Super

A new report “from the coalface” of super fund investing has gone some way to quantifying the cost of shonky investment management, with members potentially losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A number of super funds managing less than $10 billion have been slugged with an increase in their restricted APRA levy of more than 80 per cent even as the regulator pushes them to keep costs down.

Australia’s biggest super funds disagree on what the new Your Future, Your Super performance test should look like, but they both think the consequences for failure should be just as weighty – and apply to everybody equally.

The $280 billion ART has become the latest megafund to set up an offshore outpost as it looks to secure “even more compelling investment opportunities” for its 2.3 million members.

The new Super Members Council wants to work with both sides of politics to improve the superannuation system. Keeping ISA’s controversial marketing campaign on the outside will help.

The industry fund is a cornerstone investor into Fidelity’s new logistics real estate fund, tipping in around A$130 million as it looks to grow its allocation to impact investments.

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.

A significant chunk of the world’s largest institutional investors are doing what the market tells them and moving faster on asset allocation changes and investment decisions as uncertainty spikes.

Australia’s superannuation system hasn’t seen the end of consolidation, according to Mercer, with megafund mergers on the horizon and the number of small funds likely to drop precipitously.

Investing with a manager when they’re winning is usually peak risk, but that’s what a lot of funds do. Meanwhile, passive investing remains “the elephant in the room”, even as it allows for greater freedom to invest in alpha-generating assets and strategies.

Australia’s biggest super fund has slashed the headcount in its Melbourne-based global equities team as it prepares to build out a new crew in its rapidly expanding London office.

It’s tempting to think of the latest review into Your Future Your Super as just more regulatory tinkering, but experts think there’s a good chance it will give the industry a real solution to the unintended consequences of the performance test.