Speaking at the Morningstar Investment Conference 2026 in Sydney, BT Financial Group chief executive Matt Rady noted the role of platforms as a core component of the financial system enabling efficient transition of capital, and it would be dangerous for platforms to shrink options too much.

"The capital system actually requires us a bit like the ASX to enable efficient movement of money and creation of new structures. I think sometimes the regulators just need to have that perspective of just how relevant we are in the overall industry," he said.

AMP group executive of platforms Edwina Maloney said there is also a mistaken view among regulators that you do not need a lot of options for the same assets on a platform.

"We need to educate the regulators around what that choice is designed to provide, and that it is very important to provide optionality and choice," she said.

"You could destroy your Australian share public markets capital issuance here if we push too far down a certain path, and that's not the role of a platform either."

Maloney said the North platform is getting "much sharper" in removing investment options that are not scaling rather than leaving them to linger on the menu. She added the trend historically has been to leave small options to "wither on the vine".

"I think that will stop...we will be culling more regularly what sits on the platform," she said.

While she said AMP is adding options on the platform all the time, it is being more circumspect with how many it adds to ensure there is actual demand for them.

The move follows Janus Henderson's acquisition of the Chicago-based private credit manager in October 2024 and reflects growing investor demand for alternative income and diversification strategies amid heightened market volatility and elevated interest rates.

The two strategies being rolled out across EMEA are the Asset-Backed Opportunistic Credit Strategy and the Legal Credit Strategy.

The asset-backed strategy provides exposure to senior secured, asset-backed loans backed by short duration collateral across areas including receivables-based finance, hard assets and intellectual property.

Meanwhile, the legal credit strategy focuses on structured lending to the legal sector, with financing secure against diversified pools of legal receivables and supported by insurance protections and credit enhancements.

Co-founder and senior partner of Victory Park Capital Brendan Carroll said asset-backed finance offered investors structural protections and shorter duration characteristics at a time when markets continued to navigate "higher-for-longer" rates and macroeconomic uncertainty.

"Legal receivables, likewise, represent a globally established market with return dynamics that are fundamentally uncorrelated with broader macroeconomic cycles" Carroll said.

He added that VPC had spent almost two decades building expertise across specialist areas of asset backed fiancé.

Ignacio De La Maza, head of EMEA and LatAm client group at Janus Henderson noted investor appetite for private markets continued to increase as institutions sought resilient incomes streams and differentiated portfolio exposures.

"By offering access to VPC's specialist capabilities in asset-backed and legal credit, we're responding directly to the growing demand we're seeing from clients for innovative and differentiated private credit solutions," De La Maza said.

Founded in 2007, Victory Park Capital specialises in asset-backed finance and has invested more than US$11.6 billion across over 240 investments spanning sectors including receivables finance, hard assets and intellectual assets.

New research commissioned by ASIC and conducted by the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre found fintech and regtech innovation is reshaping global financial markets, with AI now being integrated into functions including credit underwriting, claims processing, portfolio management and disclosure.

ASIC chair Joe Longo said Australia's financial system had a long history of innovation and remained globally competitive in areas such as payments infrastructure and buy now pay later services.

"As the pace of chang accelerates, industry and regulators will need to work together to ensure that Australia not only keeps up but stays ahead," Longo said.

The report forms part of ASIC's broader push to support responsible innovation while maintaining consumer protections and market integrity, as regulators globally grapple with the rapid adoption of AI and digital finance technologies.

Longo said innovation had the potential to improve productivity across the financial system, strengthen economic growth and improve consumer outcomes, but warned innovation must occur "safely and responsibly".

ASIC said its regulatory simplification agenda would remain central to balancing innovation with oversight, with the regulation and industry engagement through initiative including its ASIC Innovation Hub and Digital Finance Advisory Panel.

The findings come as Australia's startup ecosystem continues to attract growing investor attention. According to ASIC, Australian startups raised more than $5 million in venture capital funding in 2025, making it the country's third strongest year on record a placing Australia behind only France and Germany in growth since 2018.

ASIC also highlighted Australia's strong track record in producing unicorn companies relative to venture capital investment levels.

The regulator said the research would help inform future engagement with industry and ongoing work around structural changes reshaping financial markets, including digital assets and tokenised finance.

Rainmaker Information reviewed a number of funds including Australian Retirement Trust, Aware Super and HESTA and found combined adviser numbers fell from 687 in March 2021 to 501 by March 2026.

"This contraction contrasts sharply with the expansion in both membership and funds under management," the report said.

"The financial advice workforce continues to contract, limiting the capacity of traditional, in-person models to meet this level of demand. Face-to-face advice alone is unlikely to bridge this gap."

The report found a small number of funds anticipated this shift and embedded digital advice within their member offerings, initially focusing on intra-fund needs such as investment selection, contribution optimisation, and insurance guidance.

"However, given the pace and scale at which the system is growing, this is no longer sufficient," the report said.

"Super funds are now beginning to combine internal capability-building and strategic partnerships with external providers, enabling more scalable, accessible, and cost-effective delivery of advice across a broad and diverse membership base."

The report sees digital advice evolving from a niche capability into a core channel for member engagement for industry funds.

"Digital advice is expected to play an increasingly central role in addressing the structural advice gap, particularly for members with simpler financial needs, as funds continue to refine delivery models and enhance member engagement," it said.

Total number of ASIC-registered financial advisers fell in the quarter to the lowest recorded number of advisers since June 2003 reaching 15,157.

The mid-sized AFSLs in the size bands of 11-50 were the fastest growing, increasing their total number of advisers by 10.4% over the 12 months. The five AFSLs attracting the most advisers were Akumin Financial Planning, RI Advice group, Picture Wealth, Consultum and Canaccord Genuity Financial.

Rob Jarrett was promoted to the role of chief operating officer in May, finishing up as a director of strategic partnering, sourcing and property.

Jarrett has been with AMP for the last five years and previously worked in senior roles at Westpac's institutional bank division and Macquarie Bank.

AMP has appointed Jackie Cleary as its new chief financial officer, hailing from investment bank Jeffries Australia where she spent nearly five years as managing director and head of financial institutions. She is officially set to join on July 20.

Cleary will lead all financial activities at AMP, including responsibilities for financial control, statutory and regulatory reporting, performance reporting, tax and corporate strategy.

Before that, she was a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the financial institutions group based in New York for 14 years and worked at Westpac.

She will replace Blair Vernon, whose role as chief executive of the ASX-listed wealth manager took effect on March 30, when incumbent Alexis George stepped down.

Vernon commented: "Jackie brings significant experience in capital management and financial services and will have a key role to play as we continue to optimise our balance sheet and redirect capital towards growth, all while maintaining our disciplined operating efficiency."

Adrian Ryan, who is the director of group finance and wealth, took on the role as acting chief financial officer prior to the appointment of a permanent candidate.

In the new-look executive team, Rebecca McDermott is now chief people officer, promoted to the role this month after serving as director of talent and leadership for more than five years. She also oversees the AMP Foundation.

McDermott previously held senior human resource roles at Bloomberg in Hong Kong and spent more than six years at QBE Insurance based in Sydney.

Chief marketing officer Tina Cleary, who took on the role in January 2025, was promoted to the AMP executive team.

The eighth edition of the Systemic Issues Insight Report, which accounts for the complaints received and processed in the first half of FY26, noted that financial services businesses have introduced sound frameworks but failed to provide consistent outcomes for vulnerable consumers.

These included inconsistent application of hardship and vulnerability processes, misstatements and missing information on template communications, and the continued collection or enforcement activity when it "should have stopped".

"In some cases, quality assurance processes did not identify where staff were not following the organisation's own policies," AFCA said.

"A number of the matters involved consumers experiencing financial hardship, bereavement, serious illness or other vulnerability. In these circumstances, operational failures such as delays, administrative errors or rigid system processes may have amplified consequences where systems were not sufficiently responsive to individual circumstances."

Based on the ombudsman's investigation, these matters occured during individual interactions, but actions conducted by the firms were "not consistently" adjusted to their frameworks in response. AFCA said it highlights the importance of systems across customer touchpoints and enable appropriate escalation or flexibility where required.

"Taken together, the matters reviewed this period suggest that the effectiveness of consumer protection frameworks increasingly depends on how operational systems, oversight mechanisms and responses to vulnerability function in practice," AFCA said.

AFCA presented what appropriate practices would look like to avoid the issues.

Some of those metrics included clearer operational control for consistent implementation of policies across the business, constant monitoring and review of the appropriacy of its frameworks, and the identification and report of processes that are not operating as intended.

AFCA said escalation that enables emerging issues to be identified and addressed early will also benefit businesses to improve their operation on this front.

Meanwhile, over the six months to December end, AFCA has secured $1.9 million in refunds and financial remediation for affected customers. While that is almost half of what AFCA achieved in the second half of FY25 ($3.4 million), the number of complaints has also dropped significantly from 342,194 to 182,658.

A survey conducted by the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA), Praemium and CoreData reveals financial advice has not kept up with the HNW population's booming wealth.

It is ultimately widening the gap between demand and access, alongside growing client complexity across retirement, succession, tax, alternatives and whole-of-wealth oversight.

CoreData chief executive Andrew Inwood said what is concerning is Australia is entering its largest intergenerational wealth transfer on record, with the acceleration of the baby boomer cohort driving increased demand for advice as more investors seek to structure, protect and transition their wealth efficiently in a tightening policy and tax environment.

"The high-net-worth segment continues to expand at pace, but advice penetration hasn't kept up. That imbalance creates a clear runway for firms that can broaden their offering and deliver advice more consistently across a larger client base," said Inwood.

In the survey, nearly 80% of advisers said they focus on HNW clients, with 64% reporting that these clients represent at least half of their client base.

Almost 80% of firms manage individual client portfolios exceeding $6 million. About one quarter serve client bases that are at least 50% wholesale investors.

