David Paradice, who founded one of the country’s most successful funds management businesses, says government-imposed annual tests on superannuation investment have created sharemarket distortion and accelerated the hollowing-out of his industry.

Amid the upheaval in the funds management sector – including margin squeezes, fund outflows and a handful of firms closing or merging – Paradice, a three-decade veteran of the industry, said his firm would focus on growing investments from the retail sector, rather than traditional industry fund clients.