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.
Block heading to PNG for new CIO role
Michael Block, the former general manager of investments at FuturePlus and, before that, Workcover NSW, has accepted the position of chief investment officer for Papua New Guinea’s main pension fund, Nambawan Super Ltd.
Block expects to take up the position, based in Port Moresby, towards the end of June.
Block left FuturePlus Financial Services, which handled investments for Energy Industries Super, Chifley Financial Services and Local Government Super, in 2011 and has been subsequently consulting to a range of funds and managers, including AMIST, NSW State Super, BNP Paribas, Insight/Pareto Partners and BlackRock.
Nambawan Super, which has about A$2.5 billion (5.4 billion kina) in assets and 125,000 members, was set up in 1991 through the merger of two now-defunct funds. Nambawan looks after the super for mainly government employees in a defined contribution model.
Prior to FuturePlus, Block had designed and implemented the investment division of Workcover NSW, a A$14 billion insurance fund.
Block said of his new job that he was “hoping to have an adventure and give back by doing some good for mankind”.