Pointing to Treasurer Jim Chalmers' proposed overhaul of the capital gains tax (CGT) discount announced on Budget night, Inwood said that is perhaps "the best thing" the government can do for financial advice businesses.

"Every rich person in Australia and now every person [running] a company is ringing up and saying, 'what do I do now?' [About] 90% of people now say, 'I need to talk to someone, because this has just got really complicated'," he told the 2026 SIAA Conference.

"Wages and tax on income are sticky, but wealth is slippery. It moves, it changes very, very quickly, and that is what's going to happen now."

Praemium chief strategy officer Denis Orrock commented: "What's clear from the data is that firms aren't pivoting into high-net-worth advice, they're already operating in it. The shift we're seeing is how they're broadening their role to support more of the client balance sheet, particularly as portfolios become larger and more complex."

The survey canvassed 100 advisers from stockbroking and advice firms.

"When you see one cockroach," he told analysts, "there are probably more."

The cockroach Dimon was referring to was Tricolor Auto Group, an American subprime auto lender and used car retailer that entered liquidation after allegations of pledging the same collateral on multiple loans, costing Chase US$170 million ($236m).

Dimon was warning that the collapse could signal wider problems with the quality of loans across non-bank lending.

More recently Blue Owl Capital - a US listed private credit manager - applied its 5% cap on withdrawals after redemption requests surged on concerns over the value of underlying loans to software companies. Blackstone also froze redemptions after a rise in withdrawal requests.

These episodes have intensified scrutiny across the private credit sector, where funds raise money from investors and then loans to businesses are negotiated between the fund and the borrower directly.

Metrics Credit Partners managing director Andrew Lockhart contends the current rhetoric is designed to create fear among investors against the asset class.

"The asset class is not homogeneous," Lockhart says.

"This idea that all private credit, all private credit managers, all risks and returns are the same is not correct."

While the US private credit players loan to corporate balance sheets for expansion, Lockhart notes most of Australia's private credit is backed by hard real estate assets.

Real estate private credit manager MaxCap's deputy chief executive Kylie Robb says, like much of the world, the evolution of private credit in Australia is driven by a gap left by banks withdrawing from commercial real estate lending.

"The nature of private credit today is responding to that economic need," she says.

Robb notes real estate lending has a completely different risk profile with usually a shorter loan tenure and average maturity of 12 months, giving a natural redemption and forming a defensive part of private credit.

She adds there is no better or worse when it comes to the type of business one lends to - it all comes down to the risk versus the reward the fund is willing to take, with each deal assessed on its own merit.

Lockhart agrees. He notes what tends to happen is investors get seduced by headline return targets that can be similar to those of equities without fully understanding the risk profile attached to it.

Metrics is one of the few funds, he says, that lends across the risk spectrum from investment grade loans to riskier mezzanine debt, adding it's about helping investors understand where they sit in the capital structure.

"I think the whole position here is about how do you create investment products that signal clearly to an investor what the return target is?" Lockhart says.

Last year, Lonsec downgraded two of Metrics' funds on governance concerns - the Metrics Income Opportunities Trust went from 'recommended' to 'investment grade', and Metrics Master Income Trust from 'highly recommended' to 'recommended'.

This was on concerns of restructuring the Metrics Credit Trust (MCT), which involved an asset swap of MCT's interest in BC Group and Taurus in return for an interest in Metrics Credit Holdings.

Zenith Investment Partners, however, did not budge by keeping its view of 'recommended' and 'highly recommended' for both funds respectively.

The other part of the equation is who invests in these funds.

Cbus head of debt and alternatives Linda Cunningham says over the last five years there has been a rise in packaging up and selling private credit funds to retail investors globally, which had traditionally been a playground for bigger institutional and wholesale players.

Investors who expect regular liquidity from an illiquid asset is a classic mismatch, Australian Retirement Trust (ART) general manager of mid-risk assets and UK Michael Weaver says.

"It's no wonder problems get created," he notes.

With major funding coming from institutional investors, Robb refers to a large base of MaxCap's investors as 'patient capital' - they understand investing through the cycle and don't get easily spooked by short-term noise.

ART doesn't expect quarterly liquidity, Weaver says, because it understands the underlying asset and the lending arranged by the manager.

And the $370 billion super fund doesn't like to mix its institutional money with funds that may have retail money in them, he adds.

"That is at least an amber flag for us. Because we don't think that's in our members best financial interest," Weaver says.

Cunningham also notes Cbus will not sit in a vehicle that has retail investors in it.

Lockhart says if Metrics commingles different types of investors in a fund, it must ensure all participants are treated equally. If an institutional player doesn't want to mix their capital with retail investors, the manager is happy to set up a segregated account for the investor and offer a single investor trust.

The rapid growth of private credit as an asset class, introduction of retail money to it as well as limited understanding of the risk profile by this investor base has also heightened regulatory scrutiny.

ASIC's 2025 review concluded private credit is good for the economy, borrowers and investors - but only if done well. While  the $200 billion sector has grown rapidly, it needs improvement and, in some cases, "materially so".

Its review pushed for transparency across the sector on investment strategy, exposures, valuations, risks and fees. It said this would support comparability and informed decision-making by investors. While related party transactions are not inherently problematic, ASIC said, they can be a source of potential misconduct and have adverse outcomes for market efficiency and investor fairness.

Boutique real estate manager Woodbridge Capital managing director Andrew Torrington says at present there is no consistency in disclosures by funds.

"They can show it how they like, fees on page one or page 20. For your average investor, it's impossible to get through them," he says.

Mercer head of wealth management investment solutions Rebecca Jacques says: "We totally understand some of ASIC's concerns."

The asset consultant acts as a matchmaker, vetting private lenders and connecting them with the right capital.

"As you go down into less sophisticated investors that probably haven't read the 65-page fine print of all the documents, then they suddenly get surprised by something that was actually already part of the terms and conditions," Jacques adds.

In September last year ASIC told La Trobe Financial, the $23 billion private credit manager, to stop offering some of its products for three weeks on concerns target market determinations (TMD) did not adequately specify an investment timeframe for retail clients.

"These products are not bank deposits," ASIC said, noting returns are not guaranteed and dependent on future revenue of the assets.

Robb agrees the industry is still too opaque.

"They're trying to increase transparency and clarify what doing well actually looks like to get more consistency across participants," she says.

Cunningham welcomes ASIC's focus on transparency of fee margins, stating Cbus just pays its managers a fee to manage the assets and there is no performance fees on the investments.

"If someone is promising them 3% over on this private credit, if the manager is actually charging the borrower 6%, is that fair? The investor is taking the credit risk, and they are the ones who will lose the money on it," she says.

Torrington says his rule to manage conflicts  of interest is simple: external fund trustee, external fund administrator and external and independent valuations.

With 90% of its private credit investments offshore in the US and Europe in corporate lenders, Weaver says ART manages risk in the portfolio by keeping it extremely diversified by manager and underlying credit.

"You're not really paid for the upside in credit, so diversification is the free lunch," he says.

ASX-listed real estate manager Qualitas group managing director Andrew Schwartz says the loan agreements have tight terms and conditions that set the covenants enabling funds to actively monitor and manage the portfolio.

Beyond the real estate fundamentals, he says for Qualitas the borrower is equally as important.

"We're really big believers in the soul of the person that we're lending to," he adds.

Jacques notes Mercer picks managers that can move through different market cycles.

She says in a downturn distressed and junior debt can offer high rewards but could risk getting locked in on economic recovery, making it important to look at how they are managing a normal economic cycle.

Cunningham adds appointing a manager can take up to 12 months with a focus on the fund's track record as well as a substantial business behind them.

"You don't want to have a key person risk," she says.

If the key person leaves the next day, she stresses it is fundamental to check if the business has the bench strength behind it and a natural person to step into the role.

Another factor to consider is who else is in the syndicate.

"Who will we have to work with if something does go wrong on this asset? Who's the agent, who's the trustee... there'll be transactions where we want to make sure we've got good, like-minded lenders alongside us," Cunningham says.

While things will still go wrong at times, Jacques says one wants managers who don't just throw their hands up when things go wrong and know how to get your money back.

In 2024, Metrics opted to take control of the struggling Pacific Hunter Group now renamed Hunter St. Hospitality - owner of Rockpool Bar and Grill - after it defaulted on debt obligations.

"There is always going to be investment risk. We're not perfect," Lockhart says.

"What people think is that when you take control of a defaulted asset, that you've also lost money. It's not the case."

Lockhart says he would be more concerned if a manager never disclosed taking control of an asset to protect value.

"You'd sit there and say, 'Well, that must be a problem'. You are just not managing the risk," he says.

In contrast, Schwartz says Qualitas is not interested in having problems and having to deal with owning properties in its debt strategy.

At Mercer, it's not a black-and-white approach; it would look at the skill set and heritage of the manager taking over the ownership. Jacques adds Mercer would question how the manager is able to get better returns, if there is concentrated risk, and if there is a core competency in managing the asset.

While Jacques says Mercer considers Metrics a very good real estate debt manager, it chose not to participate in those vehicles that took Rockpool's ownership as it did not see it as an area of core competency.

Both Lockhart and Schwartz agree size matters tremendously in the business.

"Size matters in that you need to have critical mass by way of funds under management so that you don't cut corners in how you really think about loans and how you manage loans," Schwartz says.

He adds it is harder for smaller funds to qualitatively say no to a lot of opportunities as well as afford to have the infrastructure around them to tightly manage their portfolios.

Additionally, Schwartz says, there is no substitute for local knowledge.

"I do think that where potentially people fly in and fly out of the country looking for investments, it's hard for them because they don't know the markets. And real estate is not one market," he notes.

A spokesperson for ASIC says in FY27 the regulator will conduct a data gathering pilot for a small sample of retail and wholesale funds in a bid to calibrate baseline data needs across the sector. It also plans to address areas of poorer practices within wholesale private credit funds.

