Prime Value Asset Management nabs former industry fund CEO
Prime Value Asset Management has appointed former Prime Super chief executive Lachlan Baird as chief financial officer.
Next steps for the super funds leading on retirement
Regulators remain eager for super funds to further progress their retirement income strategies, but a handful of funds are demonstrating pathways forward. David Bell and Geoff Warren examine the emerging best practice of combining support and guidance mechanisms with retirement solutions.
The AI boom might have peaked
The AI boom is nearing its end, according to Thijs Knaap, chief economist at APG, the Dutch asset manager overseeing €577 billion ($950 billion) on behalf of 4.6 million participants across a range of different pension funds. He warns that every innovation, including AI, experiences a peak of inflation expectations which are not fully realised.
The ART of moving 1.4m members to a higher-risk strategy
The biggest risk many super fund members face is not investment volatility but rather not accumulating enough to live on in retirement. Australian Retirement Trust head of investment strategy Andrew Fisher takes Investment Magazine behind the scenes of a migration that saw 1.4 million members moved to a higher-risk, higher-return investment strategy, designed to help them accumulate more at retirement.
Funds could face ASIC court action over poor death benefit claims handling
ASIC could launch enforcement action against super funds whose handling of death benefit claims falls short, ASIC commissioner in charge of superannuation Simone Constant has warned. She says a joint regulatory approach gives ASIC and APRA better oversight of how funds are performing on matters that are critical to members.
Hostplus admits global fundie woes pose risk to external manager strategy
Hostplus chief investment officer Sam Sicilia has declared that for as long as he and chief executive David Elia are overseeing the $110 billion fund, there will be no investment internalisation. However, he acknowledges that if the institutional asset manager business model comes too much under pressure, it poses risks and instability to Hostplus’ externalisation model.
Global equities drive NZ Super FY24 gain; strategic tilting falters
NZ Super has returned close to 15 per cent in the 2024 financial year as tech enthusiasm and declining inflation resulted in a strong run in global equities. However, one of the fund’s main value-adds, the strategic tilting programme, has had a rare negative return.
MLC Life appoints two executives
MLC Life Insurance has appointed Gerard Kerr as chief executive of individual business and Jane McGovern as its chief customer and strategy officer.
Hostplus launches digital education tools
Industry super fund Hostplus has launched a digital education tool, SuperSmart, in collaboration with super fund licensee and advice services providers, Industry Fund Services, and Iress.
ASIC wins 95pc of prosecutions in first half of 2024
ASIC has had a success rate of 95 per cent in its civil and criminal prosecutions conducted in the first half of 2024 calendar year, securing $32.2 million in civil penalties and nine criminal convictions.
CFMEU saga spreads as APRA takes First Super chair to court
First Super co-chair and former CFMEU boss Michael O’Connor has stepped down from his role at the helm of the $4.5 billion industry super fund after the prudential regulator took legal action against him for allegedly hiring a CFMEU official in the fund’s contracted work. The lawsuit suggests the aftermath of the federal government’s forced administration of the infamous construction trade union is rippling beyond Cbus to other corners of the superannuation sector.
Industry farewells legendary journalist and publisher
Superannuation and financial advice industry leaders were among the hundreds of mourners at the funeral of Greg Bright in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Thursday. Leng Ohlsson, one of countless journalists and employees mentored by Bright, reflects on a man who cared about people first and foremost – even willing to occasionally prioritise friendship over the story.
