AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley thinks that “pervasive” macroeconomic and geopolitical changes will effect markets for years to come and fundamentally alter the investment landscape for asset owners. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Shelley argued that supply chain fragmentation, defence spending and the capital demands of AI are just some of … Read more
Australia’s second-largest retail superannuation fund, the $136 billion Colonial First State, has pulled together a multi-partner model do deliver integrated retirement income solutions to members. CFS Superannuation chief executive officer Kelly Power tells Retirement Magazine the fund has responded primarily to the needs of members and demands of advisers, rather than directly to regulatory pressure arising from the Retirement Income Covenant.
Treasury’s Best Practice Principles set a clear standard for what a retirement income solution should look like. A new implementation guide says an account-based pension alone does not meet it, and that funds still sitting on their hands are running out of time and excuses.
The new chief investment officer of the $230 billion Aware Super expects that the fund will be around for the next 100 years. To make sure it keeps delivering for members, he’s optimising the work already done to build its portfolio, thinking hard about the best way to access assets, and embracing the risk management lessons he first learned as a trader for Chemical Bank.
Asset owners are right to be concerned about private credit fund suspensions and redemption queues, Blue Owl head of alternative credit Ivan Zinn told the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium, but he thinks that two years from now they’ll be looked back on as nothing more than a “speed bump” on a highway of growth and strong returns.
Australia’s superannuation funds have the financial weight to shape geopolitical outcomes but need to band together to avoid being “divided and conquered”, according to Tom Gregg, former senior UN official and mediator, and senior international adviser at Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check.
The $50 billion investment manager for the South Australian state government is moving towards a “lite” version of the total portfolio approach, with chief investment officer Con Michalakis determined not to miss a good investment opportunity just because it doesn’t fit into an asset class bucket.
Since joining Funds SA last February, chief investment officer Con Michalakis has been on a clear mission: improve investment performance for the $50 billion fund’s 11 state clients, spanning super funds, foundations, and endowments. To get there, Michalakis has taken a deliberate approach, including introducing a “TPA lite” strategy to free the portfolio from benchmark … Read more
Treasury has deferred extending the superannuation performance test to retirement-phase products until the Retirement Reporting Framework begins publishing data in 2028, leaving about $500 billion in assets and 1.4 million member accounts outside the test’s scope.
About 200,000 Australians retire each year, superannuation balances at retirement are growing, and super is displacing the Age Pension as the main form of income for more retirees. It’s time for the government to directly offer annuities, to help turn the dream of a more comfortable and stress-free retirement a reality.
A panel of top allocators have conceded that it might be time to rethink underweights to China as the Asian superpower’s intensifying AI race with the US creates attractive opportunities and the line between government and the private sector blurs in the US.
Economist and former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin told the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium that AI doomsayers aren’t grasping the economic opportunities it will create, but that policymakers still need to be prepared for social unrest arising from displacement of jobs by AI.
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.
