super review (november 2011)

T H E L E A D I N G I N D E P E N D E N T J O U R N A L F O R T H E S U P E R A N N U A T I O N A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A L F U N D S M A N A G E M E N T I N D U S T R Y

6 MYSUPERMySuper too prescriptive and toosoon, says ASFA

For the latest news, visit superreview.com.au

13 MANDATESSuper fund group insurance mandates in table form

14 REGULATIONStronger Super requires regulatory balancing act

AIA Australia hasemerged as the SuperReview/ Heron Partner-

ship Group Insurer of the Yearfor 2011 in a close tussle withtwo-time winner, Tower Aus-tralia Limited (now TALGroup Life).

In a process drawing uponthe Heron Partnership’s analy-sis of the group insurancespace and a survey processconducted by Super Review,AIA emerged a winner, despiteTAL having significantly con-solidated the gains it has madein the group insurance sec-tor over the past two years.

The Super Review surveysought to determine levels ofclient satisfaction with thevarious group insurance of-ferings, and these findingswere then collated with thoseof the Heron Partnership todetermine the Group Insurerof the Year.

Ultimately, it is intendedthat the Group Insurer of theYear Award is a reflection ofthe number of mandates wonand held in the current year,together with client satis-faction as reflected by fundexecutives – includingwhether they would be pre-pared to short-list the insur-ance provider in any newtender process.

Tower managed its back-to-back wins in 2009 and 2010largely based on the momen-tum it gained by winning thebig AustralianSuper mandate.

AIA has always representedone of the most dominant play-ers in the Australian group insurance space, but managedto edge out TAL this year basedon substantially improvedclient perceptions of the qual-ity of its service offering andits value.

It was also hard to ignorethe analysis of the Heron Part-nership’s managing director,Chris Butler, who pointed out

that AIA had the distinction ofbeing the insurer of six ofHeron’s Top 10 retail productsfor insurance arrangementsand two of the Top 10 industryproducts.

Butler said TAL was the insurer for four of Heron’s Top10 industry products for insurance arrangements.

The other key players inthe mix were CommInsure(who ran a creditable third toAIA and TAL) and OnePath,which took out this year’sSuper Review/Heron Part-nership Group Insurance Ser-vice Level Award.

MetLife and Hannover Lifealso emerged well in con-tention with respect to serv-ice level.

The Heron Partnership research covered 118 super-annuation products (com-prised of 58 industry fundsand 60 retail funds) andnoted a number of changeshad occurred in the group insurance sector over thepast 12 months, including anincreasing number of fundsoffering Total and PermanentDisability (TPD) insurance asa stand-alone option.

As well, it found that therehad been a recent trend – particularly among industryfunds – to offer higher levelsof TPD cover than death coverat younger ages. SR

AIA is Group Insurer of the Year

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1111

COMPANY INDEX 2 NEWS 3 EDITORIAL 11 REGULATION 14 ROUNDTABLE 20 APPOINTMENTS 27 ROLLOVER 28

November 2011 Volume 25 - Issue 10

20 ROUNDTABLEIn the swim with SuperStreamand MySuper

Group Insurerof theYear

SuperReview/Heron Partnership

In a year during which the industry

generally lifted its game, AIA

Australia has been named the

Super Review/Heron

Partnership Group Insurer

of the Year for 2011.

“Changes in the group insurancesector include an increasing numberof funds offering TPD insurance as a

stand-alone option.”

See tables on page 13

2 PAGE TWO www.superreview.com.au

SUPERREVIEW * NOVEMBER 2011

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MANDATESReceived by Type of mandate Issued by Amount

Coller Capital Custody AvSuper $20 million

Northern Trust Custody Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation N/A

Siguler Guff Custody AvSuper $20 million

Ibbotson Associates Australia Advice Sunsuper N/A

Trustees need certainty on CGT rollover relief: AIST

NOVEMBER 2011 * SUPERREVIEW

By Tim Stewart

THE Australian Institute of Super-annuation Trustees (AIST) has calledfor the Government to implement cap-ital gains tax (CGT) rollover relief toimprove the efficiency of the super-annuation system under the MySuperregime.

In a submission to the Treasury theAIST argued that CGT relief for both loss-es and gains be made available for allfunds that make an application to theAustralian Prudential Regulation Au-thority (APRA) to merge no later than 1 October 2013.

The relief should also be made avail-able for those that do not or cannot ob-

tain MySuper authorisation, and are re-quested to rollover their assets to anotherMySuper-compliant superannuation en-tity as a result, the AIST said.

AIST chief executive Fiona Reynoldspointed to the Stronger Super Outcomesof the Consultation Process Report (theCostello Report) and the Superannua-tion System Review, both of which rec-ommended the Government provide on-going CGT rollover relief.

The provision of the rollover relief willensure funds are not inhibited from merg-ing due to the potentially high CGT coststo members, said Reynolds.

“It is intended that MySuper will re-sult in product rationalisation to furthercontribute to obtaining economies of

scale. This will be a driver of fund ra-tionalisation,” Reynolds said.

By providing super funds with rollover

relief, the Government will allow themto plan for the future with a degree of cer-tainty, she added.

“The possibility that another period ofrelief may become available is a pres-ent impediment to merging. The mergerprocess involves careful planning and ex-pert consultation and many mergers takein excess of 18 months to complete. Merg-er processes commenced in the next fewyears will come to fruition about the timeof the MySuper transition,” Reynolds said.

She added that the 2011-12 Feder-al Budget estimated the CGT rolloverrelief implemented between 30 Juneand 30 September 2011 would pro-vide the Government with “no mate-rial loss or gain”. SR

Electronic rolloversystem a success THE Affiliation of Superannuation Practi-tioners (ASP) has announced the successfullaunch of its electronic rollover pilot program,reducing the amount of time members’ moneyis out of the market.

Member organisations of ASP can use thetechnology to bypass the traditional paper-based processing methods in the superan-nuation industry. As such, the program is con-sistent with the stated aims of the StrongerSuper ‘SuperStream’ changes, which are aimedat improving the backoffice of the industry.

Since September 2011, more than 946rollovers totalling more than $19 million havebeen conducted, cutting down the time mem-ber’s money is out of the market from upwardsof five days to less than 48 hours.

A reduction in payments by cheque and thevolume of paper in the system has also cutdown processing times, according to the ASP.

ASP spokesperson Nigel McCammon saidthe electronic rollover pilot program provid-ed a ‘door-to-door’ solution that showed thatindustry collaboration could deliver bene-fits to members.

“When the ASP was formed in November2010, we agreed our first priority was to de-sign and deliver this pilot to provide betterservice to our fund members and to assist theFederal Government in its reforms,” Mc-Cammon said.

ASP is looking to provide further effi-ciencies in the backoffice of superannua-tion, with the contributions process cur-rently being considered.

ASP participants currently administer over55 per cent of superannuation accounts andconduct 45 per cent of the total value of su-perannuation rollovers in the industry. SR

Super funds need very strong mem-ber alignment to overcome the highupfront costs involved in mergers, ac-cording to LGS Super chief executivePeter Lambert.

Lambert was unconvinced the scaleadvantages of mergers could signifi-cantly reduce costs for members,given the high costs involved in theprocess.

“Part of any merger is making sure

each party’s interests are protected,and by doing so you’re straight awayavoiding some of the scale argumentsthat are promoted as part of merging,”he said.

However, he said some mergersmade sense, citing the 2008 unionof closely aligned Print Super andJust Super which created Media-Super.

“Funds have to be careful if they aregoing down a merger path that theydon’t destroy the alignment of [mem-ber] interests. Once they do, then theonly thing they’re competing on isprice – they’re not competing on serv-ice,” he said.

One key differentiator for LGSSuper is its commitment to providingfinancial planning to members, Lam-bert said. He confirmed that LGS

Super had completed the insourc-ing of 12 former FuturePlus finan-cial planners into the LGS office,along with the addition of anotherplanner in Tamworth who will serv-ice the New England region of NewSouth Wales.

While financial planning servicesare currently free for LGS members,Lambert said that would changeunder the Future of Financial Adviceregime, with the fund transitioninginto a fee-for-service model.

One new offering for LGS memberswill be a fixed interest option open toretired members from 1 December2011. The fund will approach a panelof banks and buy a tranche of the bestterm deposits available, and memberswill be able to opt-in on an annualbasis, Lambert said. SR

www.superreview.com.au NEWS 3

LATE payments of superannu-ation contributions by employ-ers may be threatening the lifeinsurance of tens of thousandsof Australian workers, accord-ing to Intrust Super.

It is often the case that amember’s insurance only be-gins when the initial employ-er contribution is received, ac-cording to Intrust Super chiefexecutive Brendan O’Farrell.

He cited two recent caseswhere employers had poten-tially invalidated their em-

ployees’ insurance claims be-cause they had not fulfilledtheir superannuation guar-antee obligations on time.

“These unfortunate casesare just the tip of the icebergwith this problem becauseexamples only come to ourattention when a worker isactually injured or passesaway,” O’Farrell said.

He added the insurerwould be able to deny aclaim if the insured eventhappened before the initial

contribution was paid.Lower-paid workers in serv-

ice industries were the mostvulnerable because they weremore likely to frequentlychange jobs and superannua-tion funds, creating morechances for first payments tobe missed, O’Farrell said.

