After a few years trying to spruik their wares to asset owners, the various government-owned and not-for-profit bodies promoting social and community housing are finding some success. The Investment Magazine Real Estate Forum heard whether the market is developing as a viable asset class and reliable source of member returns.
REST has appointed Scott Tully as general manager of product in a bid to enhance the fund’s member offers.
Nearly half of Australian workers have three months’ or less savings in the event of a disability which prevents them from working, and almost a third of women only having one month of savings, MLC Life Insurance research finds.
AustralianSuper is set to increase its investment portfolio in the UK to more than £18 billion ($35 billion) by the end of the decade.
UniSuper has invested in a 280-hectare greenfield logistics development site near the new Western Sydney International Airport (WSA).
Asset owner portfolios are very heavily weighted towards public equity markets, and typically large companies in developed economies, whereas much of the negative impacts of climate change are generated by private and state-owned companies. This presents a potential flaw in the universal owner theory.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has belatedly named a Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation after an almost 12-month vacancy in the portfolio. Luke Howarth, a judo black belt and SMSF advocate, has long sung from the Liberal hymn sheet of a flexible super system and is expected to play an aggressive form of politics in his contested new portfolio ahead of the election.
Aware Super has urged its peers against getting stuck in the “old world of super” by being non-committal about digitising member experience, as the $150 billion fund recruits former AustralianSuper executive Chris Cramond to turbocharge its platform transformation. It comes as big industry funds attempt to ward off criticism that member experience has been a low priority.
The power that a “superstar CEO” wields over company board members gives rise to a range of corporate governance issues that asset owners need to recognise to protect themselves from a potential misalignment of interests between directors and shareholders.
As APRA puts the heat on super funds to improve unlisted assets oversight, UniSuper’s property head Kent Robbins is confident real estate valuation processes are stronger than other sectors such as private equity and infrastructure. Melbourne University’s Georgia Warren-Myers warned against valuing assets more frequently than necessary, and Spirit Super’s Bianca Ray has highlighted the complexity of addressing the fund’s overweight position in office towers.
With 10 years since the introduction of MySuper, the average investment performance of growth and lifecycle products have been given very different scorecards, a report from researcher Chant West shows.
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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.