Torrington says a lot of the money going into private credit is also coming through wealth investors from the adviser channel.

At present, a wholesale investor is someone with net assets of at least $2.5 million or a gross income for each of the previous financial years of at least $250,000 a year.

"They're likely not truly sophisticated investors. They're mum and dad investors putting money in with no protection," Torrington says.

ASIC already recommended the government increase this threshold in 2024, stating individual wealth tests have drastically changed in the last 20 years. In 2025, ASIC reiterated the need for this reform in view of its private market surveillance work.

Looking ahead, Torrington says adviser education will be key.

"They should know what to ask. I'm always saying advisers will fix this long before ASIC," he adds.

While advisers are getting better and blunt with their questions, Torrington says there is still room for improvement.

Going forward, Cunningham predicts retail investors will realise this is not the liquid investment they thought it was, and the private credit premium they were getting a few years ago has probably dissipated a little.

"I think potentially there won't be as much volume of funds under management in the private credit space that is actually sold to retail investors," she notes.

And if there is a retreat of investors, she says, for most good transactions and deals they will be able to go back to either the private market or go to the public markets.

Weaver sees the current noise as a good opportunity for ART to invest more in the space.

He also doesn't see any systematic risks in the software sector in the US. ART has less than 0.5% of its private credit exposure in its largest software related asset, a small portion of the whole fund.

"Because these are cash-flowing businesses, they would need to have a major change before there's any significant impairment to the lender to the asset," he says.

He also notes these concerns are not likely as the whole size of the market in the US is just under US$2 trillion, which is less than half the market captialisation of some of the largest listed equities globally. Nvidia just by itself has a market captialisation of US$4.8 trillion.

Cunningham on the other hand sees a gradual wind down of some software businesses in the next 12 to 18 months, which she says will have an impact on private credit.

"Private credit, public credit and private equity are going to get surprises when they find out artificial intelligence can do things they didn't expect it to be able to do for them," she says.

Amid a shortage of housing in Australia, Lockhart says private credit also bridges the financing gap for residential development and a rising interest rate environment can challenge the feasibility of some projects.

Schwartz notes while this would mean higher rates and improved credit spread for private credit players, it is important to account for the negative impact on property values.

"A seasoned lender needs to be careful about the value of their underlying securities and the properties. A good lender with a good track record and with local knowledge really will understand how to navigate that very carefully," he says.

Back in the US, Dimon recently told shareholders in his annual letter that private credit probably doesn't pose systemic risks, in the "grand scheme of things".

"We have not had a credit recession in a long time, and it seems that some people assume it will never happen," he says.

He notes if anything ever goes wrong, one should assume retail investors, even though they were told about some of the risks, will seek remedy in the courts.

But for now, Dimon is still on the lookout for the roaches. fs

The super fund announced the partnership with Bravura's Midwinter to bring in digital advice September last year, which is now available for Future Super members to improve member experience and retirement outcomes.

The first phase of the rollout focuses on pre-retirement advice and provides access to retirement projections based on members' circumstances, Future Group said.

Members can also explore contribution and accumulation strategies, aligned investment options with their preferences and risk appetite, receive real-time guidance and complete the process through a self-service digital experience.

They will receive a digitally generated Statement of Advice, as member details are pre-populated within the advice journey to reduce friction and simplify the process.

For Future Group, the model is designed to support its internal advice team, as the fund continues to invite members to book in with its advice specialists for personal advice and one-on-one support.

Commenting, Future Group general manager partnerships and advice Rosh Singappuli explained the offering will improve member outcomes.

"We've had a collaborative approach from the outset, allowing us to focus on a clear and collective vision: how we guide our members to a sustainable retirement, while also considering their individual circumstances and goals," Singappuli said.

Midwinter head of advice products Michelle Lusty said the partnership reflected a shared focus on improving retirement outcomes and putting members first.

"The energy and drive from the Future Group team to stay true to their values and deliver better retirement outcomes to their members has been inspiring," she said.

Bravura also said AMP and other super funds have ramped up Midwinter-based initiatives to support members with more accessible, real-time financial advice.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Forum for Investment Managers event in Sydney, Warner said as a long-term asset owner time horizon and breadth of the portfolio has worked in Aware Super's favour.

"I'll confess I'm quite surprised that the breadth has worked quite so well," he said.

"We've done nothing, we might do things, but we're going to have to try to see a higher probability of some of these scenarios panning out before we want to move."

He said Aware Super is tracking three channels in which the conflict could translate into changes in the capital market.

The first one he notes is stagflation.

"We don't have a very rich data set in terms of our stress tests. How do you scenario test that?" he questioned.

"How do you create a dashboard of indicators, hopefully leading indicators, alternative data sets, financial market data sets, that you think can inform that scenario to try to give you an early warning indicator?"

Other signs Warner is monitoring include a massive loss in one sector of the market that could cascade through the system, as well as a traditional trading partner shocks.

"We've got forward-looking dashboards...and they flash green or orange at the moment, but it could change at any moment," he said.

"Most of our tactical conversations are around ensuring the portfolio has resilience in both a return and a liquidity point of view, in order to be proactive in the event of stress."

Warner said the investment teams spends time to ensure it can be a buyer or provide liquidity to pockets of the market where it might dry up.

"But proactively selling out risk, I'm not sure we can time it," he said.

In terms of managing complexity in portfolios, Warner said the one principle the super fund follows is being clear on the risk premium and the idiosyncratic risk, which he said is natural for those working in the superannuation industry.

"It's not natural, actually, in many parts of private markets. Still there is a habit to confuse the two either inadvertently or deliberately."

Warner said Aware Super is being very targeted in where it delivers complexity and "it should be able to deliver an idiosyncratic source of risk and an idiosyncratic source of return, but we can't access in a simpler and cheaper way."

Julia Leske has been promoted to head of sustainability business, APAC, which is a newly-created role reporting to the group's global head of sustainability business, Till Jung. Prior to the appointment, Leske was managing director, senior consultant sustainability strategy.

"Julia brings deep regional insight and a strong strategic lens at a time when investors are looking for clarity and consistency in how sustainability frameworks are applied," said Jung in a company statement.

"Her experience navigating the many market and regional nuances, coupled with her command of global sustainability industry developments, will greatly benefit our clients' ability to turn responsible investing into action."

Leske said the role builds on her existing responsibilities and focuses on setting clear direction for the application of sustainability frameworks in the region.

"I'm looking forward to collaborating with clients, colleagues and industry peers as strategic and practical challenges test assumptions and sharpen our thinking," she said.

Leske joined ISS STOXX with the 2019 acquisition of Canberra-based CAER, where she served as CEO. In December last year, she joined the board of the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA).

ISS STOXX Sustainability provides climate data, analytics, and advisory services to help financial market participants understand, measure, and act on climate-related risks across all asset classes. The group's sustainability solutions also cover corporate and country research and ratings.

As head of stewardship at Aware, Chris Newton will be leading a team of analysts focusing on building financial value and sustainable outcomes for the fund's listed market portfolio.

"We're excited to have Chris join Aware Super and contribute his deep governance experience which includes over a decade of board experience and deep knowledge of the water sector and First Nations investment and governance frameworks," said Liza McDonald, head of responsible investments.

"His ability to integrate ESG considerations into core investment and asset management process to deliver robust financial returns will be highly valuable to our 1.3 million members."

Newton brings over two decades of investment and ESG experience to the team, having worked across corporate strategy, public policy, asset management and commercial development initiatives in Australia at AMP, ANZ, Deloitte and Victorian Treasury.

He recently chaired Blackwattle Investment Partners ESG Council for four years and led the development of IFM Investors' inaugural responsible investment strategy and carbon reduction strategy in its global infrastructure portfolio.

In addition to his various non-executive directorships, Newton also serves as an independent director and chair of the investment committee for the Yawuru people, the traditional owners of Broome, WA.

Speaking at the Queensland Futures Institute Finance Summit, chief executive Kate Farrar said the fund had already committed to $225 million under the strategy, which was launched to direct more members' retirement savings back into the Queensland economy by 2029.

Farrar said Queensland's population growth, infrastructure pipeline and expanding innovation economy were creating attractive long-term investment opportunities, particularly ahead of the 2032 Summer Olympics.

The strategy builds on more than $1 billion already invested in the state and reflects the fund's focus on supporting local economic growth while delivering returns for members.

Brighter Super, which manages $37 billion on behalf of more than 340,000 members, said it is now the third largest non-government financial institution headquartered in Queensland.

"We have seen a decline in locally headquartered financial capability, raising an important question about who will continue backing Queensland into the future," Farrar said.

The fund's investments to date include a $100 million allocation to Queensland industrial and logistics real estate assets through Barings, focused on southeast Queensland and regional hubs.

It also committed $75 million to the Queensland Regional Agriculture and Food Trust managed by Riparian, targeting regional producers, water assets and agricultural and infrastructure.

Another $50 million partnership with QIC is backing high-growth Queensland businesses across advanced manufacturing, agtech, aerospace and technology.

The QIC portfolio includes investments in Queensland based companies including Gilmour, Space Technologies, SwarmFarm Robotics, Future Maintenance Technologies and ProcurePro.

Farrar said future investment would continue to be assessed against the same return, risk and cost hurdles applied across the broader portfolio.

The determination, made March 26, found AIA was still required to pay the additional TPD benefit despite the complainant not disclosing he had diabetes.

"The default amount for TPD was paid by the insurer with an amount for interest. Whilst the insurer paid interest on the default TPD benefit, the complainant says that the insurer delayed deciding and he should be paid further interest on the default TPD benefit and on the additional TPD cover benefit, which was declined," AFCA said.

AFCA acknowledged that whilst the complainant should have answered 'yes' to the insurer's question about whether he suffered from medical conditions requiring treatment, the panel determined that it was a "misrepresentation" as opposed to being "recklessly indifferent to the truth".