“It is prudent for employ-ees to contact their superan-nuation fund periodically to en-sure that their super paymentsare being made in a timely fash-ion,” he added. SR Brendan O’Farrell

Fiona Reynolds

Life insurance under threat from late contributions

LGS chief questions scale benefits of mergers

StatewideSuper andLocal Super begindue diligence

By Tim Stewart

THE consolidation inthe superannuation in-dustry is continuing,with South Australianfund StatewideSuperand Local Super con-ducting due diligenceahead of a potentialmerger.

The two funds haveappointed PriceWa-terhouseCoopers,KPMG and RussellInvestments to un-dertake shared duediligence, which is ex-pected to be complet-ed by the end of No-vember this year. Onthe completion of thedue diligence, a finalreport will be pre-sented to the boardsof both funds.

StatewideSuperchair Nicholas Be-gakis AM and LocalSuper chair JulietBrown confirmed thatthe shareholdersBusiness SA , SAUnions , the LocalGovernment Associa-tion, the AustralianServices Union andthe Australian Work-ers Union had giventheir in-principle sup-port for the merger.

StatewideSuper hasabout $2.4 billion undermanagement. Local Gov-ernment Super has $1.7billion under manage-ment and is for local gov-ernment employees inSouth Australia and theNorthern Territory. SR

By Chris Kennedy

CORPORATE super specialists provid-ing insurance services to employergroups should be able to charge an in-surance service fee, according to the Cor-porate Super Specialist Alliance(CSSA) submission on draft MySuperlegislation.

CSSA President Douglas Latto saidwhile the CSSA recognises commissions

should not be included in a premiumwhen no service is being delivered, if cor-porate super specialists cannot be ef-fectively remunerated then members ofcorporate super funds would lose theservices they provide – services suchas negotiating reduced premiums; helpwith paperwork and ensuring they aren’tsubject to automatic acceptance levels.

“We suggest that an explicit insuranceservice fee, which defaults to zero, be

charged to all members at an agreed per-centage with the consent of the em-ployer,” Latto said.

“This is specifically relevant when atailored default insurance strategy is se-lected by the employer – rather than thestandard default strategy.”

Latto said the insurance service feecould operate within group insurance inthe same way that asset-based fees op-erate within investment and superan-

nuation, ensuring only those receivinginsurance services pay the fee.

Group insurance is a better solutionfor members, because it offers lowercosts and more tailored features thana series of individual contracts, he said.

“It makes no sense that payment forproviding services associated with in-surance to members can only be madefrom the least efficient solution,” hesaid. SR


4 NEWS www.superreview.com.au

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By Tim Stewart

THE prescriptive nature of the MySuperdraft legislation is likely to lead to a dra-matic increase in “inadvertent compliancebreaches”, according to the Association ofSuperannuation Funds of Australia(ASFA).

In its submission to the Government onthe MySuper draft legislation, ASFA hascalled for a principles-based regulatory en-vironment rather than one that is pre-scriptive in its approach.

ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos saidthere was too much prescriptive detail inthe exposure draft, which would have thelikely outcome of “driving behaviour aroundthe legislative intent”.

“Adopting a prescriptive approach todrafting means the bill cannot reflect thedifferent products offered and the varietyof decisions trustees make, and there is asignificant risk that it will stifle innovation,”she said.

The ASFA submission also argued for alonger transitional period until the MySu-per environment is implemented, arguing

that forcing trustees to enact “change man-agement” without regulatory certainty wouldcreate additional costs for members.

“Business requirement documents, letalone functional and technical specifica-tions, cannot be agreed upon and signed off,nor most work commenced, until such timeas there is a high degree of legislative cer-tainty,” said Vamos.

While she agreed that funds should beable to offer MySuper products from 1 July2013, Vamos said the period from whichdefault contributions must be made to aMySuper product should be delayed until1 July 2014.

ASFA also reiterated its call for capitalgains tax rollover relief for superannuationfunds. Failing to offer such relief could bea major obstacle to future mergers, sincefunds would be reluctant to merge if doingso could create significant costs for mem-bers, Vamos said.

The industry body also used its submis-sion to query whether lifecycle investmentoptions should only be based on age, and toexpress its disappointment that MySuperproducts will be prevented from paying a

MySuper too prescriptive and too soon, says ASFA


Budget changes won’t sparkinfrastructure investmentBy Benjamin Levy

INFRASTRUCTURE managerMinerva Advisory has pouredcold water on recent tax in-centives to make it easier forinfrastructure investment inAustralia, saying the Govern-ment needed to fundamentallychange the structure of under-lying investment.

Speaking at a BNP Paribas In-vestment Partners and Antin In-frastructure breakfast in Mel-bourne, managing director ofMinerva Lee Burnell said the taxincentives announced in the lastbudget were not enough to en-courage investors to invest morein core infrastructure.

“There are not enough dealsavailable to satisfy the domes-tic appetite for infrastructure,and I think importantly, there

doesn’t seem to be a solutionbridging the gap,” Burnell said.

Heavy investment was neededin greenfield infrastructure, butoffering tax incentives did noth-ing about the problems of lack ofoperating history, constructionrisk, and the lack of early rev-enue, he said.

While the biggest super fundsin Australia were capable of fund-ing infrastructure projects be-cause of their sheer size, smallerfunds and institutional playerswere unable to secure exclusiv-ity in an infrastructure projectbecause of the scarcity of small-er deals available, Burnell said.

That made it likely that par-ticipants would incur breakingdeal costs, he said.

That was a real problem forboth investors and fund man-agers, Burnell added. SR


By Tim Stewart

THE Government’s MySuper reforms are a“big mistake”, and will force trustee boardsand chief investment officers to focus oncosts rather than net returns, accordingto Chant West principal Warren Chant.

One of the Government’s key claims aboutMySuper – that it will deliver a 30-year-oldworker up to $40,000 extra in retirement– is “sheer nonsense”, according to Chant.

The Government’s claim is largely basedon a Deloitte report into the superannua-tion sector that was delivered to the Coop-er Review, said Chant. The report found thatunder the MySuper regime a $20 billionfund with 800,000 members (and thus anaverage balance of $25,000) could poten-tially offer a default option with an invest-ment fee of 0.36 per cent and an adminis-tration fee of 0.3 per cent – for a total fee of0.66 per cent.

However, a total fee of 0.66 per cent is un-realistic when you look at the current feesof the big industry funds, Chant said. Hegave the example of the $43 billion indus-try fund AustralianSuper, which has aninvestment fee of 0.6 per cent for its defaultbalanced option. In addition, he pointed outthat the top 30 industry funds have an av-erage investment fee of 0.75 per cent.

“How is AustralianSuper going to get from60 basis points to 36, and how are the top30 funds going to get from 75 basis pointsto 36? These are not-for-profit funds –there’s no fat there, and they bargain re-ally hard,” he said.

He was also sceptical that the big fundswould be able to achieve an administrationfee of 0.3 per cent, as laid out by Deloitte.

“Generally, funds charge about $100 permember [for administration]. On a $25,000account balance, that’s 40 basis points.So how are they going to get down from40 to 30?” he asked.

The only way the funds would be able tolower their costs to such a level would beto turn to indexing and stop investing inactive managers and alternative strategies,he said. He pointed out that the significantoutperformance of industry funds between2003 and 2010 as compared to indexing waslargely down to their use of alternative in-vestments as part of a diversified portfolio.

“You don’t want to kill the goose that laysthe golden egg. You don’t want to be puttingpressure on these funds to get their costsdown to ridiculous levels. The only way theycan do it is to stop investing in active man-agers and alternatives,” Chant said.

“We don’t want to discourage funds frominvesting in things they think are good in-vestments,” he added. SR

Australian pension systemworld-class, but not perfectAUSTRALIA’S pension system is sec-ond only to the Netherlands, accord-ing to this year’s Mercer Global Pen-sion Index – but retirement incomeadequacy is still a concern.

The second-place ranking is an im-provement on last year’s fourth placein the Global Pension Index, and isa result of the rise in household sav-ings in Australia and the increase inthe age pension, according to Mercersenior partner and author of the re-port Dr David Knox.

While none of the 16 countries in thereport have managed to attain Mercer’scoveted ‘A’ rating, Knox said it was with-in Australia’s grasp in the near futureif it can “address the issue of adequacyby raising the level of compulsory sav-ings via superannuation and contin-ue reforms to reduce costs”.

“Our superannuation system is inthe midst of significant reform, someof which is likely to boost our score inthe index in the future. But our cur-rent ‘B’ grade is an important re-minder that our world-class retire-ment savings system is in danger offalling short of our needs unless wetake action now,” he said.

Other measures that must be takeninclude introducing a requirementthat the retirement benefit only betaken as an income stream, and en-couraging older workers to remain inthe workforce for longer, Knox said.

One thing that we can learn fromthe Dutch system is its excellent com-munication with members, who get aprojection of what their retirementbenefit will be at age 65, Knox added.

Association of SuperannuationFunds of Australia chief executivePauline Vamos said Australia’s im-proved ranking was an endorsementof the superannuation industry.

