Discussion over retirement “defaults” has been heating up, but it is often unclear what the industry is actually asking for. Interviews by The Conexus Institute with super funds have uncovered support for suggesting retirement solutions to members and for contingency accounts, but not much support for opt-outs.
Australia’s retirement system works well for higher-balance members, but a large cohort enters retirement with modest superannuation balances, lower housing security and ongoing reliance on the Age Pension. Designing a system that works for everyone requires policy settings that reflect how Australians actually work, live and retire.
The dispersion between private equity and listed market returns is near the widest in history. For some asset owners, that’s a reason to hold on through the pain – even as the SaaSpocalypse looms in the background.
The boundaries between asset buckets in fixed income are blurring as sovereign and investment grade credit ratings converge, according to Barney Goodchild, head of fixed income and equity investment specialists at Aviva, which is why investors need to be crystal clear on the role they want fixed income assets to play.
Professor Dan Howard SC spent 15 months as commissioner of a NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the drug ice, produced 109 recommendations, and watched as the government sat on most of them. In conversation with Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate AM, Howard said six years on nothing has materially changed in drug policy, and that the costs land on everyone, including superannuation funds and their members.
Australia’s energy system was largely built in the late 80s and needs to be replaced almost entirely, according to Sam Reynolds, chief executive of Octopus Australia, who said the need is even more pressing with electricity demand set to soar amidst the data centre boom.
Super funds are coming under increasing pressure from APRA and ASIC to demonstrate how they’re using and thinking about AI. For many of them, the AI “shadow risk” in their organisations might be greater than the footprint of their official program.
The big geopolitical and macroeconomic events of the last six years haven’t changed the investment game, according to AMP CIO Anna Shelley, but they have changed where you play it. The fund is also looking to its investment managers for AI innovations and examining the opportunities in the total portfolio approach.
The Principles for Responsible Investment has marked its 20th anniversary in an ASX bell-ringing ceremony today, underscoring the mainstream acknowledgement responsible investment has gained over the past two decade even though the movement faces persistent political headwinds in the US.
Super funds have more than doubled their exposures to global equities in the past 15 years, but it is a misconception that the surge came at the expense of Australian stocks allocation. At the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium, investors examined the changing portfolio role of Australian equities and whether it remains a strong market for active management.
The global energy transition is accelerating, driven by rising power demand across the electrification ecosystem. The Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard how private capital at scale can harness electrification trends to create attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors.
The $237 billion megafund says that it’s ready for more mergers but that it won’t be a “buyer of complexity” in an already rapidly consolidating super system – even as it reverse the competitive outflow trend that has dogged profit-to-member super for years.
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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.
