ESG and sustainability
Australia’s greenwashing fix has a greenwashing problem
ASFI’s sustainable finance taxonomy was meant to make greenwashing harder. But with the framework now being piloted by a slew of asset owners, banks and rating houses, there are lingering questions as to whether it does the opposite.
Financial Advice
New pathways to retirement as govt green-lights new class of adviser for super funds
Super funds will find it easier to provide guidance and advice to members under regulatory reforms announced by the Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino. Trustees who breach their obligations will also be required to remediate members for losses, and the government will crack down on predatory lead generation.
Industry & regulation
Gap between retirement leaders and laggards has grown: ASIC
A year after regulators put super funds on notice about the unacceptable gap between the best and the worst of responses to the Retirement Income Covenant, the situation has become even worse. The Retirement Leaders Summit in Canberra heard that the leading funds treat retirement as a core business, while the laggards still see it as a compliance exercise.
Featured Homepage Posts
JANA’s implemented consulting swells to $18.8 billion as competition heats up
JANA’s implemented consulting business has grown to $18.8 billion, powered by new mandate wins from insurers, universities and charities, just as rival Frontier Advisors readies a competing solution aimed at the very same clients.
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
3 – 4 February, 2027
Chair Forum
18 – 20 May, 2027
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Technology
The real warning in the Future Fund’s new AI prediction
The Future Fund’s new position paper is useful for anybody trying to imagine the possible futures of our increasingly wild present, but it is the AI threats that are already emerging that investors should spend their limited attention budget on.
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
Govt to ban unlicensed super communications
Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino will unveil the government’s response to the Shield and First Guardian incident and “harmful lead generation” in the super system in a milestone address to the National Press Club on Wednesday. Among a suite of new regulatory measures, the government is expected to introduce a ban on “real time” super communications issued by unregulated entities.
Governance
CGT, negative gearing reforms reflect Australian values
Labor has built a generational political brand, and one that endures in the face of some major challenges here and abroad, Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate told the 50th ALP National Conference in Adelaide. But it must push back against extreme demands on AI and technology if it is to boost productivity and seize a huge economic growth opportunity.
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.
Mergers & acquisitions
Super system on the inexorable path towards ten mega-funds
With the super industry facing into headwinds that raise the floor on minimum scale and increase complexity, the pressure towards further consolidation should ultimately prove unstoppable, and a natural end-point could be ten mega-funds over $200 billion in size managing more than 90 per cent of system assets. The path to that destination, however, could be bumpy.
ESG and sustainability
ASFI statement on Investment Magazine opinion
This is a response to the opinion piece on ASFI’s sustainable finance taxonomy in Investment Magazine. The Australian Taxonomy helps users check whether an activity that plays a stable or growing role in Australia’s transition makes a positive contribution to the goals of the Paris Agreement. It provides a set of technical criteria for users
Featured Homepage Posts
Aware Super hunts hidden AI exposures as concentration concern grows
The $245 billion Aware Super says that around 15 per cent of assets in its high-growth option are exposed to the AI thematic, but says that finding the portfolio’s true concentration will require looking beyond simple dollar aggregation. Head of investment strategy Michael Winchester unpacks the approach and why the fund has to be “really discerning” with where it allocates to in the future.