According to medical records, the complainant was diagnosed with diabetes in 2018 and made the application for insurance in 2020. He then stopped work in 2021 and lodged the TPD claim in 2022.

AFCA said doctors notes also provided an extensive list of the medications that the complainant was taking in relation to a range of medical conditions. However, it said the bulk of the conditions and treatments were for relatively short periods.

"The complainant says that he has always been concerned about the possibility of diabetes and did not consider the medicines he was taking as treatment, because his condition was well controlled. In the panel's view the complainant's diabetes was well controlled because he was under the ongoing care of a doctor and taking oral and injectable medications," AFCA said.

"In other words, he was receiving treatment for his diabetes at the time of his health declaration. In the panel's view a reasonable person in the circumstances would not have held the belief that his diabetes was not currently requiring treatment and would therefore have answered the health question in the affirmative.

"Accordingly, the panel is satisfied the complainant's negative response to the health question was a misrepresentation."

As a result, the AFCA panel determined AIA unreasonably delayed paying both the default TPD benefit and the additional TPD cover benefit and in accordance with section 57 of the ICA.

Shareholders have requested the resolution, coordinated by Market Forces, be included for consideration at Macquarie's annual general meeting (AGM) to be held on July 23.

Australian Ethical is part of the 160 shareholders on the resolution.

Last year, 35% of shareholders voted for improved climate risk exposure and management.

In its annual report published earlier this month, Macquarie said while it remains committed to the goals of the Paris Accord, its longstanding view remains that a managed "glidepath" to energy transition is the only long-term solution to manage "availability, affordability, and emissions reduction".

"High energy costs, and the accompanying impact on the cost of living, have seen a shift in public policy priorities and greater recognition in recent years that fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, will be required for some time, even as the transition to renewables continues," Macquarie said.

The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBC) gives Macquarie Group an ACT (assessing low-carbon transition) core rating of "D" - unstructured plan execution.

The score indicates that while Macquarie has sufficiently detailed transition planning covering the most material sources of the company's emissions, it does not provide evidence that it is influencing suppliers and investors to reduce upstream greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

WBC said if firms disclosed further information on investments and "consistent emissions time series that demonstrate significant emissions reductions", it would move the company to a higher total score.

Shareholders claim the latest disclosures and financing activity appears inconsistent with accepted science-based pathways to meet the Paris climate goals, substantially decrease reported green-energy exposure, and significantly increase reported fossil fuel exposure.

The resolution stated these developments "call into question the credibility of Macquarie's climate representations and exposes the group to growing climate-related financial risks."

To meet public commitments, the resolution said Macquarie must disclose a clear approach to ensuring its fossil fuel financing activity is consistent with the Paris climate goals.

"MQG appears to be reducing its contribution to the energy transition by retreating from direct green energy investment, which fell 65% over two years to just $700 million in FY26," the resolution read.

Macquarie also said in its annual report climate-related opportunities are not expected to be material in the short-term.

"Over the medium- to long-term, opportunities may emerge; however, these are contingent on a range of external factors, including investor demand and market conditions," Macquarie said.

It added in the long-term the range of possible outcomes become increasingly broad and estimating the financial effects beyond the medium-term "would not be decision-useful".

Allianz Retire+'s The two-chapter retirement report highlighted that many retirees can afford a comfortable retirement but are hesitant to spend and often delay critical financial decisions to achieve better retirement outcomes.

The behavioural cost is clear as the research demonstrated around 700,000 retirees leave their superannuation in accumulation after retiring, costing individuals up to $136,000, while around half of account-based pension holders withdrew only the minimum required, leading many to live more cautiously than their savings would allow.

The 'Two-Chapter Retirement' framework, developed by the insurer in the whitepaper, reveals retirees develop more uncertainty with caution, fear and complexity in the later stages of retirement.

A consistent preference for flexibility over commitment helps explain the low adoption of strategies perceived as hard-to-unwind, even when they materially improve long-term outcomes, the report said.

While traditional retirement income planning focuses on sustaining target income levels, it does not resolve retirees deeply held concerns, including outliving their retirement savings, for overly cautious and constrained spending.

"What we see is not a result of financial illiteracy or inadequate saving. These are clients who are well resourced and understand their position and yet are still reluctant to act," Allianz Retire+ chief executive David Kane said.

"The constraint is behavioural, and no amount of additional information or projections are likely to help. Instead, advisers need a fresh approach which reframes levels of commitment and stresses the exit ramps in any retirement income strategy.

"The retirement system is getting more complicated, and many people aren't aware of products that can give them guaranteed income. Combined with natural hesitation about large financial decisions, this is leaving many retirees unclear on their spending capacity and holding them back from plans that could help them enjoy the retirement they've worked hard for."

Kane said to build "genuine confidence", financial advisers must recognise that clients are not just managing finances; they are managing uncertainty about the future. However, he added longevity risk often puts advisers in a difficult place.

"Longevity is the one major retirement risk advisers can't meaningfully diversify away. While markets can be modelled and managed over time, traditional asset allocation strategies can't insure against the risk of outliving your savings," Kane said.

"Guaranteed lifetime income is not a product preference, it is a structural planning tool that helps advisers discharge their duty of care by securing essential income for life, and in doing so, gives clients the confidence to enjoy the years they can without fearing the years they can't."

Hence, Allianz Retire+ said recognising the two-chapter mindset will be essential as it shapes how clients respond to advice, perceive risk and evaluate strategies from the outset.

Viewing retirement planning through this lens allows advisers to better support clients as they balance the desire to live well today with the need to remain secure tomorrow.

"New-era retirement income solutions offer flexible access to capital and growth with downside protection not seen in older-style annuities," Kane continued.

"Advisers who can help their clients distinguish between what is genuinely irreversible and what merely feels that way will materially shift their clients' willingness to act and will ultimately improve both their clients' financial and emotional security."

Under the arrangement, UniSuper members will be able to create a legally valid Will through Safewill at no additional cost as part of their membership.

The online platform guides users through a step-by-step process to document how they want their assets distributed, appoint executors and nominate guardians for children or pets. Once completed, members receive instructions on how to print, sign and witness the documents to make it legally valid.

Safewill chief executive Adam Lubofksy said the partnership was designed to make estate planning more accessible and less intimidating for Australians.

"It's a common perception that the process of creating a Will is complicated, but in reality, it can be quick and straightforward," Lubofksy said.

The initiative also aims to improve member understanding of how superannuation is treated within estate planning arrangements, particularly the role beneficiary nominations play in determining how super death benefits are distributed.

Lubofksy noted Australians mistakenly assume their Will automatically covers their superannuation, despite super benefits generally being governed separately through fund nominations.

The partnership comes as digital estate planning tools gain traction across the financial services sector amid growing focus on retirement preparedness and the intergenerational wealth transfer.

Members with more complex estate planning needs can access additional legal advice through Safewill Legal for a $199 fee.

Safewill said the platform uses encryption and privacy practices compliant with the Australian Privacy Act to protect member information, while completed Wills are reviewed by affiliated legal professionals before execution.

The platform also allows users to notify executors and other trusted contracts that a Will has been created and where it is stored.

UniSuper members can access the services through a dedicated partnership portal, with the process typically taking between 15 and 20 minutes to complete.

In its latest System Risk Outlook, the prudential regulator said Australia's financial system remained resilient and well positioned to withstand "severe but plausible" shocks. This includes a deep global recession, higher funding costs and major operational disruptions.

However, APRA warned heightened uncertainty globally required stronger vigilance and more robust risk management practices across regulated entities.

APRA chair John Lonsdale said strong capital positions, liquidity buffers and prudential safeguards meant the financial system could continue supporting households and businesses even if economic conditions deteriorated.

"Sustaining that resilience, however, will require ongoing investment in strong risk management across the system," Lonsdale said.

APRA identified AI governance, cybersecurity and geopolitical volatility as key areas of supervisory focus, noting AI adoption in banking, insurance and superannuation was accelerating faster than many organisations' ability to manage associated risks.

The regulator said increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, including those enabled by advanced AI models, were adding to operational risk concerns. APRA recently reinforced its expectations around AI governance and risk management in a letter to the industry.

The report also highlighted growing international risk in private credit markets. While Australia's domestic private credit sector remains relatively small, APRA said local institutions could face spillover risks through offshore exposures and interconnected markets.

The heightened focus on operational resilience follows APRA's recent finalisation of targeted amendments to prudential standard CPS 230 Operational Risk Management, which comes to effect 1 July 2026.

The amendments introduce limited exemptions from certain contractual obligations for arrangements with non-traditional service providers where strict compliance is not practical, including government agencies, payment system operator's and financial market infrastructure providers.

APRA said the changes were designed to respond to industry feedback while preserving the core objectives of operational risk management.

Despite the exemptions, the regulator stressed entities remain responsible for actively managing operational risks tied to outsourced third-party service arrangements.

APRA said it would continue assessing how regulated entities are preparing for downside scenarios linked to overseas conflicts, market volatility and technology driven risks, while pushing further improvements in cyber resilience and governance standards.

The Intelligent Investor business, comprising the website and management rights to its four ETFs, will be sold to Teaminvest Private Group (ASX: TIP) for $16 million, which will be above the business' current share price once completed.

The suite includes the Intelligent Investor Select Value Share Fund (ASX: IISV); Intelligent Investor Equity Growth Fund (ASX: IIGF); Intelligent Investor Ethical Share Fund (ASX: INES); and Intelligent Investor Australian Equity Income Fund (ASX: INIF), with combined funds under management (FUM) of $280 million as at 31 March 2026.

Notably, InvestSMART, through InvestSMART Funds Management Limited, will remain the responsible entity.

