Industry & regulation
Super funds must prepare for ‘tomorrow’s problems’, says outgoing APRA deputy
In an exclusive exit interview with Investment Magazine, APRA deputy chair Margaret Cole has warned that super funds need to prepare for a radically different threat environment and that controversial changes to director tenure limits are aimed at future-proofing a “precious system” against mounting cyber and AI risks.
Featured Homepage Posts
Why governance beats TPA label when it comes to performance
The narrative around the total portfolio approach is rife with claims about how much performance it can add over the traditional strategic asset allocation model, but Paul Newfield, deputy director of consulting at Frontier Advisors, argued a good governance structure is a more reliable driver of returns than whichever portfolio construction method an asset owner adopts.
Investments
Super funds grapple with hidden AI cross-exposures as boom runs on
As super funds work to understand their total portfolio exposure to the artificial intelligence thematic, a complex picture of hidden betas and “attachment points” is gradually emerging. They also need to figure out how to play the same thematic in the “tricky” China market.
Operations
Frontier gets ‘final piece in puzzle’ for OCIO solution
Frontier Advisors has locked down a custodian for the outsourced investment service it created through a lift-out of State Super’s investment team and says that it is ready to start shopping its services to the 20-plus targets it has already identified.
21 July, 2026
Insurance in Super Summit
19 August, 2026
Retirement Leaders Summit
13 – 15 October, 2026
Fiduciary Investors Symposium
Culture
‘Every opportunity has to earn its place’: How the Future Fund built a TPA culture that scales
The total portfolio approach has allowed Australia’s sovereign wealth fund to capture the themes that will power markets and economies for decades to come, said director of thought leadership Craig Thorburn – but that doesn’t mean it’s not hard to scale.
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
Pension Policy Podcast: Relieving members of the longevity risk burden
In Episode five of the Pension Policy Series, Allianz Retire+ chief executive David Kane joins Conexus Financial acting co-chief executive and editor-in-chief Aleks Vickovich to assess the commercial landscape for retirement income solutions across super and advice. Retirement remains only a small part of Australia’s $4.5 trillion superannuation pool. Kane says funds have been slow to implement the Retirement Income Covenant, and many responses to date have been cut-and-paste. Funds have built strong accumulation capability over more than three decades, but they lack the balance sheets to guarantee retirement income, raising the prospect that without the right solutions, members may be left carrying longevity risk themselves.
Governance
What a brief encounter with Elon Musk taught me about the limits of capitalism
A brief encounter with Elon Musk in 2013 showed that he would not flinch at rolling the dice, writes Conexus Financial founder and managing director Colin Tate AM. But SpaceX’s mega-IPO demonstrates that citizens, regulators, capital allocators and advisers need to decide whether they are comfortable with who is holding those dice.
Governance
ACSI says ASX must work hard to ‘rebuild trust’ following governance inquiry
The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, the proxy adviser serving a host of profit-to-member super funds, says it is “critical” the ASX address shortcomings identified in an ASIC review of its governance, capability and risk management frameworks.
Industry & regulation
Laggards drag down super’s death benefits progress: ASIC
ASIC has warned that a tail of underperforming superannuation trustees risks undermining industry-wide progress on claims handling more than a year after the regulator excoriated funds for dragging their feet on death benefits claims.
Investments
How Cbus built its new Australian equity strategy from scratch
Ryan Riedler, head of ASX core strategy, Australian equities at Cbus, says the fund will look to generate alpha locally through engagement and that internalisation will help it strengthen its connection with other market participants, as well as its brokers and service providers.
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.
