Good news for super funds – member contributions are way up
20 January, 2015 One of the key characteristics of Australia’s super system has been the steady decline of net inflows over time, with growth in outflows outstripping growth in inflows – equally true of APRA funds and SMSFs. In the second half of 2014, we had been hearing anecdotal evidence from APRA funds clients that […]
Read more...SMSFs – new cost data reveals an expensive status symbol
For the past couple of years we’ve been having an ongoing discussion with one of our clients about SMSF cost data released by the ATO and relied on by much of the industry in the debate about costs. Our client’s view was that average costs of SMSFs released by the ATO were significantly understated. Because […]
Read more...FSI – active managers need to find their voice
15 December, 2014 David Murray is probably not top of the Christmas card list for active managers this year. After all, they just got a chunk of the blame for the FSI’s conclusion that the Australian super system is not realizing the full benefits of scale: “costly asset management and active investment strategies” is the […]
Read more...FSI Final Report – future of default super
The Financial System Inquiry final report is in, and we will discuss its super-related sections over the rest of December. In proposing some radical but narrow changes, it’s an uneven and underwhelming effort likely to be superceded in importance by the tax white paper. For a report aiming to improve the efficiency of the overall […]
Read more...Super in 2025 – a big industry, but also a brutal one
What will the super industry look like in 2025? For those who didn’t make it there, this was the subject of our presentation at the 2014 ASFA Conference. Unless compulsory SG is abolished, the growth of super is assured. It will be huge by 2025 – around $5 trillion in assets, depending on how […]
Read more...Retail lapse rates: what are we missing?
The life insurance industry is already battling rising lapse rates and claims, declining sales growth and sub-hurdle returns on capital. The release of ASIC’s review of retail life advice, and particularly the surveillance findings, will lead to further soul-searching – even if the surveillance was not random but targeted AFSLs and practices with the highest […]
Read more...Active managers are doing better than you think
The active/passive debate has been raging for years, fuelled most recently by research from the Grattan Institute (and subsequently seized upon by the Financial Systems Inquiry) focussing on reducing the cost of super as we discussed in an earlier Trialogue. Our house view on the issue will come as no surprise to most of you: […]
Read more...Retail managed fund flows: signs of recovery?
We’re in the midst of preparing the latest edition of the Tria Retail Managed Funds Review – a quarterly subscription report that provides regular insights into the Australian retail funds landscape¹ – so we thought this week’s Trialogue would be a nice opportunity to share some high-level observations from our June 2014 release. The last […]
Read more...LICs: making a comeback – but tread carefully
Listed Investment Companies – or LICs – have been making something of a comeback lately with the net number of new LICs on the ASX at levels not seen since 2005, as today’s chart shows. It hit fever pitch when Investors Mutual raised $185m into the newly minted QV Equities – well above their minimum […]
Read more...Hunting for growth in a mature market
Why does growth matter? This is a question we field more often than you might expect. It’s a question which will be confronted more often in a super industry where growth generated from members and net cashflows is now only marginally positive in many cases. “Why does growth matter” is an easier question for the […]
Read more...