“The combination of the means-tested age pension, compulsory su-perannuation and voluntary contri-butions to superannuation providesAustralia with a strong and sustain-able system,” said Vamos.

But she added that being numbertwo was not good enough, and agreedwith Knox that Australia had more todo when it came to addressing re-tirement income adequacy.

“The proposed increase in the rateof compulsory superannuation from9 to 12 per cent of wages, along withthe proposed low-income earners’ con-tribution tax rebate, have a crucialrole to play in increasing the adequacyof retirement incomes, particularlyfor low and middle-income earners,”she said. SR

THE focus on fees in MySuperis about delivering the benefits ofscale to the end member, ratherthan forcing superannuationfunds into indexing to reducecosts, according to VanguardInvestments head of corporateaffairs and market developmentRobin Bowerman.

Large funds can still utiliseactive management and alter-natives, but they have to be‘very, very sure’ that they willget the outperformance to jus-tify the fees, Bowerman said.

Net returns to members is themost important factor underthe Government’s proposed re-forms, he added.

“The fee focus is not about in-vestment style. It’s abouttrustees of [the large] superfunds having cost as a majorconsideration when they maketheir decisions,” Bowerman said.

He added there was nothingin the Cooper Review (the basisof the MySuper changes) thatsaid funds couldn’t pay high fees,as long as they were confident

they would get the outperfor-mance to justify them.

However, after 10 years oflooking at active funds in the US,Vanguard Research has foundthat low fees are a good pre-dictor of high returns, Bower-man said.

“The lower you keep your fees(regardless of investment style– the style’s irrelevant), themore you will get as a returnthat you can deliver back tomembers,” he said.

As evidence, Bowerman point-

ed to Morningstar research thatfound management expense ra-tios (MERs) are a better pre-dictor of fund performance thanMorningstar’s star rating system.

When it came to the loweringof costs through scale, he saidVanguard’s $1.9 trillion opera-tion in the US was a good proxyfor Australia’s $1.5 trillion su-perannuation system.

“Over the last 30 years, [Van-guard’s] average MER has beenfalling from 80 basis points downto about 19-20 basis points.

That’s a good example of howthe Australian superannuationsystem probably hasn’t managedto capture all the benefits ofscale,” he said.

The US experience showedthat if the Australian superan-nuation industry captured thebenefits of scale more efficient-ly it could get total fees (ad-ministration plus investment)down to 66 basis points – the fig-ure cited by Deloitte in its reportto the Cooper Review, Bower-man said. SR

MySuper’s focus on costs will hurt returns: Chant West


Warren Chant

Dr David Knox

Lower fees not about ‘active versus passive’

www.superreview.com.au 11 EDITORIAL


It’s not the weapon – it’s how you use it

Australia’s financial serv-ices regulators havegained plenty of bou-

quets as having been pivotalto the manner in which thefinancial services industrynavigated the global financialcrisis, but a recent appear-ance by the Australian Pru-dential Regulation Authority(APRA) before a Parliamen-tary Joint Committee (PJC)suggests they are also oweda few brickbats.

APRA’s appearance beforethe PJC occurred in Augustwhen committee members –most of them sitting on theGovernment benches –asked a series of questionsaround the collapse of Trioand the Astarra-related su-perannuation funds.

Observed in the context ofthe Government’s StrongerSuper legislation, the PJCtranscript makes disturbingreading. It paints a picture ofa regulator who held concernsabout the running of a super-

annuation fund and its trusteeboard back in 2005, but de-spite ongoing scrutiny whichsaw a change in the make-upof that board, did not act withfinality until 2009.

What is more, while the Gov-ernment’s Stronger Superchanges will deliver APRAgreater powers, there is ab-solutely no suggestion that itsuse of those powers wouldserve to prevent a repeat of theTrio/Astarra debacle.

APRA’s deputy chairmanRoss Jones said in a prepre-pared address to the parlia-mentary committee: “Propos-als within the Stronger Superreforms will in fact impose ad-ditional duties on the directorsof a trustee to act honestly andin the best interests of bene-ficiaries. The Government hasannounced APRA will begiven a general prudential-standards-making power inrelation to superannuation.It is a power that APRA hasin the other industries it reg-ulates, but we do not havethis power at the presenttime in superannuation.

“While it is not possible tosay that such powers wouldensure these sorts of activitieswould never occur again, wedo think that the standards-making powers with regard toinvestment governance anddue diligence will greatly as-sist APRA’s supervisory

processes and reduce the al-ready small likelihood of fraudoccurring in this process.”

The parliamentary com-mittee transcript then wenton to suggest APRA believedany fraud which had occurredwith respect to Trio/Astarrahad occurred in 2004, 2005and 2006, and that the great-est likely sin committed by di-rectors thereafter had beenthat of incompetence.

Whatever the case may havebeen, the manner in whichAPRA chooses to firstly inter-pret and implement its leg-islative powers was also laidbare in its evidence to the PJC.

Jones acknowledged thatwhile the regulator held con-cerns about the fund’s assets,it was only after it appointed

an external trustee – ACTSuper – that it got to thenitty-gritty of what was re-ally going on.

Jones told the PJC: “A lot ofthe cross-directorships andgovernance concerns were ad-dressed very early on. In fact,it was not until late 2009 –when we were unable to getthe valuations – that we hadsuch concerns, that we issueda ‘show cause’ on the directorsof Trio as to why they shouldnot be suspended. We then dis-missed the board and replacedthem. Then ACT Super camein. ACT Super went throughand said, ‘We believe that wehave fraud of X dollars asso-ciated with the failure of theprevious directors to have ad-equate processes around theseinvestments’.”

Some would ask why ittook ACT Super rather thanAPRA itself to identify theextent of the fraud andwhether, on that basis, theGovernment’s StrongerSuper changes should not goa good deal further.

Given all of the above, it isjust as well that the Australiansuperannuation industry has,over the 20 years of the superannuation guarantee,proven to be exceptionally,prudentially sound, with onlya handful of blow-ups of whichTrio/Astarra has thus farproven to be the largest.

But when the regulatorytime-scales involved in APRAdetecting problems and fi-nally acting on Trio/Astarraare put together with theglobal financial crisis and the

manner in which it impactedsuperannuation fund liquid-ity, some serous questionsmust arise.

APRA has at various timesacknowledged the manner inwhich it worked through liq-uidity issues with superan-nuation funds through thedark days of 2008/09, but ithas steadfastly (and proba-bly appropriately) refusedto name those funds or in-dicate the level of assis-tance and monitoring thatwas ultimately provided.

The question, however, isthat with markets havingagain hit a period of seriousvolatility, and with some signsthat liquidity has again beentightened, will the regulatorbe speaking to the same fundsagain, and will it have to movebeyond the sort of measures itapplied two years ago?

One of the criticisms lev-elled at the Astarra/Trio di-rectors was that they held mul-tiple (and possibly conflicting)directorships. The same sortsof criticisms (albeit, with nosuggestion of criminality) havebeen made with respect tosome of the trustee directorsof industry superannuationfunds, and we do not knowwhether any of those fundssuffered liquidity issuesthrough the height of the GFC.

It will be a very bad look forAPRA if, some time in the nexttwo or three years, it finds it-self explaining to a parlia-mentary committee how it firstheld concerns about a fund in2008, but did not act with fi-nality until 2012–13. SR

The Stronger Super legislation will endow the Australian

Prudential Regulation Authority with greater powers, but

ultimately, it will be a question of how those powers are used.

Mike Taylor

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“The question ... iswill the regulator bespeaking to the samefunds again, and will

it have to movebeyond the sort ofmeasures it applied

two years ago?”

www.superreview.com.au SUPER REVIEW/HERON PARTNERSHIP GROUP INSURER OF THE YEAR 13


Source: Heron Partnership

Rank Product Default Death Default Salary and TPD Insurer Continuance Insurer

Rank Product Default Death Default Salary and TPD Insurer Continuance Insurer

Heron list of insurers October 2011

The Heron Partnership has compiled the following table of superannuation fund group insurance

mandates and the insurers who hold them.