The transaction is subject to several conditions, including shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Commenting, InvestSMART chief executive Ron Hodge said TIP is well-placed to bring the business forward, as the sale "further strengthens" InvestSMART's balance sheet.

"InvestSMART has spent the last 12 years growing the Intelligent Investor business including issuing four ASX-listed active ETFs and acquiring and integrating Eureka Report," Hodge said.

"TIP has indicated their commitment and focus to grow the newsletter and funds management business, including through the financial adviser market. The TIP funds management business follows the same value investing methodology as Intelligent Investor and will be a perfect fit.

"The sale of Intelligent Investor will allow InvestSMART to focus on growing its wealth advice business through the InvestSMART platform, technology tools for investors with the addition of financial advisers."

TIP chief executive Andrew Coleman said the incoming business will become TIP's retail facing arm, aligned with its existing wholesale and institutional investing education, advice and funds management offerings.

"Intelligent Investor has been the premier retail focused value investing brand for well over 20 years... [it has] cultivated a premier position through consistent, detailed, research: and critically has changed the lives of tens of thousands of Australians," Coleman said.

"We at TIP are excited to work with the wonderful team of analysts, journalists and staff to change the lives of even more Australians through access to quality investing research and commentary.

"We think Intelligent Investor will find a wonderful long-term home in TIP, aligned with our mission of using proprietary, research driven, insights to create better investors and better business people."

The new offering meets the requirements of an Innovative Retirement Income Stream (IRIS) and provides access to concessional Centrelink treatment when used to purchase a lifetime pension account.

This adds to the current range of lifetime income solutions from other providers, including Allianz Guaranteed Income for Life (AGILE) and Challenger annuities.

HUB24 chief operating officer Craig Lawrenson said the new offering will allow advisers to deliver better outcomes for their clients.

"Choice and flexibility are fundamental to a trusted superannuation system, enabling advisers to deliver more personalised advice, strengthening engagement and outcomes, and driving ongoing innovation across the industry," Lawrenson said.

"Advisers need access to solutions that enhance productivity and simplify the delivery of complex advice.

"An example is HUB24's innovative multi-step transitions capability that enables advisers to execute complex strategies simultaneously, from account establishments to recontributions."

Meanwhile, TAL general manager of retirement and wealth Shaun Bransdon said TAL is pleased to be supporting the new solution.

"Australians who have started utilising innovative lifetime income solutions as part of their retirement income are already demonstrating more confidence in drawing down their retirement income at higher rates compared to those without lifetime income," Bransdon said.

Additionally, HUB24 is aiming to launch a lifetime pension account in the second half of 2027.

The announcement follows Colonial First State's expansion of its retirement offerings through a multi-partner alliance with Challenger, Generation Life and BlackRock.

It comes as MLC also celebrated hitting a $500 million milestone on MLC Expand, describing it as the "fastest growing IRIS solution."

AMP, which also offers retirement income products via AMP Super and North platform, stated they are "pleased" to see uplifts like this across the retirement segment.

"Our industry needed to step up to help Australians be confident about their retirement," AMP chief executive Blair Vernon said.

"AMP has led the market in bringing these retirement income solutions to market, and while no other provider offers the range of solutions we do, we are pleased to see others following our lead.

"We will continue to innovate and take the market forward as we expand our retirement offers."

This comes after the regulator also launched separate proceedings against Equity Trustees in August 2025, alleging failures in due diligence concerning the Shield Master Fund which oversaw around $160 million of retirement savings into Shield through its fund.

ASIC said over $65 million was invested in First Guardian between June 2023 and March 2024 by around 2700 members of NQ Super & Pension, a division of the AMG Superannuation Fund for which Equity Trustees was the trustee.

ASIC alleges Equity Trustees did not obtain critical information before onboarding First Guardian such as its constitution, audited financial accounts or an audit of its compliance plan. Further, ASIC alleges that Equity Trustees allowed its members to invest 100% of their funds in First Guardian despite evidence it was or may have been illiquid.

ASIC is also seeking compensation for members for losses resulting from the alleged failures by Equity Trustees in relation to First Guardian, as well as declarations and civil penalties.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said the latest action is part of ASIC's 2026 enforcement priority into the collapse of First Guardian and related funds.

"We allege that a prudent superannuation trustee in Equity Trustees' position would not have approved the First Guardian classes as investment options based on the information it had available," Court said.

"Superannuation trustees play a critical role helping their members save for retirement, but we allege Equity Trustees failed to put the interests of their members first."

In response to ASIC's fresh action, Equity Trustees said it intends to defend the proceedings.

"We have previously advised the market that ETSL has exposure to the First Guardian Master Fund and the ETSL board intends to defend the allegations," Equity Trustees managing director Mick O'Brien said.

"As with the Shield Master Fund, we believe ETSL acted in line with its fiduciary duties and obligations under the Corporations Act and Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act. We believe that First Guardian is primarily a case of alleged and widespread fraud, and that the focus should be on those parties.

"The actions by regulators and government to expose the misconduct of now-banned financial advisers and allegedly fraudulent promoters, responsible entities and investment managers are commendable, as are the initiatives to strengthen consumer protections."

O'Brien added Equity Trustees is assisting the liquidators of First Guardian to achieve the best possible returns for members.

"ETSL also fully understands the deeply distressing circumstances for those affected and continues to provide members' access to counselling, wellbeing support and information," O'Brien added.

In all, ASIC alleges Equity Trustees failed to exercise the same degree of care, skill and diligence as a prudent superannuation trustee would in onboarding the different classes of First Guardian; failed to act in the best financial interests of members when performing its duties and exercising its powers in relation to First Guardian; and failed to do all things necessary to ensure the financial services covered by its Australian financial services licence were provided efficiently, honestly and fairly.

"This is the second action we've taken against Equity Trustees and the fifth against a super trustee as part of our First Guardian and Shield Master Fund investigations, Court said.

"ASIC has now commenced proceedings against every super trustee that made available Shield or First Guardian. More than $420 million has been repaid to thousands of investors through ASIC's work to date. We currently have more than 26 matters under investigation or before the Federal Court and we expect further action to follow."

Following ASIC launching its initial proceedings against Equity Trustees last year, it determined to make an application to the government under Part 23 of the SIS Act for help in making First Guardian and Shield investors whole.

"Part 23 of the SIS Act is designed for exactly these purposes, and we look forward to the various authorities prioritising action which establishes that such a fraud occurred," said at the time.

In February this year Equity Trustees placed its superannuation arm under review as it continues to face scrutiny over the Shield and First Guardian failures.

Before considering anything else, a panel of technology and advice experts stressed the importance of starting at the ground level - improving client and investment data before leveraging AI over it.

On the final day of the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) Conference in Melbourne, Flextrade vice president of business development James Hammond said the reality is "no one sorted out their client data," meaning investments data is housed in disparate platforms and not easily accessible at once.

"If your data is rubbish, it doesn't matter what AI you put on top of it, it's rubbish in, rubbish out," he said.

In the context of adopting technology-enabled advice, Padua Solution managing director and chief executive Matt Esler said advisers need to lean into compliance as they are fiduciaries of clients' wealth.

Applying quality assurance throughout the process - from advice guidance to advice generation - or "audit in real time" is where the industry should be moving towards.

As an example, Esler shared Padua has 15 compliance managers whose jobs changed drastically with the implementation of AI.

"Applying Padua's AI quality assurance capability called Aqua meant those people didn't lose their jobs. They moved to the front of the funnel, and now they're involved in discussions with advisers and talk about strategy and advice again," he said, warning that gone are the days where advisers check a plan after it has been issued.

"Once the advice has been provided to clients, it's too late. This idea that compliance groups and consultants do four checks on client advice per year is a huge risk to the industry."

The end of the process culminates in an "ASIC-level, AFCA-level and a licensee-level audit" in pre-providing and post-providing advice to the client, capturing any issue prior to implementation.

What is also needed, according to Hammond, is a change in adviser mindset because another reality is management teams are "nervous about changing anything" and their advisers will join a competing firm.

"It's the advisers' responsibility to give some reassurances to their management teams that they want to make their lives easier. That they want to be more efficient," Hammond said.

"These things aren't going to happen unless the advisers are willing to. You don't need to become a software engineer. You just need to be open to the idea that the way you engage your client and the way you don't manage your daily tasks could potentially be done better."

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

After closed to 17 years with HESTA, Andrew Major will join Australian Unity as chief investment officer in the wealth and capital markets division.

Major held a number of roles at HESTA over his tenure, including chief risk officer and more recently acting as a strategic advisor for the investments function.

"After 17 years at HESTA, riding the wave of growth and evolution in the superannuation sector, the time has come for me to jump into a new role as chief investment officer in the Wealth and Capital Markets division at Australian Unity," Major said on LinkedIn.

"My journey at HESTA has shaped my professional capabilities in ways I couldn't have imagined when I started back in 2009, and I am eternally grateful for the connections made, knowledge gained, and experiences shared during this time across the superannuation sector and global investment markets.

"I am excited to continue to support HESTA member outcomes as a board director for two of HESTA's strategic investments. In my new position, I am focused on leveraging this experience to drive strategic and investment outcomes for the Australian Unity group, its members, and clients."

A HESTA spokesperson wished Major every success in his new role.

"Andrew has made an outstanding contribution over many years, including as chief risk officer and most recently in his advisory role supporting our investment strategy," the spokesperson told Financial Standard.

"His commitment to members, deep expertise and institutional knowledge have helped position HESTA strongly for the years ahead."

In January, Australian Unity announced Joe Fernandes would step down from his role as executive general manager - funds management and group chief investment officer.

At the time, Australian Unity said Fernandes played a pivotal role in leading and transforming Australian Unity's funds management businesses.

Fernandes went on to join Future Group as chief investment officer.

More investors are pivoting to emerging markets amid weakened demand for the USD and blue chips like the Magnificent Seven becoming expensive.

