Govt opens consultation on super performance test
Treasury has released a consultation paper on the superannuation performance test, addressing concerns from funds that the benchmarks are restricting their investment choices.
Ditching finance stereotypes key to recruiting women to investment teams
Aware Super’s head of income assets, Sonia Baillie, believes investment teams in super funds are still facing a huge “industry image problem” derived from the masculine Hollywood-style fund manager stereotype. At the fund’s International Women’s Day event, she said getting more women into core portfolio management and trading roles will really “move the dial” on closing the gender pay gap.
Super sector celebrates political win on paid parental leave
The Albanese government has announced it will pay super on taxpayer-funded parental leave, earning praise from executives and lobbyists in the super industry, who have pushed for the policy for decades. But since it may not be implemented until after the next election, and Labor has a track record of backflipping on this issue, some activists and commentators are sceptical it will be delivered.
Super fund assets flow to social housing after slow start
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 names Scott Tully as product head
REST has appointed Scott Tully as general manager of product in a bid to enhance the fund’s member offers.
Australian women vulnerable to TPD impact: MLC study
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 commits $35b UK investment by 2030
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, ISPT acquire Western Sydney logistics site
UniSuper has invested in a 280-hectare greenfield logistics development site near the new Western Sydney International Airport (WSA).
The problem with ‘universal owner theory’ for climate-conscious funds
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.
‘Fight tooth and nail’: Coalition appoints super warrior as shadow minister
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 recruits ex-AusSuper exec to beef up member experience
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.
Musk is from Mars, independent directors are from Venus
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.
