Industry fund-owned ‘The New Daily’ is once again in political hot water after a controversial deal with AustralianSuper to auto-subscribe 800,000 of the fund’s members to the publication. ‘The New Daily’ has become a bee in the bonnet for a number of Liberal backbenchers, most notably NSW Senator Andrew Bragg, who has characterised the publication…
It’s approaching orthodoxy that a merger is always in the best interests of members. But is bigger always better? What is the true price of scale? Leeanne Turner, Spirit Super’s inaugural chief executive, told a CMSF audience in May: “If you’re not considering a merger then you either have your head in the sand or…
The recovery from 2020’s “massive period of turbulence” hasn’t lifted all boats, and there are still plenty of bargains to be had if you know where to look. Gareth James, Morningstar’s Sydney-based equity research strategist, expects Link Group, for instance, to bounce back from “a tough few years” of regulatory changes and the loss of…
No evidence has been presented to support the need for new proxy advice regulations. Rather, an army of investors have argued against them. So who do the reforms really benefit? The Government is facing an uphill battle on proxy advice changes as industry stakeholders, including the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, savage proposals that would…
Magellan Financial Group’s ‘FuturePay’, launched with a fanfare last week (June 1) after considerable pre-launch publicity, heralds an escalation in a retirement products arms race. Both big super funds and fund managers are scrambling for positions in the race, which is expected to have strong demographically driven growth for years to come. Magellan, arguably the…
NSW’s Local Government Super has launched a sweeping rebrand as part of a bid to win new members. Can funds of a similar size – $13 billion – survive in a new world of mergers? Local Government Super will be renamed ‘Active Super’ in a move that was considered “very carefully” as part of its…
Super funds are under increasing pressure to do more on ESG but have been warned to keep their noses out of the climate debate. Super funds need to “close the gap” between commitment and implementation of ESG principles, with only a quarter of funds having a quantifiable performance target in place to ground the implementation…
Nobody questions the need to fix super, although there appears little consensus on what needs to be changed and how. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s October “recovery” Budget delivered an unwelcome surprise to the $3 trillion super industry: a slew of reforms under the title ‘Your Future Your Super’ which could fundamentally alter retirement outcomes. The changes,…
Treasury’s proposed changes to proxy voting advice have met with fierce resistance from Ownership Matters, which warned the reforms could have a chilling effect on corporate accountability in Australia. The reforms, which were proposed in the interests of “strengthening the transparency and accountability of proxy advice”, would require proxy advisers to provide their research to…
