Super

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.

Minimum drawdowns aren’t meant to be a default, but plenty of members use them that way. Frontier Advisors wants funds to pay them a “retirement wage” instead.

Fundies are getting with the internal management program but they don’t necessarily like it, according to new data from Frontier Advisors. Especially with a new army of gatekeepers arrayed before them.

First Super inhabits a world of giants, but it’s not considering a merger and it’s not sweating its size. That doesn’t mean it’s not “chronically anxious” about performance and costs.

As the fund contemplates managing $700 billion by 2030 it’s looking for new ways to invest with a global portfolio mindset and chase hot assets in local markets to drive value creation for its members.

The way super funds make money for their members is going to have to change, according to Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage. But retail funds might prove to have a natural advantage as the whole system shifts into a new gear.

The prudential regulator wants to publish more granular details of how funds spend and invest their members’ money in an initiative it hopes will improve transparency in the $3.5 trillion super sector.

The $160 billion fund says that its essential worker housing program stacks up as an investment for both its members and the country’s future. But current policy settings mean few funds can follow its example.