Group Insurance Mandates

1 Accountants Superannuation Fund ................................................................CommInsure..........................................Comminsure2 Australian Enterprise Super..........................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure3 AGEST ........................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure4 AMG Universal Super - Personal................................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re5 AMG Universal Super - Employer................................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re6 AMP - Flexible Super ......................................................................................AMP Life ..............................................AMP Life7 AMP - Flexible Super - Employer ......................................................................AMP Life ..............................................AMP Life8 AMP CustomSuper ..........................................................................................AMP Life ..............................................AMP Life9 AMP SignatureSuper ......................................................................................AMP Life ..............................................AMP Life10 AMP SuperLeader ..........................................................................................AMP Life ..............................................AMP Life11 ANZ Super Advantage ..................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life12 Aon Master Trust - Personal Division ............................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia13 Aon Master Trust - Personal Super Essentials ................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia14 Aon Master Trust ........................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia15 Apex Super Fund ............................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life16 Asgard Elements Super................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia17 Asgard Employee Super ..............................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia18 Asgard eWRAP Super ..................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia19 Asgard Infinity eWrap Super ........................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia20 Asset Super ..................................................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life21 AUSCOAL Superannuation Fund ....................................................................CommInsure ................................................n/a22 Australian Meat Industry Superannuation Trust ..............................................Comminsure..........................................CommInsure23 AustralianSuper Corporate ..............................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life24 AustralianSuper Corporate Solutions ................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life25 AustralianSuper Finsuper Division ....................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life26 AustralianSuper Personal ................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life27 AustralianSuper Westscheme Division ..............................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life28 AustralianSuper Workplace ..............................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life29 AustSafe ....................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure30 AXA Generations - Personal Super ................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia31 AXA Simple Super ......................................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia32 AXA Summit - Personal Super ......................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia33 AXA Super Directions for Business ................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia34 AXA Tailored Super......................................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia35 Bendigo Personal Superannuation ....................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life36 BT Business Super ......................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia37 BT Lifetime - Personal Super ........................................................................AIA Australia................................................n/a38 BT Lifetime Super - Employer Plan ................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia39 BT Super for Life ........................................................................................Westpac Life ........................................Westpac Life40 BT SuperWrap Personal Super Plan................................................................Westpac Life ........................................Westpac Life41 BUSS(Q) Flexible Choice Employer Sponsored ................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life42 BUSS(Q) Premium Choice ............................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life43 CareSuper ..................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure44 CareSuper - Corporate Super ........................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure45 CareSuper - Personal Plan............................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure46 Catholic Superannuation Fund..........................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life47 CBA Wealth Management - Colonial First State Rollover

& Superannuation Fund ................................................................................CommInsure ................................................n/a48 Cbus ......................................................................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re49 Christian Super ........................................................................................Hannover Life re ......................................CommInsure50 ClearView Superannuation ..........................................................................ClearView Life ..............................................n/a51 Club Plus ....................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure52 Club Super ....................................................................................................MLC Life ................................Australian Income Protection53 Colonial First State FirstChoice Employer Super ............................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure54 Colonial First State FirstChoice Personal Super ..............................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure55 Colonial First State FirstChoice Wholesale Personal Super ..............................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure56 Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme

– Accumulation Scheme ..................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life57 Equipsuper - Corporate ............................................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re58 Equipsuper - Personal ..............................................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re59 Equity Super Freedom of Choice - Business Super ..............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life60 Equity Super Freedom of Choice - Corporate Super ............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life61 Equity Super Freedom of Choice - Personal Super ..............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life62 ESSSuper Accumulation Plan ........................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure63 First State Super ............................................................................................MetLife............................................ACE Insurance64 FIRST Super................................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life65 FSP Super Fund ..........................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life66 FuturePlus Super ............................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life67 Government Employees Superannuation Board

– GESB Super ..............................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia68 Government Employees Superannuation Board

West State Super........................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia69 GuildSuper ................................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia70 Health Super ..............................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia71 HESTA ........................................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life72 HOSTPLUS ..................................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life73 HOSTPLUS Executive ....................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life74 HOSTPLUS Personal Super Plan ....................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life75 Intrust Super ..........................................................................................Hannover Life Re ..........................Australian Income Protection

76 IOOF Portfolio Service Corporate Superannuation ..............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life77 IOOF Portfolio Service Employer Superannuation................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life78 IOOF Portfolio Service Personal Superannuation ................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life79 Legal Super ................................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life80 Local Government Superannuation Scheme

Accumulation Scheme ....................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life81 LUCRF ........................................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life82 Macquarie Super Accumulator ....................................................................Macquarie Life ......................................Macquarie Life83 Macquarie SuperOptions ............................................................................Macquarie Life ......................................Macquarie Life84 Make A Choice Superannuation Master Trust ..................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life85 Media Super - Employer Sponsored Account ..............................................Hannover Life Re ......................International Underwriting Service86 Media Super - Personal Account ................................................................Hannover Life Re ............................................n/a87 Member's Choice Superannuation Master Plan

– Employer Super ..........................................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life88 Member's Choice Superannuation Master Plan

– Personal Super ............................................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life89 Mentor Employer Superannuation Plan ..........................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life90 Mercer SmartSuper ....................................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia91 Mercer Super Trust - Personal Superannuation Division ..................................AXA Australia................................................n/a92 Mercer SuperTrust ......................................................................................AXA Australia ........................................AXA Australia93 MLC Employer Super ......................................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life94 MLC MasterKey Business Super........................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life95 MLC MasterKey Custom Superannuation............................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life96 MLC MasterKey Super & Pension ......................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life97 MLC MasterKey Super Fundamentals ................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life98 MLC Navigator Retirement Plan........................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life99 MLC The Employee Retirement Plan..................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life100 MLC Wrap Super - Superannuation Service ........................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life101 MTAA ............................................................................................................MetLife ................................................MetLife102 Nationwide Superannuation Fund Employer

Sponsored Division......................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life103 netwealth Super Wrap - Employer Sponsored Super ........................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia104 netwealth Super Wrap - Personal Super ........................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia105 NGS ..........................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure106 OnePath Corporate Super ............................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life107 OnePath Integra Super ................................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life108 OnePath OneAnswer Frontier Personal Super ..................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life109 OnePath OneAnswer Personal Super ..............................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life110 Perpetual Select Superannuation Plan ..........................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia111 Perpetual WealthFocus Super Plan ................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia112 Plum Superannuation Fund..............................................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life113 Plum Superannuation Fund - Personal Division ..................................................MLC Life ..............................................MLC Life114 Prime Super ..................................................................................................MetLife ................................................MetLife115 Pursuit Core Personal Superannuation ..............................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life116 Pursuit Select Personal Superannuation............................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life117 RecruitmentSuper - EasyChoice ....................................................................CommInsure ................................................n/a118 RecruitmentSuper - SelectSuper ..................................................................CommInsure ................................Lumley General Insurance 119 Rei ................................................................................................................MetLife ................................................MetLife120 REI Super Elite................................................................................................MetLife ................................................MetLife121 REST Acumen..............................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia122 REST Industry Super....................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia123 REST Industry Super Personal ......................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia124 Russell SuperSolution Master Trust - Employer Division......................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life125 Russell SuperSolution Master Trust - Personal Division ......................................TAL Life....................................................n/a126 Spectrum Super..............................................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life127 Spectrum Super - Personal Division..................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life128 Statewide Superannuation Trust ......................................................................MetLife ................................................MetLife129 Strategy Employer Superannuation Plan ........................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life130 Strategy Retirement Fund ............................................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life131 Suncorp WealthSmart Business Super ............................................................Asteron Life ..........................................Asteron Life132 Suncorp WealthSmart Personal Super ............................................................Asteron Life ..........................................Asteron Life133 Sunsuper Corporate ....................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia134 Sunsuper Solutions ....................................................................................AIA Australia ........................................AIA Australia135 Synergy Retirement Service Superannuation......................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life136 Tasplan ......................................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure137 Taxi Industry Superannuation Fund ..............................................................OnePath Life ................................................n/a138 Telstra Super - Personal Plus ..........................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life139 TOWER The ARC Corporate Plan ........................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life140 TOWER The ARC Personal Plan ..........................................................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life141 TWUSUPER Industry ....................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure142 TWUSUPER TransPersonal ............................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure143 TWUSUPER Transuper ..................................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure144 Unisuper Accumulation Super (1) ..............................................................Hannover Life Re ..................................Hannover Life Re145 Uniting Church Superannuation Plan ............................................International Underwriting Services ........International Underwriting Services146 Vision Super Personal Plan ..........................................................................CommInsure..........................................CommInsure147 WA Local Government Super Solutions - Employer ..............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life148 WA Local Government Super Solutions - Personal ..............................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life149 Wealthpac Superannuation Service Employer Division ........................................TAL Life ................................................TAL Life150 Wealthtrac Superannuation Master Trust........................................................OnePath Life ........................................OnePath Life


14 REGULATION www.superreview.com.au

As the Australian super indus-try approaches what is likelyto be significant reform

brought to bear by Stronger Super,trustees and executives will be con-templating not just those public pol-icy changes that have been adver-tised but also what compliance andregulation structures are set to beput in place around them.

There seems little doubt thatchange is in the wind, but whilecompliance and regulation maynever be popular subjects, the real-ity, according to Fiona Reynolds,CEO of the Australian Institute ofSuperannuation Trustees (AIST), isthat they are part and parcel of amaturing superannuation industrywhere Australians’ retirement sav-ings are at stake.

“It’s always difficult to get the bal-ance right between the regulatoryrequirements and making sure thatthey don’t take up so much time thatyou start impeding business,” shesaid. “But having said that, this isa $1.4 trillion industry, it’s other peo-ples’ money and there has to be a re-ally robust framework around that.

“I’d rather see more regulationand appropriate safeguards thanless regulation because, at the endof the day, we have to remember thatit’s not our money.

“It’s other peoples’ money andthey’re counting on us to make surethat they have a safe retirement.”

Sharing Reynolds’ sentiments,Peter Beck, CEO of administratorPillar, said that Australia’s super-annuation industry was in a privi-

leged position thanks in large partto compulsory contributions.

“We have a compulsory revenueflow into our industry and we havesignificant tax incentives,” he said.“We’re actually in a trust positionwhere we’re holding money on be-half of other people, so I think it’sperfectly reasonable that the regu-lation around our industry should atleast be up to the standards of theother financial services industries.

