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.
Concerns around global governments running unprecedented debt levels have been well-documented, but PGIM’s top fixed income strategist Robert Tipp said this new reality has both good and bad news for bond investors. The key lies in different nations’ economic approaches.
Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation has released its annual report for the 2024 financial year, posting a 9.1 per cent return for its Balanced MySuper option.
Since early September, 10 of TCorp’s client portfolios have operated under a new investment structure, dubbed OneFund. Chief investment officer Stewart Brentnall told the Fiduciary Investors Symposium that the reorganisation is expected to deliver an additional $400 million to $450 million to the NSW Government every year.
The Magnificent Seven is a catchy moniker but investors have been warned that not all of them will live up to the name. In fact, some active equity shops are ready to pounce on the non-discerning market by gaining exposure to the ‘Formidable Two’ – best of the best names in the Magnificent Seven that will likely alone outperform the group.
Insignia Financial has picked up talent from life insurer TAL to create a new strategy and innovation team with a focus on driving innovation in retirement solutions for the MLC Wealth brand.
Some asset owners believe active ownership has become a strong portfolio diversifier and that taking an informed “interventional stance” with companies can add value. Other times, active ownership is an important part of damage control, including in cases such as the recent WiseTech scandal.
As the biggest fish in the pond, AustralianSuper’s behaviour as an activist shareholder is bound to attract attention and criticism. But its roles in recent corporate actions involving WiseTech and Mineral Resources, and earlier involving Origin Energy, suggests the $342 billion behemoth has a clear playbook for dealing with perceived ESG issues in its investee companies. The boards of every company it invests in should take note.
AustralianSuper’s first chief retirement officer, Shawn Blackmore, is leaving after 17 years with the super fund.
Portfolio resilience is the latest buzzword but the first thing to understand is that it does not only mean a portfolio’s ability to withstand drawdowns. Secondly, building resilient portfolios isn’t about predicting bad scenarios, but preparing for them, the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium has heard.
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.
