Super

A rally in risk in the waning months of 2023 has pushed super fund returns into strongly positive territory, but some funds don’t want to count their chickens before they hatch.

There were 3000 super funds in 1981. But when Russell Mason retires after 42 years of trust deeds and time sheets, the world he worked in as a trusted adviser and governance expert will have only about 70 funds left.

With less than two weeks left to go, super funds will likely turn in another robust calendar year return off the back of a stratospheric risk rally.

The $300 billion super fund has taken its mandate with Churchill Asset Management to the next level in a sign that the voracious appetite for private debt from pension funds around the world remains unsated.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) has put listed companies on notice over executive pay and cyber-security in a bid to “raise the bar on governance”.

Super funds and other large institutions will be able to provide financial advice to their members following the introduction of a package of reforms that have been hailed as “transformative” for the industry.

It turns out not everybody wants flash new overseas offices. And while funds aren’t sweating the constraints of Your Future, Your Super when it comes to private markets, some assets are just better handled in the public ones – illiquidity premium be damned.

Super funds want to put their $300 billion of annual inflows to work in new renewable energy infrastructure. But policy settings, Your Future Your Super and intensifying competition for local assets could all have unforeseen consequences.

Private credit and unlisted infrastructure are on the offshore shopping list, but some funds feel illiquid assets aren’t worth the stress (testing). And YFYS isn’t just driving asset allocation decisions – it might start influencing product development too.

Following a significant technology and systems uplift, Rest feels it’s ready to do global equities in-house. That doesn’t necessarily mean its roster of external managers will lose out.

From little things big things grow, and the $75 billion industry fund hopes the impact investment commitments it and other funds have made will expand beyond their initial targets in the same way renewables did.

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) is getting bigger and more complex. To make sure that doesn’t turn into a big, complex problem, the fund has found itself a new head of investment resilience and is thinking hard about what’s really driving returns in a post-Covid world.