The switch in focus to retirement incomes, ahead of the introduction of the Retirement Income Covenant, was evident at the annual SMSF Association conference last week. Deborah Ralston said: “Super has been a bit overdone”. Ralston, one of the panellists on the Government’s Retirement Income Review (RIR), which handed down its report in July 2020,…
It’s easy to miss the wood from the trees in the mish mash of arguments back and forth about a range of views on what our super system should look like. But in the current melee, the importance of last year’s Retirement Income Review is not being missed. ASFA took the opportunity to publicly release…
If APRA wants to continue to encourage super fund mergers the regulator needs to make some changes to how it goes about its approvals process, according to one chief executive who is going through the process of having a successor fund transfer (TFR). Speaking at last weeks’ annual ASFA conference (on February 11), Leeanne Turner,…
Amundi Asset Management, Europe’s largest fund manager, has launched two strategies to build on its ESG-related offerings, a European equities and US equities fund, both of which focus on companies which are improving their ESG credentials. The three points of differentiation with the new funds are: an exclusion policy covering companies which sit outside the…
They may be late to the party compared with Europe but companies and investors in the Asia Pacific region have taken to ESG principles and practices in a big way. They are particularly concerned about ‘greenwashing’, according to BNP Paribas. In a webinar for the region’s media earlier this month (February 5) three ESG specialists…
New Zealand investment administrator MMC has acquired the remaining half of Australian administrator IFAA Group from interests associated with its managing director and co-founder Neil Harvey. Harvey, who remains in the managing director role after the deal’s completion, said the firm would continue to look for expansion opportunities outside IFAA’s traditional base of Queensland. He…
Lifecycle strategies have some problems. One, is how they compare their performance. Two, is how they explain their asset allocation. And three is whether they really fit APRA’s regulatory definition for a MySuper default fund. Alex Dunnin, the executive director of research at Rainmaker Research, who has been studying lifecycle products for the several years…
Aware Super is re-thinking its international exposures, particularly relating to China, and how it manages them as it expects they will continue to grow in importance within the $130 billion fund’s overall portfolio. “We haven’t taken any money out [of China] but as a minority investor we just think we should pause at the moment,”…
Maritime Super, the 53-year-old $5.8 billion industry fund for maritime and waterside workers, plans to merge its investments with those of Hostplus, the 35-year-old $53 billion industry fund for the hospitality industry, but retain its separate board, self-administration and branding. The announcement last week (February 11) followed earlier and lengthy discussions between Maritime and Mine…
One would expect the inventors of the RAFI index to apply fundamental research to their work. When they turn to something as ephemeral as cryptocurrencies, the results are also entertaining. The Research Affiliates Fundamental Index (RAFI) is the strategy which kick-started the smart-beta trend; the best-known strategy developed by California-based manager Research Affiliates in 2005….