“You could even argue that our in-dustry’s governance should be stronger,simply because we are one of the fewindustries that has compulsion.”

For Vamos, however, while indus-try reform and the regulation to ac-company it is undoubtedly necessary,the biggest issue resides in timing.

“As a lot of our regulation is prin-ciple-based, a lot of what’s current-ly in place in terms of overall reg-ulation is right,” she said. “Thebiggest issue for the industry, par-

ticularly on a lot of the more preciseregulations around tax concessionsand ones that directly impact sys-tems, is the number of changes.

“Detail isn’t a problem exceptwhen it’s changed every five min-utes; that is what causes the issues,”Vamos continued. “So the biggestissue here, particularly with what islikely to come from Stronger Super,is the amount of change and the tim-ing.”

Vamos said that with the Future

of Financial Advice (FOFA) reformsset to start on 1 July 2012, MySuperdue to start in July 2013 and aspectsof SuperStream being introduced asearly as next year, the risk and costinvolved for funds was enormous.

“We have a risk, for example, of somefunds having to set up products for July2012 and then replace those with an-other set of products or portfolios forMySuper in 2013,” she said. “So not onlydoes that raise the question of whetheror not the industry has the capacity for

Stronger Super has delivered a raft of new

regulatory challenges for the superannuation

industry but, as DAMON TAYLOR writes, the

objective is finding the right balance in looking

after other people’s money.

Regulatory balancing act

Fiona Reynolds


that kind of change, when you’redoubling your work like thatyou’ve also got enormous cost.

“And what people forget is thatthose costs are ultimately borneby the member,” Vamos added.“Even if the costs are only relat-ed to the retail sector, as is thecase with FOFA, those costs haveto come out of profit eventually,and some of the most substantialshareholders are members offunds across all sectors.

“A lot of the new reforms arevery good and they’re particu-larly good for consumers, butlet’s be sure they’re imple-mented in a cost-effective way.”

Naturally, the Australian Pru-dential Regulation Authority(APRA) has already flagged anumber of specific regulationchanges for implementation.

From its proposed prudentialstandards to guidance on riskmanagement, disclosure and

liquidity, the industry’s regu-lator has given a clear indica-tion as to what it is focused on.For Reynolds, it is hitting theright targets.

“APRA’s prudential standardspaper, in particular, is a goodpaper,” she said. “I think thatthey’ve taken on board a lot ofthe industry’s concerns, thingsthat were flagged through the

Continued on page 17

www.superreview.com.au REGULATION 15

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Stronger Super process – and wherethe industry didn’t think things weregoing to work, they’ve acknowledgedthat and changed their approach inthis final paper.

“They’ve got the balance right be-tween the practicalities and needingto get where they’ve got to,” Reynoldscontinued. “So I’m pleased with theway that they’ve worked with the in-dustry, and I think that it sets a real-ly good benchmark for funds.

“I’m sure that there will always beroom for ongoing improvements, butI think this is going to take the in-dustry to a new level, and proba-bly a level that we need to get to ifwe’re really serious about lookingafter so many Australians’ retire-ment savings.”

Alternatively, Vamos points outthat the gap that yet remains in theannounced regulatory change ispost-retirement.

“One of the biggest issues facingAustralian superannuation rightnow is the need to open up post-retirement, and yet there’s not onepart of these reforms that tacklesthat,” she said. “It’s quite the op-posite, in fact. MySuper actually saysthat you cannot offer a pensionproduct out of a MySuper product.

“In terms of what has been an-nounced, I suppose that it is hittingthe right targets, but that’s simplybecause it’s hitting all targets,”Vamos continued. “Again, it comesdown to timing and whether agreedpublic policy outcomes actuallyeventuate.

“When you look at the time thatwe’ve got to review a lot of this draftlegislation, I just can’t put my handon my heart and say that public pol-icy, as agreed, is going to be deliv-ered – and that’s quite simply be-cause the legislation has beendrafted too late in the piece.”

Of course, Vamos’ concern is avalid one based upon the cost of

change alone. Compliance and regulation are like-

ly not popular topics of conversationin this industry, thanks in large part tothe cost that seems to accompanythem. And yet, according to Beck, anyworthwhile change will almost alwaysbe embraced by funds and adminis-trators alike.

“Ultimately, if you do a cost/ben-efit analysis on this and thecost/benefit analysis stacks up, thenit’s going to be good for everyone,and that flows on to members aswell,” he said. “Efficiency is a per-fect example; if it’s change forchange’s sake, it just costs fundsmoney and that cost will have tobe passed on to members.

“If, on the other hand, there are ef-ficiencies to be gained, then the funds,administrators and trustees are morethan happy to pay for the cost of doingthose changes because we will all getthe efficiencies coming through to us,”Beck continued. “As long as there’s thatpayback from the change, then it willalways worth doing.”

Speaking not only to financial costbut to the price paid in terms ofmember frustration and confusion,Reynolds said that one of the in-dustry’s perennial complaints wasthat constant change was confusingto people.

“So if the goal posts keep getting

moved, then that can lead people tolose faith in the industry,” she said.“They ask themselves whether theywant to put extra money in becausethey’re doing it on the basis that they’regoing to be able to do x, y and z.

“But then the rules change, stop-ping them from doing that and theysay ‘why bother!’” added Reynolds.“So I do think that any time the Gov-ernment and regulators, or the in-dustry, want to promote change, wehave to bear that in mind.”

Yet Reynolds was quick to add thatsuch a reality did not mean that thesuper industry could be caughtstanding still when it came to com-pliance and regulation.

“We just have to get the balanceright,” she said. “At the end of theday, yes, costs do get passed on but,at the same time, as we’re gettingbigger economies of scale and moremoney in the industry, that bringsefficiencies as well.

“Hopefully they can balance eachother.”

Not surprisingly, Vamos pointedout that if the Stronger Super re-forms do not deliver consumers abetter experience and grant them abetter understanding of their su-perannuation, then the industry hadmissed its mark badly.

“I actually think that a lot of thereforms will have enormous benefitsfor consumers,” she said. And ifthese reforms don’t deliver con-sumers a better experience whendealing with our industry, then thereality is that we should all go home.

“If consumers don’t start seeing ef-ficiencies, if consumers don’t start see-ing easier comparability, if they don’tstart seeing greater transparency, ifthey don’t start seeing a portfolio thatthey don’t have to think about, thenwe have bigger issues,” Vamos con-tinued. “They have to be able to re-ally trust in the fact that the trusteeis working to their best interests.

Regulatory balancing act Continued from page 15

Peter Beck

“I’m sure that there willalways be room for ongoingimprovements, but I thinkthis is going to take the

industry to a new level, andprobably a level that weneed to get to if we’re

really serious about lookingafter so many Australians’

retirement savings.”– Fiona Reynolds




Regulatory balancing act

“And this is the reform that has todo that in the short term. It’s justthat simple.”

At the end of the day, the realityseems to be that changes to thisindustry’s compliance and regula-tion regime are never going to bepopular. However, that lack of pop-ularity isn’t going to stop what is ahuge industry overhaul, or the reg-ulatory change that will likely fol-low it.

According to Vamos, such changeis inevitable.

“Often what happens when you’vehad such extensive regulatory re-form, there is a lot of mopping up,”she said. “So there’s a lot of regu-lation to clarify and to provide somecertainty with, and to remove anom-alies from.

“But what I think we will see is, ashappened in the financial servicesindustry with FSR (the FinancialServices Reform Act), the wholecompliance and risk sector will growwithin the superannuation indus-try,” Vamos continued. “And becausea lot of compliance is now rules-based and principles-based, thecompliance measures you’ve got to

have in place to ensure that youknow that you’re compliant with thelaw means that a number of fundswill look more and more at compli-ance frameworks.

“Those conversations are happen-ing now but I can see them beingstruck at much higher levels withinfunds and within the industry.”

Similarly, Reynolds said that therewas likely no end in sight to regu-latory change within the super in-dustry.

“Hopefully though, once MySuper’sall bedded down and FOFA’s all bed-

ded down, it won’t be such drasticchange,” she said. “Hopefully, it willbe tweaks here and there as requiredrather than any more wholesalechange.

“Overall, I think we are heading inthe right direction here,” Reynoldscontinued. “My only concern is thatwe’re on such tight deadlines at themoment with getting legislation intoParliamentary sitting periods.

“And when you’re always rushed todo things, does that mean you missthings? That’s my only concern, be-cause this is something we’d reallyprefer to get right in the first place.”

Looking big picture, Vamos saidthat her own underlying concern layin a lack of focus on members’ whole-of-life needs.

“Whole-of-life investing, whole-of-life service and a focus on APRA-reg-ulated funds being able to tailor theirservices to individual memberneeds,” she said. “So we’ve still got away to go there, but I think gener-ally the public policy is going in theright direction.

“The challenge for us today is get-ting the regulation right but oncethat’s done, that has to be our focus;bringing public policy and regula-tion in line.” SR

“My only concern is thatwe’re on such tight

deadlines at the momentwith getting legislation into

Parliamentary sittingperiods.”

