Analysis

Valuations are never going to be “perfect”, but that doesn’t mean super funds shouldn’t be working harder to make them more accurate – and more intelligible to the people who really matter.

The Future Fund might make a bigger contribution to the budget if it was liquidated, according to the Centre for Independent Studies, which argues that its returns haven’t been that impressive even as its benchmark gets harder to beat.

Build-to-rent has become the model of choice for institutional investors looking to pad their returns and alleviate Australia’s housing crisis, but a different approach might make everybody better off.

Having “skin in the game” is usually a boon for performance and client alignment. But when managers put their money where their mouth is, they don’t invest it sustainably according to a Swiss report.

Ongoing tightness in the US labour market, together with stickier than anticipated inflation, could counteract any softening of monetary policy by the Fed and lead to a bumpy economic path according to Ninety One’s Iain Cunningham.

With assets representing ten per cent of global GDP tipped to be tokenized by 2030, those deploying capital are keen to identify and harness the inherent opportunities. And Australia is leading the way.

The industry super collective logo has become one of the industry’s most recognisable symbols and a full-blown memetic in its own right. Its genesis was in a campaign to get retail funds to take their “beaks out of the carcass”.

Rising interest rates and changing demographics are driving increasing polarisation between countries that can easily issue and refinance debt and those that can’t, with major implications for sovereign debt investors, says Franklin Templeton Institute’s Kim Catechis.

Inflation is likely in a transitory phase, yet remains stuck on high settings. Sovereign funds around the world are adjusting accordingly, Invesco says, with 5 major themes charting the course of institutional investors.

Mergers aren’t costless and big super can’t necessarily be counted on to clean up the long tail of unsustainable small funds. Solving the problem might require thinking outside the box.

Sovereign bonds from countries with real environmental credibility and a compelling strategy for decarbonisation make a fine addition to institutional portfolios. The trick is figuring out which bonds belong.

Australian super funds and asset managers shouldn’t ape their international peers when it comes to unlisted investment practice, according to Frontier, and demand for more frequent valuations will ultimately be worn by members.