Super

Some of super’s best performers this year are also its smallest, and new research from Frontier finds that asset allocation is more influential than size and scale when it comes to generating alpha.

The quality of advice review opens the door for super funds to become a one stop shop for their members’ financial advice needs. But keeping things simple is key.

Fewer funds failed the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) test than last year – but plenty of passes have come from managing to the constraints of that test.

A UniSuper member has accused the fund of potentially breaching its trustee obligations and the Corporations Act in a case reminiscent of one brought against Rest in 2018.

“Talent incubator” Future IM/Pact has partnered with four of Australia’s biggest super funds to help women into frontline investment roles. Investment internalisation is driving some of the interest.

APRA has issued Vanguard a superannuation licence as it prepares to launch a disruptive play for Australia’s gargantuan retirement savings pool.

ASFA wants the YFYS performance test benchmarks tweaked to account for the exclusions and negative screens that faith- and values-based funds use.

Hostplus CIO Sam Sicilia believes the trillions of dollars washing around super could be put to good use in nation-building projects – and that criticisms of investing in unlisted assets are an “absurdity”.

Overseas, Australia’s biggest super fund is a small fish in a massive pond. To achieve the scale it wants it will have to dive deeper into the private markets, meeting stiff competition from its North American peers along the way.

“If you don’t know where you are in a bear market, then you should be in the game… We get asked: ‘is it too late?’ Our view is that it’s never too late to think about defensive strategies.”

“The industry should not be happy to simply sit somewhere in the middle… Increased transparency will drive increased analysis and action. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

The spectre of early release still looms large over the industry, and super’s true believers want its purpose legislated to prevent Australia’s retirement savings from becoming a crisis piggy bank.