Some of Local Government Super’s ideas on ESG arise from a requirement that even its most red-blooded active manager must research it as part of their investment process. Chief investment officer, Craig Turnbull, says: “We will only use managers that think about ESG factors when making their investment decisions, so that it is making a … Read more
How are the people responsible for ensuring accurate and timely measurement of financial performance and compliance obligations coping with new APRA requirements? A group of chief financial officers, their advisers and service providers met to discuss the issues. A pdf copy of the discussion “All funds agree that there needs to be more information delivered … Read more
Superannuation funds would like their custodians to be providing more liquidity and stress testing of their assets. Partly this is being driven by regulation, partly by trying to make sense of increasingly diverse and dynamic portfolios. It is also important in calculating the management expense ratios needed for MySuper on product dashboards. The following quotes … Read more
Come July 1, 2014 trustees are faced with an unpalatable choice caused by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority rules on what insurance they can offer. Either they give all members insurance in line with the regulations or they retain the existing offer for those who joined before that date and give the revised deal to new … Read more
The Federal budget in May is to prioritise measures that will help states sell off brownfield infrastructure assets, the assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos has promised. Speaking at a Value Alliance gathering in Sydney, Sinodinos said state governments would be offered incentives to use money gained from asset sales for building new assets – spending that … Read more
A key ingredient for success in any organisation is strong leadership. It is common in the corporate world for the chief executive to change every five to 10 years as the organisation evolves. Are the same principles true for large institutional investors? Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, who also leads … Read more
A leading academic has called for a review of whether the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) is limiting the growth of the financial services sector. Professor Rodney Maddock of Monash University says that no such review of APRA has taken place since its formation in 1998. Maddock, who was formerly a senior executive at the … Read more
NGS Super has cut the cost of launching a direct investment option for members by using a white-labelled platform from Mercer. Anthony Rodwell-Ball, chief executive of NGS Super, said developing such a platform was prohibitive, but the whitelabelled product from Mercer was half the cost of a tailored platform. Mercer already provides administration and member … Read more
The internet has been empowering for many consumer decisions, but can it empower the public on retirement investments? Anyone planning an overseas holiday can look at pages that rank hotels, restaurants and travel experiences in order of popularity and customer satisfaction. They can search for the most convenient and cheapest flights, for currency conversions and … Read more
Prime Super and Health Industry Plan (HIP) have announced an intention to merge in order to create a combined fund of $2.4 billion in assets and 150,000 members. The new fund will be known as Prime Super, it will be headquartered in Melbourne and will go live on May 1st. The deal has taken a … Read more
Industry funds are taking steps to appoint independent trustees ahead of any government decree forcing them to do so. In contrast to media reports that have depicted industry fund boards as fighting the Treasury proposal to have at least a third of their directors independent of employer or employee organisations, several funds are already changing … Read more
The superannuation industry climbed a mountain in meeting new reporting requirements in 2013 and can do the same again in 2014. David Braga, chair of the Australian Custodial Services Association, attributes the success to close co-operation between funds providers and APRA. “The initial (reporting requirements) draft that APRA issued at the end of 2012 was … Read more
The investment intelligence behind Australia’s largest asset owners and their teams
In-depth interviews with leaders, experts and visionaries in the institutional investment community
Updates on the latest industry policy developments and regulation
The challenges and innovations of custody, technology and operational due diligence
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.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land upon which Conexus Financial sits, the Cadigal of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respects to them and their culture, and to Elders both past and present.