– Pauline Vamos

Pauline Vamos

Continued from page 17


20 ROUNDTABLE www.superreview.com.au

MT: The tape is running gen-tlemen, so we all know wherewe are at. The top issue ob-viously is Stronger Super.The government a couple ofweeks ago handed down thefinal iteration and there’sbeen quite a lot of commentabout what it will all mean.I think I will start with thequestion of SuperStream,which I think is probably themost commonly agreed ele-ment of Stronger Super, inthat everybody agrees Su-perStream is the one thing,I guess, in the whole equa-tion that was begging to bedone, and probably shouldhave been done sooner. SoI might throw to you Davidto put your view on whereyou see SuperStream fittingin, and how important it isto the overall scheme ofthings, and I guess any im-plications you see flowingfrom it.

DG: Well, from our per-spective we are very support-ive obviously of SuperStream.As you mentioned, it’s theleast controversial part of My-Super, Stronger Super. Wewere pleased to see that there

is going to be mandatory dataservice. We believe that that’sa tremendous step forward, amovement forward from theprevious government re-sponse, so that’s extremelyhelpful. Clearly this will ben-efit the whole superannuationindustry, but there will bepain upfront, and this can’t beunderestimated – the sort oflevel of pain and initial costthat will go into tooling upand gearing up for Super-Stream. So while we are sup-portive of it, we just cautionabout that initial cost in sys-tems set-ups.

AB: I think there’s probablytwo primary elements withSuperstream. The first isquite a consumer-centric re-form which is empoweringthe consumer to bring to-gether their super accounts.So there are 30 million ac-counts for a labour force of 11million people. It’s obvious-ly a big program we’ve beentrying to address for a longtime in our compulsory sys-tem. I think a member walk-ing into a new workplace andbeing presented with the ca-pacity to bring together their

accounts is an enormous stepforward. I think the other el-ement of SuperStream ad-dresses - it’s obviously a lotmore boring - but it goes tothe data that David referredto, I think, from the employ-er’s perspective: the employ-er will have the variation re-moved. The employer is acompulsory part of the cog;the employer has to deal withdifferent super funds with dif-ferent requirements. I thinkremoving that variation fromtheir perspective is a big stepforward for the industry. Ithink historically the indus-try hasn’t always dealt wellwith employers, and I thinkpart of this focus has beentrying to understand what theemployer has to look at whenthey try and deal with our in-dustry, so I think both thoseare very positive.

DG: There is a downside inthat we were disappointedin the fact that there’s onlygoing to be an advisory coun-cil now sitting over these newstandards, and we were muchkeener on a governing bodythat is empowered to effec-tively impose things, and thatwas a disappointment.

MT: Fabian in WA, what’sthe take of someone who is atthe fund coalface on that?

FR: I think from our per-spective, where SuperStreammakes it easier for consumersto consolidate accounts, Ithink that’s a good outcome.But I do share the concerns ofthe table there, which cen-

tre on the employer element,employer readiness. I thinkthat we shouldn’t underesti-mate how big that will begoing forward, but certainlyfrom a consumer point of viewI think it’s a great step for-ward. From our fund point ofview, from a tax file number(TFN) perspective, we’ve no-ticed when we were out withclients, we’ve already donesome finance work on it – andwe don’t see it as a huge stepforward for us.

MT: Are you concerned,and I guess this is really morea matter for the administra-tors than the funds them-selves, but are you concernedthat there’s not an overarch-ing body, as David has sug-gested, to kind of see thestandards maintained?

FR: Yes, I tend to agree withDavid there. I think that’s

probably a disappointing as-pect. It would have beenmore forward-looking to havea body that looks after thisand really holds people to ac-count [in light of] the stan-dards, so I tend to agree withDavid on that.

AB: I think we have a dif-ferent view on the ongoinggovernance of data standards.I think if you look at the scopeof what’s being reformed here,the government has said,“look, the industry is inca-pable of coming to agreementon standards which are goingto be mandatory, effectively,so for contributions and forrollovers we are going to leg-islate”. So when a governmentlegislates something, the gov-ernment owns it. So I thinkfrom our perspective wethought it was appropriate tomaintain some industry inputinto how those standards aremaintained, and how they arechanged over time. But ulti-mately having a legislativegovernance body with minis-terial appointments and what-not – I think is really agrandiose approach to what isa relatively simple problem.The industry has grappled forover 10 years with standardsand actually it was a failure,so we are happy to see moregovernment intervention asopposed to less on this occa-sion.

AUTO-CONSOLIDATION – GOODOR BAD?MT: One of the things thatcame out early on, and be-fore the government even

In the swim with Super The ramifications of Stronger Super, like ripples in a pond, spread further and further.

Our October roundtable dips a few more toes in the water and checks out the temperature.

Present:

MT: Mike Taylor (Chair) - Editor, Super Review

DG: David Graus - Policy Director, ASFA.

TL: Tim Longhurst - Futurist, Key Message

FR: Fabian Ross - General manager, Wealth Management, GESB

AB: Andrew Bragg - Senior Policy Manager, FSC

KS: Ken Shaw - BNP Paribas

“I don’t thinksuperannuation funds

have felt any greatdegree of obligtion to

offer a genuinedialogue with their

members about wherethe money is beinginvested and why.”

- Tim Longhurst

www.superreview.com.au ROUNDTABLE 21


Stream and MySuper

tabled its final iteration ofthe Stronger Super policydocument, was the questionof auto-consolidation. To befair, it is something whichStronger Super alwayssought to overcome – theproliferation of super ac-counts – but I think the con-cern of many people, and wediscussed this at an earlierroundtable, is that there aremany people out there who

quite deliberately have mul-tiple superannuation ac-counts and therefore it be-comes a question ofappropriate mechanisms forconsolidating them, andwhether it’s auto-consoli-dation or, dare I use thewords, ‘opt-in’? So, David,having seen the documentnow, have you any furtherviews on that?

DG: We are relatively com-fortable with where the gov-ernment has landed on auto-consolidation. It was ASFA’spolicy that for accounts below$10,000, that’s where wethought it was the appropri-ate level to be set. That beingsaid, the government has cho-sen a $1,000 level but will bereviewing it going forward,and they do refer to the $2,000which was the subject of that

research. We are very keenthat unintentional, unutilisedaccounts need to be consoli-dated. We are very aware thata number of people inten-tionally have more than oneaccount, and it’s terribly im-portant to not just interferewith those arrangements, youknow, potentially lose insur-ance, potentially stuff up assetallocation. So where they’velanded, you could have an al-

ternative arrangement, to theeffect that you are drivingmember communication andthe person has got the rightto opt out. We think it’s prob-ably a reasonable outcome.

FR: If I could just, on thebasis of what you just saidthere, ask why is it ASFA’sview that $10,000 is the


view that $10,000 is thethreshold rather than $1,000?

DG: Well, we came to theview that really at $10,000,when you look at the aver-age balances and member be-haviour, that at that level peo-ple are not gettingcannibalised by fees, by thefixed fees, and people tend tobe engaging intentionally.

MT: Andrew?

AB: I think the consulta-tion revealed that there wasa range of views about, if wego to the path of having anauto-consolidation manage-ment, what that level shouldbe? Our view was $1,000; asDavid pointed out we pushedfor $10,000, others pushed forno limit. So you know, youwould have the bizarreproposition that if you missyour mail, you miss your workconsolidation notification,there goes your choice foryour personal super account,or your consolidation intoyour default fund. So wethought that that was an ex-treme proposition. As Davidsaid, $1,000 appears to beabout right. The other thingabout $1,000 is that it need-ed to align with the member’sprotection threshold, whichis going to be abolished aspart of these reforms, sothere’s a bit of science to the$1,000. I think the risk youidentified, Mike, around theinsurance fees, is [lessened]where people have chosentheir insurance. Typicallythose accounts are not goingto have less $1,000 in them,so I think if you maintain a

threshold of $1,000, you arenot exposing consumers tothe risk of losing their in-surance inadvertently.

MT: Fabian, what’s yourview on it? You know, do youhave a particular view onauto-consolidation in terms ofwhere your members are com-ing from?

FR: Yes, from our perspec-tive we think $1,000 is aboutthe right level, which con-firms that there’s a lot ofmembers that kept their su-

perannuation for insurancepurposes. Therefore makingthem consolidate at a high-er threshold is fraught withdanger from our point of view,so we certainly think that, wecertainly believe that con-solidation should happen, butcertainly $1,000 is aboutwhere we see it as well.

MYSUPER AND MODERN AWARDSMT: Let me just move theconversation along a littlenow, and I guess the otherkey thing out of StrongerSuper is MySuper. I think the

Cooper review inspired My-Super – and there were a lotof critics in the immediateaftermath of it being an-nounced. I can remember acertain recent ASFA con-ference, I think it was inAdelaide, where some ratherharsh things were said aboutJeremy Cooper by peoplewho didn’t realise he wasin the room. But I’m justwondering: we now see MySuper as being a replace-ment for defaults as weknow them, but at the sametime we have the default

funds under modern awards,and that matter has yet togo before the productivitycommission. To me thatseems to be the elephant inthe room, which is, you areputting in place a policy thatis conflicted with anotherpolicy, which won’t be re-viewed until next year at theearliest. So I guess I’ll throwthis one to Andrew to start:can the government sensiblyintroduce MySuper, knowingthat the whole modernaward situation is out there?