At the performance level, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has delivered about 44% p.a. in the year to April, while the MSCI World returned 28% p.a. Year-to-date, this works out to be 14% p.a. and 5.26% p.a. respectively.

On top of these, J. P. Morgan Asset Management Asia head of investment specialists for emerging markets and Asia-Pacific equities Alexander Treves said there are even more compelling reasons to invest outside of developed markets.

"The USD has historically been a safe haven from risk. People are reassessing some of that to some extent, because, already, it's such a well-held asset class. Already, USD equities are expensive. Already, there's been a lot of flow into them, and so when we see geopolitical events and concerns emanating out of the US, that's causing people to look to the East right now," he told the annual Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) Conference.

"People I speak to, having had a lot of USD exposure, now think, 'Maybe at the margin, my next dollar should be invested in another part of the world, maybe a faster-growth part of the world, or a cheaper part of the world, or a less risky part of the world'," he said.

Emerging markets are synonymous with significant demographic shifts that underpin consumption and consumer confidence.

But it is the innovation piece in emerging markets, Treves noted, taking shape.

"It's emerging markets companies selling things, innovating, generating value and running businesses with high barriers to entry. That's much more exciting to me. So, the fact that technology is a big part of emerging markets now is something to celebrate, because it shows that we've got a higher quality opportunity set," he said.

Echoing this rhetoric, Platinum portfolio manager of Asia strategies Cameron Robertson pointed to Korea and Taiwan.

"The world's chips used in all these AI data centres come out of those markets. Electrical infrastructures going into data centre builds also come from there," Robertson said.

More vulnerable to the oil and energy crisis, on the other hand, Southeast Asian countries, like the Philippines, experienced massive sell-offs.

"These [selloffs] are quite big moves, but there are always some more subtle themes that are playing throughout the region," he said.

"When you think about some of the risks that are coming through, like the Iran war, what's the solution to that? Sometimes the solution also sits in Asia, because of the innovation there. The world's biggest battery company, Chinese business CATL, is seeing increased orders for energy storage solutions for the grid."

When assessing the quality of governance of emerging markets companies and the regulatory environment they operate in, Treves said this requires work and due diligence, taking into account the wide range of governments in emerging markets.

"Governments play different roles in different markets in our part of the world. The Chinese government is obviously much more interventionist in capital markets, and we play the case in some other places. Sometimes that causes issues, sometimes it's actually a tailwind.

"China's ability to build that infrastructure and get stuff done is directly correlated to the role the government plays there," Treves said, adding that, ultimately, it comes down to a stock-by-stock basis.

Robertson added, "governance can make huge impacts to returns," highlighting the case of South Korea's and Japan's corporate governance improvements.

"When you don't have some of those regulatory backstops, which in many emerging markets you don't have, a lot of it comes down to the quality of the individuals and teams that you're backing and their ethical moral compass, which sits on a scale," Robertson said.

"So, you have to incorporate that in what you're willing to pay."

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

Diana Mousina, deputy chief economist at AMP, said the current economic cycle is unlike any other she's experienced where "things are completely up in the air and seem very tribal."

She told the annual Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) Conference that it is a difficult time for investors who are trying to digest the tumult triggered by the geopolitics of the day.

"For us, we're trying to distil what is noise here and what is signal. We know that geopolitics is becoming more of a factor in markets," she said, pointing to defence and warfare as some key drivers. Then there is the case of the US government.

"Unfortunately, I don't think that the tribal times are going away anywhere. This is going to be a factor, whether Trump's in power, whether someone else in the US is in power," she said.

"This is a natural change in our world as a result of the global economy moving from a new polar to a multipolar world - that we have more of these areas where we can have trouble around the world.

"This is a problem because for investors it means more volatile markets, particularly in equities."

However, a "geopolitical risk premium" in the markets is filtering through.

"Despite all this clear evidence that policy uncertainty is moving up, we have seen complete resilience in markets over 2026 - to everything that's been happening in the Middle East, but also to the general fear that the economic cycle is not as straightforward as perhaps where it once was," Mousina said.

The S&P 500, for example, is up nearly 8% year-to-date after falling about 8% at the start of the US-Israel war in the Middle East.

The US market is outperforming relative to its peers, Europe is struggling, while China is faring well, she said.

In essence, Mousina reasons the fundamental economic backdrop around the world is driving resilience. Another reason why markets are overlooking global tensions is companies continuing to generate profits.

"The latest profit season in the US was incredibly strong. Earnings growth across the board was up more than 20% year on year before the profit season started," she said.

"Most analysts were looking for profit growth about 10% or so. If you look at the tech sector, profit growth there is more like 40% over the past year, so it is the tech story that's booming, but broader than that as well."

Australia, though, is an outlier compared to its peers.

Over the next 12 months, Mousina predicts the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise the base rate twice. At the May meeting, interest rates rose by 25bps to 4.35%.

"That is going to put a handbrake on the economy. We think that growth here is going to soften to about 1% to 1.5% in terms of GDP growth. That's low for Australia. That will mean that our population is running above our level of economic growth, which means that per person we're going backwards again. That is disappointing after we had this resurgence in growth last year, but maybe it's what's needed to get inflation down," she said.

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

The $410 billion super fund has named its first head of AI and automation in a newly created role.

Sarah Carney joins AustralianSuper from Microsoft where she spent a decade, most recently as national chief technology officer for Australia and New Zealand.

AustralianSuper chief platforms officer Mike Backeberg said appointing Carney was a major step in the fund's tech evolution.

"Sarah has over two decades' experience leading digital transformation, AI strategy, and enterprise-scale change programs globally," Backeberg said.

"Having someone of Sarah's calibre join our team is a demonstration of our determination to use technology to its fullest capability to deliver for members."

Backeberg said AustralianSuper has already embraced AI and automation across the business, but the new role will further position the fund as a "technology leader in the superannuation sector".

"At AustralianSuper we are looking to align autonomous agents with human intent, embed guardrails without killing momentum and turn experimentation into repeatable scaled outcomes," Backeberg said.

"This means addressing how AI flows through the organisation, finding ways for humans and machines to collaborate at scale and making sure that governance is fit for purpose."

Carney will start with the fund in late July and said she was excited to be joining.

"In my most recent role I have had a front row seat seeing the incredible development and growth of AI and automation globally," Carney said.

"Finding new ways to apply both automation and AI to support AustralianSuper's purpose of having members achieve their best financial position in retirement is an opportunity I am really looking forward to.

"Whether it's through supporting personalised member guidance and advice, enabling greater investment capability and insights or further improving service levels, AI and automation have a vital role to play in delivering better outcomes for members."

AustralianSuper has also announced the appointment of partner Ignition to start rolling out digital advice options for the fund's 3.6 million members in the second half of this year, with the aim to release all digital advice journeys across the 2026/27 financial year.

Developed with Challenger, Generation Life, and BlackRock, the partnerships transform product-led approaches to a "whole-of-life" retirement model for lifetime income solutions combining fixed, CPI and investment-linked annuities.

For Challenger, CFS is integrating innovation retirement income solutions (IRIS) and the full suite of annuity capabilities.

Meanwhile, Generation Life's investment-linked IRIS will be integrated onto FirstChoice and investment bonds onto FirstChoice and CFS Edge, which will be brought forward by BlackRock's investment capabilities to deliver those products.

CFS members will also benefit from BlackRock's experience delivering LifePath Paycheck in the US - an integrated target date strategy which provides eligible participants the ability to purchase a guaranteed income stream for retirement payable by third-party insurers selected by BlackRock.

The rollout will begin with the introduction of the Retirement Income Optimiser on the FirstChoice platform, as well as a Pension Bonus feature for eligible CFS members in August, with further solutions to be introduced over the next 12 months.

AMP, also offering retirement income products via AMP Super and North platform, stated they are "pleased" to see uplifts like this across the retirement segment.

"Our industry needed to step up to help Australians be confident about their retirement," AMP chief executive Blair Vernon said.

"AMP has led the market in bringing these retirement income solutions to market, and while no other provider offers the range of solutions we do, we are pleased to see others following our lead.

"We will continue to innovate and take the market forward as we expand our retirement offers."

Meantime, this same week MLC was celebrating hitting the $500 million milestone on MLC Expand, saying it is "becoming the fastest growing IRIS solution".

"This is a significant milestone for MLC Expand and shows the demand we're seeing from financial advisers for MLC Retirement Boost," MLC Expand chief executive Liz McCarthy said.

"The way that Australians think about retirement is changing and the demand for this solution is a testament to that. People want more personalisation and flexibility in their retirement planning and MLC Retirement Boost gives them this, while increasing the potential of super for more people and potentially creating higher retirement income, from their first super contribution."

MLC Expand also has a partnership with Challenger as well as TAL.

Commenting on its new partnerships, CFS Super chief executive Kelly Power said the new offering transforms the perception of retirement.

"CFS has built its reputation on being a leader in retirement, and this expansion reflects a material capital commitment to supporting Australians across their entire retirement journey by providing the most comprehensive whole-of-life offering in the market," Power said.

"By bringing together best-in-class global investment capability, local market-leading lifetime income expertise and tax-effective structures, this integrated offering is designed to meet the increasingly complex financial needs of Australians.

"It recognises that retirement is no longer a single event, but a long-term financial journey that requires different solutions over time."

Challenger chief executive and managing director Nick Hamilton added that the alliance brings real significance beyond partnership mechanics.

"Australia has been very successful at helping people accumulate super, yet far less effective at helping them convert those balances into income they can actually depend on," Hamilton said.

"CFS is embedding lifetime income at scale, and this collaboration tackles one of the hardest and least-solved problems in the retirement system - how to turn savings into income for life."

Further, Generation Life chief executive Felipe Araujo said the Australian retirement system is transforming, where advice is filling the gap in introducing retirement products for retirees.

