Leadership & profiles
New Brighter Super CIO says $37 billion fund still looking to grow
In his first public comments since taking the top investment job at the $37 billion Brighter Super, CIO Damien Webb says he will look to generate alpha through smart investing in small caps and the Sunshine State, but that the fund is still looking to grow.
Operations
Funds scramble to link the Payday Super data chain
Payday super changes have been touted as addressing the issue of unpaid super and as putting members’ contributions to work sooner, earning them more in the long run. But the member benefits will only become real if every link in the chain between the employer and the member’s account works as it must, and there’s still a few yet to be joined up.
Fixed income
Traditional fixed income buckets no longer reflect reality: Aviva
The boundaries between asset buckets in fixed income are blurring as sovereign and investment grade credit ratings converge, according to Barney Goodchild, head of fixed income and equity investment specialists at Aviva, which is why investors need to be crystal clear on the role they want fixed income assets to play.
2026 Fiduciary Investors Symposium NSW
Why drug policy failure is a fiduciary problem too
Professor Dan Howard SC spent 15 months as commissioner of a NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the drug ice, produced 109 recommendations, and watched as the government sat on most of them. In conversation with Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate AM, Howard said six years on nothing has materially changed in drug policy, and that the costs land on everyone, including superannuation funds and their members.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Leadership & profiles
The ‘brutal pursuit’ that shaped Aware Super’s new CIO
The new chief investment officer of the $230 billion Aware Super expects that the fund will be around for the next 100 years. To make sure it keeps delivering for members, he’s optimising the work already done to build its portfolio, thinking hard about the best way to access assets, and embracing the risk management lessons he first learned as a trader for Chemical Bank.
Leadership & profiles
GESB CEO calls time: ‘Past regime of default super’ no longer sustainable
GESB chief executive Ben Palmer is set to leave the Western Australian government super fund, ending a 13-year tenure after steering the fund through the most significant change in its history. In a rare interview, Palmer examines the past, present and future of super and explains why GESB is treating platforms, not profit-to-member funds, as its benchmark.
Profiles
Why HESTA’s ‘joined-up thinking’ is one of its CIO’s favourite things
Sonya Sawtell-Rickson joined HESTA as the health industry workers’ super fund was taking steps towards investment internalisation and a total portfolio approach. She says the moves have been vindicated not only by member returns but in the “joined-up” conversations the now-$96 billion fund has with the companies it invests in.
Retirement
Funds open to pre-set retirement options – just don’t call them ‘defaults’
Discussion over retirement “defaults” has been heating up, but it is often unclear what the industry is actually asking for. Interviews by The Conexus Institute with super funds have uncovered support for suggesting retirement solutions to members and for contingency accounts, but not much support for opt-outs.
Industry & regulation
Super complaints expected to reach 8000 in 2026: AFCA
Superannuation complaints to AFCA are on track to exceed 8000 this year, a second consecutive year of around 30 per cent increases. Heather Gray, who is retiring in May after six years as lead ombudsman for superannuation, told the authority’s Member Forum that the answer to reducing complaints lies in empowering funds’ IDR teams and communicating with complainants and AFCA early. The forum heard that handling unreasonable people is a critical skill.
Governance
Third HESTA exec heads for the door in less than 12 months
The departure of the $100 billion HESTA’s chief operating officer Stephen Reilly follows those of chief executive Debby Blakey and chief risk officer Andrew Major, and is part of a shake-up among the broader senior ranks of Australian super funds.
Business strategy
Aware in growth mode after TelstraSuper merger, bucks outflow trend
The $237 billion megafund says that it’s ready for more mergers but that it won’t be a “buyer of complexity” in an already rapidly consolidating super system – even as it reverse the competitive outflow trend that has dogged profit-to-member super for years.
Investments
How asset owners are looking through private equity pain
The dispersion between private equity and listed market returns is near the widest in history. For some asset owners, that’s a reason to hold on through the pain – even as the SaaSpocalypse looms in the background.
2026 Fiduciary Investors Symposium NSW
‘It’s crazy’: More gold than bonds in AMP MySuper portfolios while funds rethink defensive plays
The shifting global economic landscape and its impact on currency markets are forcing asset owners to re-think the defensive portion of portfolios as traditional hedging techniques become less effective and new ones emerge. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium heard that for one fund that’s led to gold overtaking government bond allocations.
