Public attention on the ways Australian superannuation funds are engaging with the challenges of climate change has never been greater. Media reporting of Australia’s position at COP26, together with concerted advertising by some funds of their sustainability credentials, means that members are more interested than ever about how their monies are being deployed. This interest … Read more

By Scott Donald PhD CFA (External Consultant and Associate Professor – UNSW) Rob Kardashian, Emilio Estevez, Luke Hemsworth, Dannii Minogue, Trevor Chappell.  Sometimes it is hard to avoid being overshadowed by more famous, more glamorous siblings. The covenant in section 52(12) of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth) (SIS Act) must be feeling that … Read more

Our Financial Services Regulatory team surveys the regulatory landscape for 2022 and identifies themes that we expect to be at the core of regulatory priorities globally over the next 12 months.  On 7 December 2021, HSF published its annual Financial Services Regulatory Outlook report surveying the global regulatory landscape for 2022 which addressed the following … Read more

A by-product of the recent results of the first APRA Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) performance assessment (more on that in our previous article here) is APRA activity to stimulate super “super” mergers. Many super funds, and not just those underperforming, will no doubt be focussed on a range of APRA powers, including the different … Read more

Alert to all industry and retail superannuation funds – compliance with the proposed retirement income covenant (RIC) faces two major regulatory roadblocks: personal advice and anti-hawking. There is an urgent need for regulatory relief or reform in relation to this. There are two major regulatory problems that are thrown up by the recently proposed RIC, to … Read more

It goes without saying that the new Best Financial Interests Duty (BFID) obligations are central to not just a superannuation trustee’s governance framework, but also its operational framework. As readers will be aware from our previous articles on this subject (see here and here), we are seeking to assist superannuation trustees to understand the duty … Read more

Our last article on this topic canvassed the new best financial interests duty (BFID) in some detail (link here), particularly the breadth of the duty and how it impacts on delegations. We touched on the reach of the new duty in terms of whether it is a subjective test, an objective test and/or an outcomes-based test. … Read more

By Ruth Stringer and Preeta Seshachari After a long gestation period, the Federal Government’s proposed retirement income covenant (RIC) for superannuation trustees has finally been revealed with the publication of Exposure Draft legislation (available here). The new covenant will require superannuation trustees to develop a retirement income strategy for the benefit of beneficiaries who are retired … Read more