The Future of Super

Jeremy Cooper, former chairman, Retirement Income at Challenger, and Kate McCallum, director and wealth adviser, Multiforte Financial Services, bring to life the realities of retirement advice – where it is now, how it can be better and what to retiring Australians really need to know. Both Cooper and McCallum praise Michelle Levy’s Quality of Advice Review for its call for bold reforms in the sector that they believe will remove barriers for more Australians to access good advice.

Skye King, head of ESG and Responsible Investment at NGS Super, and Fiona Mann, head of listed equities & ESG and LGIA Super and Energy Super – now Brighter Super, talk to Fiona Reynolds, chief executive, Conexus Financial about ESG and what it means to investors today. With ESG now in the mainstream, leading superfunds are turning to their relationships with managers to ensure responsible investment considerations are integrated at all levels of decision making. Making sure managers are best in class in seeking out responsible investment considerations is essential to integrating ESG into portfolios.

Superannuation funds are laser focused on the numbers around cost and performance for members, but aren’t always up to par on member experience, particularly post-retirement, experts say. When facing a difficult choice between keeping fees as low as possible or investing some revenue in better systems to help members engage, data shows members are willing to pay for a better experience.

Cate Wood, a former national chair of Women in Super and past president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees speaks in depth with Robbie Campo, a Cbus executive and passionate advocate for the economic security of women in retirement about equity in super, why women are still falling behind their male peers, the thorny issue of tax concessions and the problems which will be faced by an aging Australia

With politicians questioning an apparent harmonisation of superannuation funds' influence in local markets, Investment Magazine's Matthew Smith invites to Unisuper's Luke Barrett, general council at Unisuper and academic David Gallagher, to discuss concentration and intent of investment teams and their proxy advisers as they grow in size and influence relative to the public markets and private assets they invest in.

ACSI CEO Louise Davidson and Aware Super CIO Damian Graham speak to Investment Magazine’s Stewart Hawkins about two issues affecting Australia’s super landscape – globalisation and governance. Are super funds in Australia running out of local assets to invest in? If so, where are the opportunities?

UNSW governance and litigation expert Scott Donald and former risk officer advising trustee boards Damian Murphy talk to Matthew Smith about accountability of trustee directors and the impact new rules and recent regulatory actions will have on the structure of profit-for-member funds.

Robert Walters’ Associate Director and Recruitment Specialist Mel Munro and Mercer Principal and Human Resources Consultant Michael Moses talk to Investment Magazine’s Stewart Hawkins about the vexing question of remuneration in the super industry, who should get paid what and why – an issue made particularly complex because of the compulsory nature of the way funds collect assets and the fiduciary duty they have to their members.

Outgoing chair of Togethr Trustees Andrew Fairly and Chant West general manager Ian Fryer talk with Investment Magazine's Matthew Smith about the great consolidation trend as well as run the ruler over some recent deal structures and funding situations before making predictions for how further consolidation will play out.