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Australian Retirement Trust

This Month

Super fund customers’ details are up for sale on dark web forums.

Cyber minister Tony Burke ‘radio silent’ on super breach: Coalition

The accusation comes after cybersecurity firms identified the details of thousands of Australian retirees for sale online.

O’Halloran’s comments echo the concerns raised by APRA chairman John Lonsdale about the superannuation sector as early as 2023.

Super groups accused of resisting efforts to lift security before hack

A representative of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia had told a consumer advocate that stronger protections would put “too high” a burden on funds.

March

UniSuper called for a standardisation of death certificate information across all states and territories to ease the administrative burden on funds and members

Industry funds lobby for death benefits overhaul

ART, UniSuper and Cbus want the government to reform processes as the corporate watchdog prepares to release a report revealing widespread failures.

Paul Schroder, the chief executive of AustralianSuper, says 70 per cent of new funds will be invested overseas.

The country’s big super funds are reaching their ASX investing limit

AustralianSuper expects to hit an effective cap on how much it can invest in the local market and make good returns. Its peers are also looking overseas.

Stagnant super fund boardrooms are about to get a mandatory gust of fresh air.

Who are the super directors facing APRA’s tenure limit?

There will scarcely be a board of a major industry super fund untouched if the prudential regulator comes after these lucrative patronages.

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Aware Super’s Deanne Stewart and Hostplus’ David Elia.

Why super fund investment calls are about more than next quarter’s returns

What’s at the heart of a super fund’s investment strategy? Capital allocation. And the better it allocates that capital, the better for all of us.

Former QSuper chief investment officer Brad Holzberger says the concentration of Australian ownership of US shares is “dangerous”.

Beware the ‘misleading’ label on your super

A former chief investment officer has questioned the labelling of high-growth default options and criticised the concentration of assets in the US equity markets.

February

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and director of Trump’s National Economic Council Kevin Hassett in Washington.

Chalmers and super chiefs talk tariffs with Bessent in Washington

Jim Chalmers sat alone in the front row and listened attentively as his US contemporary clarified an important point about Donald Trump’s favourite word.

CDC founder and boss Greg Boorer.

Infratil, Future Fund scoop up stake in $16b-plus CDC Data Centres

Sources said the deal was signed shortly after 6pm, and would see Future Fund take a bigger piece of CDC than Infratil.

January

Cbus chief investment officer Brett Chatfield and Aware Super CIO Damian Graham are among money managers expecting the Reserve Bank to begin cutting rates at its May or July meeting.

Top super investors dash pre-election rate cut hopes

But they say investors should be optimistic about inflation easing despite later cuts and risks associated with Donald Trump taking the White House.

December 2024

Australian Retirement Trust’s head of global real assets Michael Weaver has signed another investment to cap a big year.

The $330b fund busting big super’s ‘buy and hold’ myth

Australian Retirement Trust’s real assets arm has been the biggest driver of infrastructure and utilities deals in Australia and New Zealand this year.

Hostplus paid a hefty sum to have its logo front and centre at Gold Coast Suns games in a previous sponsorship deal.

How big super is spending your money on sponsorship and marketing

Jumps in advertising spends at industry giants such as Aware Super and UniSuper came despite a crackdown by the watchdog questioning whether these costs are in members’ best interests.

November 2024

AirTree Ventures partners Jackie Vullinghs, John Henderson, Helen Norton, James Cameron, Craig Blair and Elicia McDonald will have  $650 million more to deploy.

Airtree raises $650m for new start-up investment funds

The money for the high-profile venture capital firm’s two new vehicles came from institutional investors in the US and from three Australian super funds.

Australia’s most complained about super funds revealed

Embattled construction industry fund Cbus topped the list of major funds, new data shows, but complaints across the sector jumped last financial year.

October 2024

Top earners: Mark Delaney, Deanne Stewart, David Elia and John Pearce.

Big super’s executive gender pay gap revealed

Analysis by The Australian Financial Review also shows who the highest-paid superannuation bosses were last year.

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AustralianSuper chairman Don Russell is the country’s highest-paid super fund director.

Revealed: Which super fund directors earn the most

Payments to directors at one fund outstripped those of comparable size by more than half a million dollars, despite delivering worse returns than most of their rivals, analysis by AFR Weekend shows.

September 2024

Together, AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust manage $655 billion, and are clearly the two biggest operators in the $4 trillion superannuation industry.

Big super says cutting bank investments will hurt members

“Without funding from super funds, banks would be much more dependent on volatile foreign capital,” AustralianSuper chief strategy officer Paula Benson says.

The two biggest industry super funds now account for well over half of all new retirement savings.

The country’s two mega funds now attract half of all new super

But the growth of AustralianSuper and Australian Retirement Trust beyond all their other peers could be a “double-edged sword” according to some analysts.

Powerco is New Zealand’s largest electricity distributor by network length.

ART buys Queensland’s 33pc of NZ poles-and-wires biz Powerco

The deal takes ART to 58 per cent ownership of Powerco, up from 25 per cent.

August 2024

Bernard Reilly is new chief executive of Perpetual.

New Perpetual CEO hired to take ‘legacy into the next phase’

The company has hired the former head of a $300 billion super fund giant, Bernard Reilly, to manage the break-up of the 138-year-old firm.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/australian-retirement-trust-6gap