officer at QSuper, revealed how an attitudinal survey, along with age and gender had helped create the profiles. “With each of those profiles … Read more

Brogden calls for radical retirement reform

John Brogden has asked politicians to think the unthinkable on post-retirement reform. Speaking at the annual Post Retirement Conference in Sydney, the chief executive officer of the Financial Services Council called for a rise in the preservation age to “at least” 62, a convergence of pension age and preservation age, restrictions in the ease with … Read more

Industry fund helps members choose SMSFs

Energy Super is offering to give self-managed super fund advice to members it sees at most risk of leaving to manage their own investments. Ben Moles, manager of member and employer services at the fund, told delegates of the Post Retirement conference in Sydney, if the fund was involved in the process of members leaving … Read more