Super funds have a relatively simple problem in accumulation. Everything about investing during this phase has a two-fold goal: generating the best possible returns, and amassing as much savings as possible for members. But fiduciary investors could be negotiating as many as five dimensions of members’ needs in decumulation, and it’s difficult to meet all of them.
Investors are heading back into real estate as adjustments in interest rates start to come through. More asset owners are on the lookout for opportunistic investments in commercial property, but fewer have conviction in residential buildings due to perceived government policy instability and lack of return record.
A range of investment operating models exist within the superannuation industry. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard that this may prove to be one of the industry’s great strengths, as long as the boards and management are sure that the model they operate under best suits their views of the world and how they want to serve members.
Macquarie’s willingness to use its own balance sheet to stand alongside UniSuper, as well as the manager’s boots on the ground, were two factors that helped it clinch the $140 billion super fund’s decision to commit US$400 million ($610 million) to a renewable energy fund, the Fiduciary Investors Symposium has heard.
Financial advisers have invested heavily in lifting professional standards and uplifting consumer confidence. But Colin Tate AM writes that in one fell swoop, the government could completely undermine a decade worth of blood, sweat and tears by bringing in a second tier of advice that advantages large institutions and encourages vertical integration.
Under-18 workers in Australia could have $10,000 more in savings at retirement if a rule that currently denies compulsory super contributions unless they work more than 30 hours a week is abolished.
Emergency Services Superannuation Board (ESSSuper) has commenced legal proceedings in the Federal Court against Iress and its wholly owned subsidiary Financial Synergy Holdings.
Mega fund AustralianSuper said it is still feeling the pain from its very public loss in US software company Pluralsight, and even with $341 billion of assets under management, a $1.1 billion write-down is still too big a chunk of money to let go easily. But at the Fiduciary Investors Symposium, the fund’s senior private equity portfolio manager Robert Schnittger, said the most important thing now is to learn the lesson and “not lose money the same way twice”.
As private credit markets continue to get broader and deeper, asset owners have become increasingly sophisticated about how they think about and how they access the asset class, the Fiduciary Investors Symposium has heard. Private credit remains attractive even as wariness about the weight of capital-chasing opportunities in some sectors.
The 2024 Global Pension Transparency Benchmark, produced by Investment Magazine sister publication Top1000funds.com in association with CEM Benchmarking, has found the Australian funds in the benchmark have lifted their game significantly. Only Canada is still doing better.
The appointment of former Industry Super Australia boss Bernie Dean to the C-suite at Cbus may well provide CEO Kristian Fok with valuable advice on how to handle the political and media maelstrom surrounding the construction industry super fund’s ties to now-defunct trade union the CFMEU. But it is also a tell-tale sign the super wars are in full swing ahead of the federal election.
Andrew Lill departs REST on Friday, less than five years after taking the helm as the fund’s first chief investment officer. He reflects on the challenges facing his successors and for other super fund CIOs, naming technology and especially artificial intelligence, as having the greatest influence on the task of managing members’ money.
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