Some members are excited for retirement, while others approach it with a “real sense of shame and fear”. Funds are going to have to figure out how to cater to both groups or risk failing them all.
If there’s one lesson for investors from the past five years, it’s that chopping and changing their strategy – even in the face of massive market turmoil – doesn’t always pay.
Investors have concluded “ABC” – Anything But China – but there’s a compelling case for this calculated risk, according to Ruffer’s Duncan MacInnes.
Opening up early access to super for housing would have a negative effect on the balances of even those members that don’t dig into their savings, with funds forced to adopt more conservative investment strategies and hold more liquid assets.
The circa $88 billion industry fund for workers in health and community services reckons that alleviating the affordable housing crisis will boost its other investments by easing the cost of living and inflation.
The chief member officer of the circa $90 billion profit-to-member fund will step down after “nine terrific years” in the role with the fund now commencing its search for a replacement.
The near $100 billion construction industry fund has blundered into an ugly governance and administration debacle, and it’s unlikely that ASIC will let it off easy. Nor should it, with funds increasingly failing to provide their members with key services.
Australia’s superannuation funds have nearly the highest proportion of internal asset management in the world, but there’s plenty of questions hanging over the practice even as funds push into more expensive niche asset classes.
The boondoggle about superannuation marketing spend is mostly theatre, and does nothing to answer the question of what is really in members’ best financial interests.
APRA’s new superannuation expenses data – and the granular information it contains about donut and coffee purchases – begs the question: how much transparency is enough?
Varun Laijawalla from Ninety One shares insights with James Dunn from The Inside Network on what investors are suited to emerging markets.
Alex Lennard from Ruffer shares insights with Laurence Parker-Brown from The Inside Network on whether the previous strategies will continue well in a new regime.
Wenchang Ma from Ninety One shares insights with James Dunn from The Inside Network on any substitute for going out and meeting companies on the road.
Alison Shimada from Allspring Global Investments speaks to Giselle Roux from The Inside Network on responsible investing in EM.
Hostplus’ young demographics and the mandatory nature of superannuation means it gets “a free kick before every game”. But CIO Sam Sicilia says funds must keep questioning the assumptions that underpin the superannuation system and their relationship to it.
Australia’s largest homegrown asset consultant is plotting an expansion further beyond its traditional superannuation clients, while consolidation in the industry is changing the way they work.
Your Future, Your Super makes it harder for funds to push deeper into some sustainable investment strategies, but has “counter-intuitively” resulted in funds looking to take a more complex approach to stewardship.
Finance minister Katy Gallagher has confirmed that she held informal talks with the sovereign wealth fund’s Board of Guardians amidst speculation its mandate could be changed to align it with the transition to net zero.