AB: Look I think there’s aninevitability that the awardswill be open to competition. Ithink this is the first time thegovernment has ever putsome hard numbers around awhole product. I think thatwhen you commoditise thewhole product it means thatinevitably every developedproduct will be open to com-pete on its own merits,whether it’s under an indus-trial agreement, whether it’sunder an award enterpriseagreement. So I think fromour perspective it’s an in-evitability, because obviously,unfortunately there are a lotof politics around that ques-tion. I assume the Produc-tivity Commission will have alook at this issue and pick itup, say, next year.

DG: Would we generallyagree that we think the My-Super can proceed as it is, butit would be preferable for asearly a resolution as the Pro-ductivity Commission canbring on. However, the MySu-per legislation can proceed inparallel or beforehand.

In the swim with SuperStreamand MySuper




Continued from page 21Ken Shaw



RACE TO THE BOTTOM?MT: One of the things thatwas raised at an earlierroundtable we conducted,David you were there, wasthat there is a danger withMySuper - and it’s based oncost and what have you –that it could ultimately endup being a race to the bot-tom. Do you think, as it’sbeen outlined by the gov-ernment at this point, andperhaps seeing the fine de-tail of the legislation, do youthink that’s a problem?

DG: It’s a potential problemand I don’t think it’s beingdriven by anything specific inthe legislation, because theyare not prescribing a moveto index it. But given a bit oftransparency in the com-moditisation that we talkedabout, just competitive forceswill have the potential todrive things towards an in-dexing management, or to amore simple, cheaper invest-ment. So there is a risk anda major risk.

AB: I strongly agree, I thinkit’s hard to find an example.I think the legislation as pro-posed is not particularly in-trusive. It’s not going to be anenormous structural change,MySuper, I think, from atransparency point of view.One of the big changes willbe APRA publishing quite de-tailed tables, performance ta-bles and cost tables, for alland sundry to see. I thinkthat there will be an in-evitability around a providernot wanting to have it re-ported that [for example]ABC MySuper is the most ex-

pensive My Super in thatcase - because for the firsttime the media will be ableto pick up tables which willbe truly comparable and haveintegrity around them forcomparability purposes. Ithink that if you were to sitthere with My Super at 200basis points, you might seethat as being uncompetitive.

DG: We would hope toothat, in a world of compara-bility, trustees are properlyheld to account for their in-vestment decisions. Shouldthey be choosing a more ex-pensive investment approach,then it should deliver a supe-rior performance. So a net in-vestment return, at the end ofthe day, will hopefully be bet-ter looked at.

MT: So what you are sayingis you would rather seetrustees going for best possi-ble return rather than goingfor safety first?

DG: That’s an interestingquestion – and playing offbest-possible return againstsafety, you know, are the twomutually exclusive? Notnecessarily, so obviously youare not going to get adven-turous, but as trustees donow, the duty is try and max-imise returns. I think thatthat will continue in a hope-fully more comparable andtransparent way.

AB: We certainly believe inactive management, so wedon’t think that to raise con-cession in price is positive. Wethink it needs it, but you’vejust got to look at the dynam-ics around you and look at theway the media reports these

things. Clearly the main thingthere, you look at costs andthings. I mean, they are notgoing to give someone a pat onthe back for having 200 basispoints in MySuper, when some-

one has got 60 basis points forMy Super. So to summariseit, I would just say that it’s in-cumbent upon the industry totalk about the value of activemanagement, to talk about thevalue proposition and that'snot just about fees.

AVOIDING SHORT-TERMISMMT: I guess listening to allof you on this, one of thethings I guess that’s going tobe important in the ap-proach APRA takes, is thatin any assessment it does, itreflects the fact that super-annuation is supposed to bea long-term investment, andthat the monthly charts andtables we get reflectingmonthly performance aren’treally that constructive. SoI’m just wondering, do you

think the government reallyought to be giving APRA abrief? Or perhaps APRAshould be smart enough toassume the brief that youdon’t go with a six-month-ly, or even one-yearly ap-proach, you really should belooking at five, 10 years? Doyou see that as the appro-priate timescale?

TL: Yes.

KS: Yes, five to 10 years.ASIC has also made its focuson long-term returns and dis-closing long-term returns, andwe support that.

IMPACTING THE FUTUREMT: We’ll move the discus-sion on a bit. We have a fu-turist amongst us, so it does-

In the swim with Super Continued from page 22

David Graus

“Barriers arecollapsing, and thatcan either be to thebenefit of financialorganisations likesuper funds, or totheir detriment.”- Tim Longhurst

www.superreview.com.au ROUNDTABLE 25


Stream and MySupern’t hurt to throw it to the fu-ture: I mean, what’s the su-perannuation industry goingto look like, I guess, onceStronger Super and all theelements are in place? Mysuspicion is, from havingbeen covering this industryfor a long time, it’ll be pret-ty much how it looks now,but I’m just wondering, Tim,how you see superannuationand savings in Australiaevolving over time?

TL: Well I’ve been fortunateto have recently travelled withBNP Paribas on a roadshow,talking to the heads of, or ex-ecutives from, the varioussuper funds, and we’ve invit-ed them to consider what’sgoing on around the worldwith the way people are man-aging their money and fi-nances. The major theme ofmy presentation is that barri-ers are collapsing, and thatcan either be to the benefit offinancial organisations likesuper funds, or to their detri-ment – certainly to the extentthat they may actually them-selves be a barrier to peopleunderstanding their finances,seeing where their money isbeing invested, you know,feeling a sense of agencyabout where this major in-vestment in superannuationis actually being invested andwhy. So basically we put it to

the funds that on the onehand the barriers collapsingmeans that there’s huge op-portunities: on the otherhand, if you are one of the bar-riers, then this could be metelling you that you are aboutto collapse.

Specifically in terms of ex-amples of what I pointed to,I’ll give you a really simple,quite a light example from theUS. It’s a website called pros-per.com, which is a websitethat acts like an eBay for fi-nance. You can go online andget a credit, the website per-forms a very sophisticatedcredit check just like a bankwould, you basically appeal tothe community, to the web formoney. You say, “I need$25,000 for a wedding”, pros-per.com will say “well, you getan A+ credit rating and yourinterest rate is 9 per cent”,whereas for someone who islooking for some debt consol-idation, you might be paying30 per cent, or you know, 25per cent because they are ahigh risk borrower. The pointis that you can show up to thesite as an investor and look atthe various risk and returnsbeing offered, and invest aslittle as $50 or as much asthe entire amount being re-quested, and what we areseeing is that people are

Continued on page 26Tim Longhurst

more likely to honour a pros-per.com loan than they woulda loan from the bank, becausethere’s a perception that it’speer-to-peer lending, that ‘allof these people that I don’tknow come together to makethis loan possible and sotherefore I’m more likely topay it back.’

That’s the conclusion thatprosper.com have arrived at,and I raise that example be-cause I don’t think superan-nuation funds have felt anygreat degree of obligation tooffer a genuine dialogue withtheir members about wheretheir money is being investedand why. I think it’s interest-ing to reflect on the conver-sation that we just got to be-fore your question, whichwas, should we be assessingsuperannuation on a 10-yeartime horizon? Well I thinkthat that’s a really great ques-tion. I’m wondering to whatdegree the philosophy of su-perannuation funds in Aus-tralia is along the lines of “su-perannuation should be setand forget, leave it to us, it’sfar too complex for you thepunter to understand, so justkind of trust us”. To what de-gree [this is happening] I’mnot sure, I haven’t done across-industry assessment, Ican’t, but I’m getting a sensefrom the conversations thatI’ve had that there’s a bit ofthat going on, and I’m won-dering how long will that sur-vive? Because when you havesomeone like Richard Bran-son coming in, who travelsthe world looking for indus-tries where margins are fat,where the operators are com-placent, where there’s not a

lot of engagement with cus-tomers, and he decides thathe’ll make the margins slight-ly less fat but still healthy,and start engaging with thecustomers in a way that theyfeel that they actually arepart of the dialogue, I thinkthat the finance landscape inAustralia could change dra-matically. That’s some head-lines, but I’m conscious of theagenda for the whole conver-sation, so…

KS: Can I give a slightly dif-ferent perception?

TL: Sure.

KS: I hear it from my ownchildren. My 23-year-olddaughter received a letter inthe post and she opened it up,she had no idea what it was.She asked me, it was actuallysuperannuation. She didn’teven know she was in a super-annuation fund. She didn’tknow what to do with themoney that was set up, or whather options were and she askedme for advice. Now you cantalk about consolidation andall the rest of it, but when you

look at it from young people,most people who will have mul-tiple superannuation schemesrunning came through proba-bly part-time jobs. They end upwithin the tourism industry, orthe hotel industry, and keepmoving through until they fi-nally get a job that they arecomfortable with, which isnowadays in their late 20s,early 30s before you get somelevel of stability. In that timethey could have had five or sixdifferent super schemes quiteeasily, across five or six dif-ferent industries, and not one

of them would have any ideathat they are there. Hence youhave these huge build-ups ofmoney that is unallocated, notbeing managed properly froman individual point of view, notnecessarily from a superannu-ation point of view, no educa-tion around it from the earlydays, from the minute that theycommence work, or even fromthe minute that they move fromthe last couple of years of sec-ondary school into university.

