Despite repeated warnings by regulators to do better, too many super funds remain woefully unprepared to deal with fraud, scams and cyberattacks, the Investment Magazine Chair Forum has heard. The regulators have also told the forum that many funds continue to miss the opportunity to learn from insights provided to them through customer complaints.
The Conexus Institute’s 2026 State of Super report says that up to 21 funds representing $400 billion in assets could merge in the near-medium term, with “sizeable consolidation” now possible in the for-profit fund sector.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court, currently the corporate regulator’s top enforcer in the Shield and First Guardian scandal, will succeed outgoing chair Joe Longo. The appointment comes as ASIC prepares to deliver an exclusive briefing on super fund scam protections at the Investment Magazine Chair Forum on Wednesday.
The annual Investment Magazine Salary Survey has revealed that 19 superannuation fund chief executives were paid more than $1 million in the 2025 financial year as funds try to attract and retain executives who can take on the challenge of leading the increasingly complex organisations.
AI risk is moving out of public markets and into credit and real assets, according to a report from Mercer, which says that funds must think about diversification differently to avoid overlapping exposures.
Super Members Council has argued that ASIC should include more examples of “modern aggressive” advertising tactics – like those used to lure investors into Shield and First Guardian – in its updated guidance on financial services advertising.
HESTA’s purchase of a minority stake in its administrator, Grow Inc., shows that member services have become existentially important to the industry after a slew of regulatory and court actions.
AustralianSuper CIO Mark Delaney, ART chair Helen Rowell and TelstraSuper head of equities Dominique d’Avrincourt will join a new ASX advisory group in an “important step” for the governance of the domestic listed market.
From cyber-attacks and credential-stuffing scams to fragile third-party ecosystems, the super system is facing a reckoning about how resilient it really is. As the implausible becomes inevitable, funds must sharpen their focus on operational risk.
Damien Webb, deputy CIO and head of international at Aware Super which oversaw the fund’s ambitious UK expansion, is returning to Australia to lead the investment operations at the $37 billion Queensland-based Brighter Super.
Frontier Advisors CEO Andrew Polson says the business has a “five-year window” to make its new outsourced CIO offering successful but says that the work it’s done firming up its growth plans and prospects will see it become a “very profitable business”.
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