Fair Work super dispute – who wins in the long run?
Bismarck is reputed to have said (inaccurately it is now believed) that the law is like making sausages – you never want to see them made. To that we might addthe setting of approved product lists (APLs) – a bitterly contested process where much is at stake. This is the easiest way to understand the contention […]
Read more...UK abandons annuities – where now for retirement income?
Imagine if in the May Federal Budget the Treasurer announced that super was no longer compulsory. The UK has just seen something comparable with the overnight abandonment of compulsory annuitisation at retirement. With Australian super funds getting to grips with retirement income, valuable lessons can be learnt. Unlike in Australia where retirees are free to take […]
Read more...Your next CEO should be a product manager
Not a lot of product managers make it to the top of the wealth and asset management industry. More often CEOs are taken from the ranks of investment professionals or heads of distribution. But product managers should keep their eyes on the big prize, because the role of product manager is ideal training for leadership and […]
Read more...Why we should be paying fund trustees $200,000 pa
A series of ASFA panels in which we are currently participating have discussed where key Coalition policies are likely to land, including the contentious topic of fund governance, the equal representation board model, and independent directors. Changing the status quo has major implications for power and control. Some stakeholders no doubt see independents as a […]
Read more...When premiums rise 50%, are you vulnerable on insurance?
During 2014, and in likely for some years to come, super fund members will be getting letters advising them that their insurance costs are rising – substantially. We looked at the de-stabilisation of group life before Christmas, which you can find here. Now letters from some of the big not-for-profits are starting to go out. So […]
Read more...Fund mergers – why HIP and Prime make strange bedfellows
When it comes to fund mergers, it is said that industries can’t or won’t mix, pointing to the apparent cultural difficulties of a hypothetical merger of, say, CBUS and HESTA. But apparently jackaroos and healthcare workers do mix, if the recently announced merger of Prime Super and Health Industry Plan is anything to go by. […]
Read more...Super’s new normal – low single digit growth
New normal is a much overused term, but peculiarly applicable to the post-financial crisis world for super. Australia has been used to a super industry of double-digit growth rates, with investment returns pepping things up further. Indeed, 2013 was like the good old days, with the system growing by 16% – the best annual growth since at […]
Read more...Making sense of SMSF borrowing
If there is a single statistic that has provoked debate from the ATO annual SMSF statistical release in December, it is probably SMSF borrowings, and any link with increased residential real estate activity and prices. When you have identities such as Paul Howes (National Secretary of the AWU and a Trustee Director of AustralianSuper) writing […]
Read more...Why SMSFs make no sense – still – below 500K
Santa comes but once a year. So too does accurate SMSF data – in the form of the ATO annual statistics released just before Christmas. SMSFs are a large and fragmented segment, with the only comprehensive, albeit still limited, data coming from SMSF tax returns. These take a long time to be filed, processed and […]
Read more...Vertical integration back on the 2014 radar
Australia’s wealth industry has become a vertically integrated place. The dominant for-profit business model since the 1990s – advice, platform, and asset management under one roof – has been further reinforced by much of the previous government’s regulatory program, intended or not.Is this the apex of vertical integration or could it go further? It always […]
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