Joe Dowling
Global co-head, BAAM
9:00am - 9:05am
Welcome
9:05am - 9:30am
Rates, regulation and redistribution are all increasing. Are investors entering a new regime of higher inflation and volatility? What impact does this environment have on valuations, particularly as central banks reduce their influence? What investment style is most conducive to this market regime?
Presentation unavailable
A capital allocator’s dilemma in a zero-yield world with higher inflation is how to construct a robust, balanced portfolio that can also withstand equity-market sell-offs.
Alternative strategies can be incredibly useful as a flexible tool to solve risk and return problems, but they are largely under utilised by asset owners in Australia. Alternative strategies form a key part of the Future Fund’s portfolio toolkit. This session examined how the use of hedge funds and alternative strategies has evolved over time for Australia’s sovereign wealth fund.
10:20am - 10:50am
Market inefficiencies can erupt due to temporary supply and demand imbalances, regulation, information asymmetries and market psychology among other reasons. This session explored how to exploit these opportunities in a market-neutral manner.
Managing a portfolio during a bull run is easy. The challenge comes in protecting clients during severe market downturns. What does the design and implementation of portfolios that can withstand market surprises look like?
11:20am - 11:45am
Prior to joining Blackstone, Joe Dowling led Brown University’s endowment fund, as chief executive and previously a chief investment officer. Over trailing three, five, and 10-year periods, Brown endowment is placed in the top ventile of its peers, according to data maintained by Cambridge Associates. This session drew on his experience to discuss the lessons learned for using hedge funds to enhance long-term risk-adjusted return.
Joe Dowling
Global co-head, BAAM
11:45am - 12:05pm
As the role of bonds as a diversifier dwindles, what are the alternatives? This session looked at the replacements for bond strategies including volatility strategies, and the benefits and challenges associated with this path.
12:05pm - 12:25pm
The Your Future Your Super (YFYS) reforms challenge the use of absolute return funds. In this exclusive keynote David Bell, executive director of The Conexus Institute, released new research on how funds can not only live with the YFYS performance test, but demonstrate a pathway forward which is consistent with asset owner best practice, namely total portfolio management.
12:25pm - 1:00pm
The Your Future Your Super reforms have created challenges for absolute return funds. This session covered the impact from the suggested benchmarking to passive indices reforms and the unintended consequences. It looked at how industry is facing into these challenges and what the path ahead for the asset class looks like.
1:00pm
Conference close
9:00am - 9:05am
Welcome remarks from Brett Clark at TAL Australia.
9:05am - 9:45am
This session considered the challenges faced by the whole insurance industry, both locally and abroad. Further analysis will consider the role for international best practice, AI and behavioural economics in improving engagement.
- Is there an ongoing role for group insurance within superannuation?
- Can insurance ever move beyond being a grudge purchase?
- What innovations can we expect around products, experience and affordability?
9:45am - 10:15am
A perennial challenge in making life insurance well understood and embraced by the public is the perceived gap between the promise and what is ultimately delivered when it comes time to claim. This session explored the gaps and how a more universal approach or innovations in terms can help to reduce complexity.
- How does group insurance sit alongside other worker compensation schemes?
- How do we make sure consumers understand the risks when part-time or unemployed?
- Would enforcing the voluntary code improve member outcomes?
10:15am - 10:45am
In its role as prudential regulator for insurance and superannuation, APRA oversees both sides of the provision of group insurance in superannuation. Recently APRA released a letter critical of how insurers and super funds are working together. This session explored the regulatory framework for provision of group insurance in super, with respective specialists from the two APRA divisions.
This session explored the overarching regulation of provision of group insurance in superannuation. It also explored the challenges of the current environment, particularly those associated with the stapling aspects of the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) reforms.
Adrian Rees
General manager, superannuation division, APRA
10:45am - 11:15am
Where are we on the global health pandemic? What are the key drivers that affect pandemic outcomes in different markets? Long COVID - What will be the longer-term mortality and morbidity effects?
11:15am - 11:40am
Healthcare has seen numerous stages of innovation over the decades. This Q&A session explored the quantum shift that will transpire once doctors can map brain pathways and ascertain the cognitive patterns behind depression, confidence and wellbeing, and its implications for work, society and insurance.
11:40am
Conference close
9:00am - 9:05am
Welcome
9:05am - 9:35am
China is a simultaneous threat and an opportunity for investors. This session, with insights from one of the world’s foremost experts on geopolitics, will look at how to navigate a worsening geopolitical situation and what it means for economic growth. Is the current course a steady state, or are big shocks, for the better or for the worse, possible and even likely?
Stephen Kotkin
John P. Birkelund '52 professor in history and international affairs, Princeton University
9:35am - 10:05am
China’s growth an evolution as an economic super power is a critical long-term issue for institutional investors. This session will examine the risks and opportunities in the Chinese equities markets and how investors can best gain access.
Matthew Kempton
Deputy chief investment officer and director, equities, Funds SA
The reflation trade, reopening narrative and the weak US dollar have led investors to be enamoured with emerging markets again. While emerging markets have benefited from the reverberations of the pandemic, where do future opportunities and vulnerabilities lie?
Daniel J. Graña
Portfolio manager, emerging market equity, Janus Henderson
10:30am - 11:00am
As investors make net zero portfolio pledges they are working through strategies to achieve those goals in the short and long term. This session will examine the tools available to assess stocks on different climate scenarios and what value destruction or uplift they have.
11:00am - 11:30am
The evolution of the market structure provides an opportunity for a highly active, high-conviction, benchmark-agnostic approach to investment decision-making. But where does the alpha reside today?
11:30am - 12:00pm
This session will look at the persistent global macroeconomic themes driving markets over the long term. It will examine how themes like technology, climate change, healthcare, inflation and geopolitics are impacting global equity markets and how a deep understanding of these in equities markets can drive insights across the total portfolio.
Ayaz Ebrahim
Managing director, portfolio manager, emerging markets and Asia Pacific equities, J.P. Morgan Asset Management
12:00pm - 12:20pm
In this session Canada-based consultant CEM Benchmarking will examine the use of internal and external funds management by pension funds around the world, highlighting the associated impact on costs, performance and resources.
12:20pm - 12:45pm
This session will examine the internalisation of equities in super funds, looking at the resources, technology and talent required as well as the governance and processes that enable best practice.
12:45pm - 1:15pm
This session will look at the implications of the performance test on the way super funds invest in equities. With the heavy consequences attached to performance test failure, there is a large risk that funds allow the performance test to dominate how they manage portfolios, potentially to the detriment of member outcomes. This session will look at potential unintended consequences including shortened time horizons, increased turnover and more passive investing.
Simon Hudson
Head of equities, UniSuper