So they are all left, everybodyis left, lacking. I spoke to some-one the other day about this,and even from a superannua-tion scheme point of view, howoften do we engage with ourmembers? Every six months wesend them a statement, itmight be every year we sendthem a statement, and if we ac-tually want them to do some-thing, we have to engage on afar more regular basis andprompt them, because peoplewill do nothing unless they areprompted, but prompting themonce or twice is never enough.You probably have to promptthem on a monthly basis if youwant something to happen, andeventually it will sink in. Theywill keep getting these emails,or these texts, or whatever itmay be, and they’ll think, “I’dbetter do something about it,because until I do somethingabout it I’m going to keep get-ting them…”

So from a young person’sview I think it is a big issue forthe industry, that whole ed-ucation and readying peoplefrom a very early age, becauseeverybody as a general rulewill commence some level ofemployment that generatessuperannuation terms ofsome sort from around about18 years of age. SR

In the swim with SuperStreamand MySuper


Continued from page 25


Andrew Bragg

www.superreview.com.au APPOINTMENTS 27


NATIONAL Australia Bank(NAB) has announced the ap-pointment of Dr Ken Henry ACto the role of non-executive di-rector effective from 1 November.

NAB chairman Michael Chaneysaid Henry’s experience in both do-mestic and international financesector policy would be an asset tothe board.

Henry was previously the for-mer secretary to the Departmentof the Treasury and was award-ed Companion in the Order ofAustralia (AC) for his services in

developing and implementingeconomic and taxation policy tothe Australian finance sector.

AMP Limited has appointedColin Storrie as chief financialofficer (CFO).

Storrie will replace currentCFO Paul Leaming, who will retire at the end of the year afteralmost 14 years of service.

Storrie first joined AMP earli-er this year as deputy CFO andgroup treasurer. Prior to this role,he was CFO for Qantas where he

served as a board member and haspreviously held finance and ac-counting roles in investment bank-ing and the NSW Government.

WILSON HTM has announcedthat managing director Steve Wil-son has been replaced by the cur-rent head of private wealth man-agement, Andrew Coppin. Wilsonworked for the company for 27 years in a number of seniorroles. Wilson HTM said the lead-ership change was part of a tran-sition process for the 2012 fi-nancial year and beyond.Company chairman Steven Skalasaid Coppin’s broad wealth man-agement experience with inter-national and Australian firmswould help to grow the businessas an independent advisory firm.

ZENITH Investment Partnershas made a number of appoint-ments following a major internalcompany restructure.

Assuming the investment ana-lyst role, Jonathan Baird was pre-viously responsible for producing

equity analysis, performance andattribution analysis, and liquiditymanagement for Australian Unity.

Due to his extensive experi-ence in retail investment, AryehKraemer has been appointeddata analyst. Before joiningZenith, Kraemer provided in-vestment information and prod-uct advice as a superannuationconsultant at ESSSuper.

Susan Hodges has been ap-pointed client and sales adminis-trator due to her 15 years experi-ence in marketing, havingpreviously held the role of super-visor and senior claims analyst.

Christopher Huang has alsobeen appointed to the position ofinvestment analyst as part of thenewly-created Zenith AlternativesResearch team.

BRAVURA Solutions has ap-pointed Daryl Wright as productmarketing manager, global wealthmanagement.

Wright will report to Bravurahead of product for global wealthmanagement Darren Stevens andwork with the product, sales andmarketing teams to develop prod-uct marketing strategies for theglobal wealth management divi-sion, focusing on client needs andidentifying market trends.

Wright previously worked forDeloitte as a senior manager,marketing and business develop-ment. He has also worked in bothAustralia and the United King-dom in various financial servicesand software-related marketing,product and business develop-ment roles, including Legal &General and Reuters. SR

Mark Lumby has been ap-pointed to the newly-cre-ated role of head of office

and industrial property funds atAUI. Previously Investa’s gener-al manager for retail funds,

Lumby has over 18 years expe-rience in funds management in-cluding work at Stockland andTrafalgar Corporate Group,where he helped to establish andmanage Australia’s first geared

property security fund.Grant Nichols will take on the

property portfolio manager rolefor AUI’s property funds business.Nichols earlier worked for thethen-list AMP Office Trust, fol-lowed by almost eight years withInvesta as asset manager and laterfund manager.

Simon Beake has been recruitedas a senior analyst at AUI. Beakewas previously an accountant andanalyst for Biwater Group and Cas-cal Services Limited before be-coming an Investa fund analyst. SR

AUI Recruits Investa staffers

Events Calendar

Super Review’s monthly diary ofsuperannuation industry eventsaround Australia and abroad.

NOVEMBER

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

9 – Finsia Seminar: SMSFs – strategiesfor implementing Stronger SuperReforms. Venue: TBA.

QUEENSLAND

9 – ASFA National Conference: Makingthe big connection. Venue: BrisbaneConvention & Exhibition Centre. SouthBank, Brisbane.

NEW SOUTH WALES

15 – Finsia Seminar: Alternativeinvestments update. Speakers: Chris vanHomrigh, senior executive leader,investment banks, ASIC; Justin Webb, riskgroup associate director, Access, CapitalAdvisers; Daniel Liptak, head ofalternatives research, Zenith InvestmentPartners; Michael Hanna, executivedirector, infrastructure, industry fundsmanagement, SA Fin; Tim Nelson, head ofeconomic policy and sustainability, AGLEnergy. Venue: Establishment. 252 GeorgeStreet, Sydney.

Australian Unity Investments (AUI) has

appointed three former Investa staffers to

senior positions following a company

restructure.

Fax details of conferences,seminars and courses to SuperReview on (02) 9422 2822

Dr Ken Henry

Colin Storrie

ROLLOVER T H E O T H E R S I D E O F S U P E R A N N U A T I O N

Conference Crasher

Got afunnystory? about people in the superannuation industry?

Send it to Super Review and youcould be raising a glass or two. Super Review is giving away a bottleof bubbly for the funniest story published in our next issue.

Email [email protected] send a fax to (02) 9422 2822.

ON the subject of last month’sAFA conference on the GoldCoast, Rollover notes Indus-try Super Network chief ex-ecutive David Whiteley wasscheduled to step into “enemyterritory” by being part of oneof the conference’s openingsessions.

Whiteley has been a willingparticipant in the robust de-bates around financial plan-ning rules and regulations

throughout the year, and asa result, was likely to findhimself short of friends at theAFA gig.

However, it is a measure ofWhiteley’s willingness to joinbattle on issues about whichhe obviously feels passionatethat Rollover understands heis also scheduled to partici-pate in the Financial PlanningAssociation’s gig a few weekslater. SR

ROLLOVER notes that, as ever, November is financial serv-ices conference month – with the Association of Superan-nuation Funds of Australia conference kicking off in the “Sun-shine State”, closely followed by the Financial PlanningAssociation conference barely a week later.

He also notes the conferences held in the latter part ofthe year have become a barometer of the relative health ofthe industry and, indeed, of the organisations hostingthe conferences.

On that basis, he notes the Association of Financial Ad-visers conference held at Royal Pines in late October was wellattended, and the good souls at ASFA were expecting healthyattendance at their Gold Coast gig.

So the question is whether the FPA conference will be sim-ilarly well attended in mid-November.

Rollover knows all about jet lag, and he is wonderingwhether it is possible to suffer from conference lag. SR

IN these days of cloud com-puting and i-pad thingies,Rollover wishes to report theSuper Review team is tem-porarily moving floors so itscurrent lavish surroundingscan be refurbished to provideeven more extravagant sur-roundings.

It was during this processthe magazine archives werechecked for storing off-site,and it was realised the SuperReview collection was not en-tirely in completion and noone knew how to rectify theproblem.

Thankfully, Super Reviewhas had one ardent and con-stant reader, and when Rus-sell Mason made his way fromMercer to Deloitte the gap inthe Super Review archivewas made good.

While Rollover has alwaysbelieved Super Review makesfor compulsory reading, heis not at all sure there are toomany other financial servicesoperatives with a collection ascomplete as Mr Mason.

Questions have beenasked about whether Masonalso collects stamps or hasan encyclopedic knowledgeof Sydney suburban timeta-bles, circa 1977. SR

SuburbanTimetable …the sequel

Battle-brave

ROLLOVER supports George BernardShaw’s famous observation that

“youth is wasted on the young”.It was with this in mind, he ob-

served the surprised looks onpeople’s faces when a certain “fu-

turist” told the roundtable publishedin this month’s Super Review that hebelieved superannuation fundsshould think about having trusteesas young as 18 years old.

These people were, he said, morein tune with the views of their con-

temporaries and would help the superfunds move further into the realmof social media.

One roundtable participant washeard to say that while these young-sters might know a thing or twoabout Facebook and Twitter, theywere unlikely to know too muchabout corporate governance and fi-duciary duty.

There was, however, common agree-ment that super funds would be wellserved by consulting the Gen Ys. SR


Consultant Whippersnapper

super review (november 2011)

Documents