"Generation Life is proud to be selected as a partner of choice by CFS to help co-develop next-generation wealth management and retirement solutions. Australia's retirement system is entering a new phase, where advice delivery is keeping pace with the increasingly dynamic needs of Australian retirees," he said.

"This alliance represents one of the first truly integrated retirement ecosystems of its kind in Australia, bringing together income, tax efficiency and intergenerational wealth planning in a more connected way to better support Australians through retirement and across generations"

BlackRock head of Australasia Jason Collines said: "CFS has been a longstanding whole portfolio partner for BlackRock, and we are proud to continue supporting its MySuper LifeStage portfolios."

"Working alongside Generation Life, we look forward to contributing to the next phase of growth as CFS expands the retirement toolkit for advisers and members, and moves towards more integrated, end-to-end retirement solutions that help more Australians experience financial wellbeing."

This builds on the first tranche of reforms introduced in 2024.

The changes will set a new performance target to decide all low-risk applications within 30 days from the beginning of next year. It will also update and remove ineffective conditions on existing foreign investment approvals.

The government will amend the foreign investment laws to expand exemption certificates to reduce regulatory burden on low-risk investments by frequent low-risk investors.

The changes will eliminate approval requirements for some low-risk transactions, ensure more agile compliance and enforcement powers to better respond to non-compliance and increase screening requirements for targeted investments to better protect more sensitive sectors.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the second round of foreign investment reforms is about making improvements so the regime is stronger where risks are high and faster where risks are low.

"These reforms will increase certainty for investors and will lead to faster and fewer approvals, reduced regulatory burden, and improved tools to address high-risk investment," Chalmers said.

He added foreign investment is crucial to Australia's prosperity and the government is committed to ensuring it is in Australia's national interest as well.

"We are strengthening and streamlining Australia's foreign investment system to attract investment that drives economic growth, creates skilled jobs, and lifts competition and innovation."

Last year Treasury released a discussion paper for feedback to further streamline and strengthen the foreign investment framework.

It said the reforms will seek to ensure Australia remains an attractive destination for global capital, while managing new and evolving risks to the national interest and security in an "increasingly challenging" international environment.

The Australian unit trust, now registered for sale to wholesale investors and advised clients, aims to deliver long term returns through a diversified portfolio of global equities incorporating both fundamental and ESG considerations.

The launch marks Federated Hermes' second wholesale fund introduced to the Australian market this year, following the February rollout of its Global Trade Finance Fund. The firm already has a sizeable institutional footprint locally though its stewardship arm, EOS at Federated Hermes, which advises on approximately US$2.3 trillion (AU$3.38 trillion) in assets globally. This includes mandates linked to several of Australia's largest superannuation funds.

Benchmarking against MSCI World ex Australia Index, the strategy will typically hold between 250 and 500 stocks selected through a systematic and data driven investment process supported by fundamental oversight from the portfolio management team.

The strategy also integrates a proprietary ESG framework incorporating engagement insights from EOS, alongside Federated Hermes; multi factor risk model, MultiFRAME, which is used to manage portfolio risk and balance exposures across the portfolio.

Geir Lode, who leads the global equities team and serves a lead portfolio manager for the strategy, said heightened macroeconomic volatility continues to create opportunities across global markets.

"Our disciplined, risk aware approach aims to identify resilient businesses that look attractive across multiple dimensions and avoid material weaknesses, while controlling risk and maintaining balanced exposures," Lode said.

The strategy has been managed since 2007 and oversees approximately US $5.8 billion in assets globally.

Associate director of business development Liz White said the launch reflects growing demand among Australian wholesale investors for broader global diversification beyond domestic equities.

The new business will provide advisers with access to margin lending services supported by dedicated account manages, while allowing clients to retain trading arrangements with their existing or preferred stockbrokers. Advisers and investors will also be able to monitor lending arrangements through a dedicated portal.

The launch comes as demand for margin lending rebounds. According to Reserve Bank of Australia data cited by the firm, the value of margin loans increased to about $16.8 billion in December 2025, up from just over $15 billion three months earlier.

Chris Fox, manager director of Bell Potter Capital said gearing strategies are becoming increasingly relevant for investors seeking flexibility and diversification.

"Borrowing funds to increase your investing capacity can be a powerful wealth creation tool. Gearing to buy equities can provide greater flexibility, liquidity and diversification," Fox said.

He added proposed Federal Budget taxation changes could further increase investor interest in margin lending strategies.

Fox said Tandem Capital was developed to help advisers broaden their service offering without disrupting existing broker relationships.

"Bell Financial Group has worked with advisers for over 50 years, so we understand the need for flexibility and efficiency," he said.

The launch also expands Bell Financial Group's broader Tandem offering, which includes Tandem Securities and Tandem Clearing.

Fox said the addition strengthens the group's ability to provide financial advice firms with either end-to-end or tailored solutions designed to complement their existing client propositions.

Founded in 1970, Bell Financial Group has approximately $92.1 billion in funds under advice and services more than 600,000 clients across institutional, wholesale, advised and retail channels.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Forum for Investment Managers event in Sydney, Hunter said RBA's reports suggest some firms have responded already, with fuel surcharges raised by firms at the start of supply chains that flow into a broad set of industries.

"Expectations for pass-through to consumer prices vary, but we are hearing from some firms that they plan to increase their retail prices," Hunter said.

"For example, some construction firms - who have been relatively highly exposed to transport and oil-derived raw materials cost increases - are reviewing prices for new contracts."

This has pushed the RBA to revise its inflation forecast higher in the near term. It expects the oil prices shock to put upward pressure on inflation over the next year, contributing around 0.4% to underlying inflation in the March quarter of 2027.

Hunter said the oil price shock will have a direct and indirect impact on consumers, with the increase in the cost of filling cars with fuel flowing directly through to higher headline inflation in Australia.

Indirectly, a rise in oil prices will impact the cost of producing and distributing goods and services. Domestically fuel accounts for around 2% to 2.5% of the cost of producing and distributing other goods and services in the inflation data.

"Components that are more exposed to fuel prices include travel, transport and postal services, some groceries items and new dwelling construction," Hunter said.

"In addition, oil is also an input in global supply chains and will influence imported goods prices. For example, oil and gas are used in the manufacture of fertilisers and plastics, and the cost of these goods has started to rise."

These estimates by the RBA assume the conflict in the Middle East will get resolved soon causing a fallback in oil prices.

However, Hunter said oil prices could stay elevated for longer than implied by market pricing, and the Iran conflict could lead to broader, more persistent supply disruptions, adding to inflation.

"Cost pass-through may also be stronger than assumed, and higher fuel prices could lift and embed higher inflation expectations, which RBA research shows are particularly sensitive to fuel, perpetuating the inflationary shock," she said.

Inflation may be lower, Hunter said, if households and businesses cut back on consumption and investment by more than the RBA anticipates in response to cost-of-living pressures and uncertainty.

VBP has appointed former Godfrey Pembroke chief executive Mark Fisher to lead the group into its next phase of growth, effective June 1.

Prior to Godfrey Pembroke, Fisher was the managing director of Securitor, and held senior roles at BT Financial Group, Westpac and Macquarie Group previously.

As chief executive, Fisher will support the firm's adoption of new technology like automation and artificial intelligence (AI), improve cyber security and risk management, while scaling the business sustainably.

Welcoming the appointment, Jacobsen described Fisher as an experienced and dedicated leader.

"Mark is a highly respected leader with proven experience running successful businesses, driving growth initiatives and leading large teams through periods of change and disruption, and we are very excited to have him on board to take VBP forward," Jacobsen said.

"Over the past few years, VBP has expanded its services and offerings to advice, accounting and mortgage broking businesses, and opened new offices in Cagayan De Oro, in the Philippines. The business has ambitious plans to continue growing and delivering a broad range of outsourcing services to clients."

Fisher added that he looks forward to joining VBP.

"I'm excited to join VBP and grow the group's position as a leading specialist of outsourced services and solutions to financial advisers and accountants," Fisher said.

"VBP is also passionate about being a great place to work and providing career development opportunities for its people, which I strongly believe in."

VBP currently has around 300 clients and over 1500 team members, spread across offices in Sydney, Australia, and Cebu City and Cagayan De Oro in the Philippines.

The business provides a range of services including intelligent automation, paraplanning, administration support, and a range of business consulting services including business coaching, and practice management training and workshops.

Meanwhile, John Nantes has been appointed executive director of Godfrey Pembroke, succeeding Fisher. He brings over 30 years' experience across wealth and financial services, the firm said.

The government has announced the shared responsibility of the scheme across all financial sub-sectors, including the superannuation sector, late last year, which received mixed reactions from the industry, including the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) and the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA).

However, despite the current spread, advisers are expected to expense a whopping $4000 in levies in the upcoming financial year.

The situation is rather dire for risk advice due to the lack of new entrants into the niche sector, with only some 185 risk specialists currently available in Australia.

Addressing the growing concerns of the viability of risk advice, CALI chief executive Christine Cupitt argued the CSLR levy should be spread across the broader financial services sector and the government, rather than saddling advisers with a "disproportionate" burden.

"Risk advisers aren't a threat to Australians' savings, instead they help them access peace of mind and financial security when they need it most," Cupitt said.

"The scheme is very important for victims of financial misconduct, and the government needs to take a fairer approach and make sensible changes to the design of the scheme to ensure it remains sustainable in the long run."

Cupitt said the government delivering on its promises for the full Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms would be significant for fighting financial misconduct.

Notably, CALI is attending a round table with assistant treasurer and minister for financial services Daniel Mulino, along with consumer groups and industry stakeholders to discuss consumer protection and the sustainability of the CSLR.

Further, Mulino spoke at the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) Conference on Tuesday morning providing an update on both the CSLR and DBFO reforms, stating that they need "holistic" approach when assessing these reforms without applying unnecessary regulations.

Who are the investors caught in the crash, and who are the ones that capture the most gains on the way up?

