Leadership & profiles
AustralianSuper’s new CIO faces $410b renovation job
Shaun Manuell becomes chief investment officer at AustralianSuper at a point when the nation’s largest super fund is under pressure on short-term investment and member performance. With the fund projected to hit $1 trillion in assets by 2035, the AustralianSuper insider’s legacy in the role will be defined by whether the fund can become more operationally sharp, globally coordinated and high-returning as its portfolio and the investment landscape grow increasingly complex.
Technology
The ‘shadow AI risk’ haunting super funds
Super funds are coming under increasing pressure from APRA and ASIC to demonstrate how they’re using and thinking about AI. For many of them, the AI “shadow risk” in their organisations might be greater than the footprint of their official program.
Investments
How AMP is using AI to hone its competitive edge
The big geopolitical and macroeconomic events of the last six years haven’t changed the investment game, according to AMP CIO Anna Shelley, but they have changed where you play it. The fund is also looking to its investment managers for AI innovations and examining the opportunities in the total portfolio approach.
ESG and sustainability
PRI turns 20 as responsible investment enters a contested era
The Principles for Responsible Investment has marked its 20th anniversary in an ASX bell-ringing ceremony today, underscoring the mainstream acknowledgement responsible investment has gained over the past two decade even though the movement faces persistent political headwinds in the US.
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.
Investments
With YFYS changes, the nation-building poker game is reaching showdown
The performance test ‘side pocket’ proposal in the just-released Your Future Your Super consultation paper removes barriers to investing in nation-building, but that does not mean that there will be more investment as a result. Understanding why requires looking at both sides of the table.
