August 2017

The existential challenge of AI

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are reshaping the institutional investment management industry from all angles. Over the last decade, high-speed automated trading has already revolutionised the day-to-day operation of financial markets and robo-advice has revamped the way wealth managers engage with clients. AI is upending the profit models of many companies in institutional investment portfolios. Within funds, many workers with repetitive and numbers-based jobs are set to be replaced. But the biggest fallout on superannuation and pension managers...

July 2017

Australia’s Biggest Pension Fund Flags Equities, Local Property Risks

Australia's largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, is preparing for the end of the global equities run and looking to infrastructure opportunities in the United States where it believes foreign firms will in time gain greater access. AustralianSuper is a A$120 billion (£73.53 billion) fund that seeks out major positions, chief executive Ian Silk said at a Reuters Newsmaker event on Thursday in Sydney, that can affect its burgeoning book. Silk said an equities rally - Australia's benchmark has gained 43 percent since...

June 2017

Australia. SMSF pension phase members compliance obligations approaching

The association said pension phase members needed to ensure they had met their minimum pension payments by 30 June, and that they should not overlook withdrawing their minimum pension amount for the 2016/17 financial year. The SMSF Association’s chief executive, John Maroney, said if members were in the transition-to-retirement phase they must take care not to exceed the maximum payment. “If you don’t take your minimum pension, the assets supporting the pension account are deemed not be in retirement phase for...

April 2017

Australia’s Biggest Pension Fund Eyes US Infrastructure

President Donald Trump’s plan to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure with $1 trillion of private and public investment over a decade is drawing interest from 10,000 miles away. AustralianSuper Pty, Australia’s biggest pension fund with over A$100 billion ($75 billion) in assets, is eyeing the US market for infrastructure debt and equity investment prospects, said Mark Delaney, its Melbourne-based chief investment officer. “Anyone who has traveled to the US would say there are aspects of the infrastructure that could do with updating,”...