In that space between sell-off and recovery lies the under-explored story of contrarian investing.

It's the one where every decision demands deep pockets, mental stamina and a sturdy stomach.

If the sharemarket was a dish, market volatility would be on the daily menu.

That's why contrarian investment expert Paul Fairbrother, institutional portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management, doesn't fear volatility, he eats it for breakfast.

As Fairbrother puts it, "Our investment philosophy is to always run into the 'burning building' when people are coming out and be that contrarian in the room that's going in the opposite direction."

That burning building could be a market bubble and bust, a global pandemic or a geopolitical crisis . In recent months, the market is catching fire from supply chain disruptions.

At a company level, Fairbrother would be drawn to large companies, often household brands, in the thick of controversy, like a profit warning or a management restructure.

It's in this space where others fear to tread that Fairbrother - through the MFS Global Contrarian Equity Fund - gets down to work.

Margin of safety

Before the sharemarket became a sophisticated game of dots on a graph and instant trading, it was a simple case of investing in good companies.

It's the wide margin between what a good company should be worth and how their valuation gets caught in the general wash that spurred MFS to launch its contrarian strategy in 2016.

A year prior, the Chinese market bubble had burst in the worst way possible, plunging 43% in a few months and dragging the rest of the world with it. No investment book could prepare investors for such a scale of market dislocation.

But to MFS, the numbers may be different, but they've seen it all before. Founded in 1924, MFS is one of the longest-running asset managers in the world, and they've lived through the dotcom bust, the rise of hedge funds, the proliferation of quant strategies and, more recently, indexed investing.

That experience shaped their core belief that markets will always be driven by fear and greed, which led to their contrarian strategy that systematically exploits those emotional overreactions and turns them into portfolio returns.

That system is underpinned by four investment pillars.

First, the fund only buys stocks on cheap valuations because that reduces their reliance on uncertain forecasts.

Second, they stick with a bottom-up, not macro-driven, approach, which reduces their vulnerability to rate forecasts.

Third, regardless of the share price, the company's balance sheet should survive a Global Financial Crisis (GFC) stress test.

Finally, Fairbrother says that a contrarian strategy has to be 'emotionally resilient', meaning you can't be attached to any one idea and you need to hold your nerve no matter how the markets are behaving around you.

All this to say the fund has the muscle memory of a 102-year-old fund manager and understands what market guardrails should look like.

"We work very hard on what we call a margin of safety, particularly around our downside risk modelling, so we can get the odds stacked more in our favour."

Investing in controversy

Asked what stocks the fund invests in, Fairbrother said that there have been various types over the past 10 years, but three areas stick out the most.

"The first would be in the deep value space where there's perhaps a big risk arbitrage between the upside and downside on the stock. With a capital cycle lens of looking through those companies, particularly when capital is coming out of an industry, it's quite good for the incumbent players that are left."

Then there are the quality compounders or distrusted growth companies.

"These are good companies that fall on hard times. That's exploiting the human-nature element to this, where we're prone to extrapolate news, and when it's good, you tend to get too optimistic and overprice a stock, and when it's bad, people get too pessimistic, assume the news flow is going to stay bad and eventually underprice the stock."

The rich pickings for the fund are the structuring plays.

"Often with good companies, they make mistakes. There are self-inflicted wounds like doing an M&A that goes wrong or they change management and it doesn't work out," said Fairbrother.

Because they have a lot of knowledge on that company, the fund can then make a decision to buy and make money as the shares start to reflect not the controversy, but the company's reality.

No room for a benchmark

In a world inundated with strategies set against a benchmark, the MFS Global Contrarian Equity Fund has a very concentrated portfolio of 30 stocks with a focus on absolute returns.

"We're aware of the benchmark, but we don't try and build a portfolio around it. We want an idiosyncratic portfolio of risks that are not slaves to the bench, and that's the contrarian instinct in us."

"I put the question back to the investor and say, 'Do you want to own the stock or the industry when it's three per cent of the benchmark or when it's 30 per cent?'"

He argues, "If a stock is already 30% of the bench, everyone's already in there. They [everybody] own that stock. We want to own the unknown stock that's not in the bench."

Without the need to hug a benchmark, Fairbrother has more control - but also more at stake - in his portfolio.

Here's the best bit though. Both traditional and contrarian investors get blindsided by market shocks in equal measure.

While the traditional investor takes whatever the market serves, the contrarian fund manager Fairbrother orders his usual: bad news, turbulence and a generous heap of conviction.

At the annual conference in Melbourne on day one, SIAA chief executive Maria Lykouras unveiled the association's new vision: "building prosperity for Australian investors" - a shift from "serving the interests of investors."

"I believe this change makes our industry's role in the lives of our clients clearer and more ambitious," said Lykouras, who was appointed to the top job last December.

"Our purpose is to champion and advocate for a dynamic, inclusive and future-focused industry, empowering smart decisions by Australian investors. We've been very specific about every word that you see in that purpose.

"We wanted to be clear to our members in the market what our role is, and we want to call out how we are focusing on the changing dynamics, such as technology and client behaviours for the future."

The association is driving home several strategic imperatives: advocacy, lifting industry capability through knowledge and education, effective member collaboration and engagement, professionalism, and raising awareness to promote the value of the industry to the broader community.

"We are an incredible profession to be a part of, so we want to attract, retain and advance a diverse profession that is representative of our community and awareness. We will continue to promote the value of this industry to the broader community to support these strategic imperatives," she said.

"We're going to deepen even further our relationships with government and regulators."

In the last 12 months, SIAA has launched 13 public policy submissions and attended 127 government meetings.

Among other initiatives, SIAA helped secure recognition for reform to adviser education standards to rebuild the pipeline of professionals, prevented increases to wholesale investor thresholds and engaged closely with ASX on its CHESS replacement project.

"We're going to be proactive in our positions to lead government, regulatory, and market change where it's needed. Our board had a very significant discussion yesterday about how we're going to start leaning into this industry further to see how we can drive change more broadly," Lykouras said.

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

The Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association (SIAA) Conference in Melbourne today discussed differences between traditional fixed income products, and private credit and alternative strategies.

Financial advisers, a panel of experts said, are at an interesting juncture - should they include private credit in the defensive portion of a diversified portfolio?

Schroders Australia head of credit Helen Mason told advisers: "Buyer beware."

"Do your due diligence. If you can't figure out what's in the portfolio and what's driving the returns, then how can you possibly understand the risk? And how can you price that risk?" she told the panel.

"It is very important to understand the fixed income landscape and what you want to be invested in. It's no doubt that we're in a more volatile period of time - that inflation is going to be higher and stickier and rates are going to be higher - and that will put pressure on corporates and households."

MA Financial group executive head of global credit solutions Frank Danieli said in the defensive part of a 60-40 portfolio, with the 40% being defensive and historically invested in bonds and liquid fixed income to deliver a source of income, there are several aspects that should be top of mind when considering private credit.

"How much within that 40% can I trade off liquidity in order to capture a premium return? That premium is delivered because of less liquidity and different liquidity features, but also due to proprietary origination and so on," he asked.

"When you think about it in that way, that has quite a good role within balanced portfolios."

Danieli observes that private credit has a "definitional problem" some advisers are grappling with. To tackle this, they should first start with defining what private credit is.

"Private credit is a loan that's not on a bank balance sheet, and not in the bond markets, but a loan on a spectrum of risk, [ranging from] investment-grade replacements to sub-investment grade replacements to opportunistic and high-risk alternatives. Each of those can have a valid place in people's portfolio, depending on client objectives.

"Once you deal with that question, then you have to say, how do I get it? Historically, this was an asset class available only to very large institutional investors.

"It is important not to start with, how do I get it? It's what within the private credit landscape do I actually want within a portfolio, and then where do I access it? They're the two questions that we see clients grappling within our channels," he said.

The private credit sector is facing unprecedented regulatory scrutiny in which regulator ASIC has put product providers on notice for opaque practices and transparency issues, particularly around fees.

To help address this, Danieli said advisers should consider the "first layer of the onion" to be the portfolio composition around disclosure and transparency.

If a fund has 150 loans, he said, it is important to understand which sectors these operate in, the type of loans and their credit characteristics and so on.

In layer two, advisers should be asking, 'Where's my risk-adjusted return coming from and is the product provider making these clear in investment documents?'

Other aspects to consider are what returns the loan portfolio generates after considering fees, if the fund is leveraged, the performance of a loan and possible defaults.

The final layer, he noted, is structural and governance transparency.

"The nature of how you're set up, what segregation of duties are in place and what independent processes or outside review that you have within the business. How do you conduct valuations and determine your credit ratings and so on? That all needs to be clear," Danieli said.

"It's not just about what's [in the fund]. It is about where are my returns coming from, and how's the governance working within this business?"

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

Speaking at the Financial Standard Advisers Big Day Out (ABDO) in Sydney, Hillier said the 90% figure could be used by the client for travel, retiring early, helping children with their first homes, supporting the community or having access to better health care.

He suggested advisers could bucket the needs of their clients in five categories for retirement: liquid, living, lifestyle, later and legacy.

The liquid bucket would have short-term needs of the client held in cash plus a little extra for emergencies, the living bucket would include recurring living expenses generated by the Age Pension and lifetime income, the lifestyle bucket would capture discretionary spending invested for long-term growth to maintain standard of living, the later bucket would fund needs in the future, and finally the legacy bucket to include if the other buckets are full.

"One of my strongest wishes professionally is that we can actually address each of these individually, because you fill them from left to right and then you find out wait I still have 'X' left over. Now I can actually pass that legacy on," Hillier said.

Instead of just waiting until the very end to see what is left over Hillier said this strategy allows clients to take control of their retirement.

"Let's actually be more purposeful about retirement and including that legacy to give to give our clients the confidence to achieve their dreams and also their family's dreams," he said.

Current chief investment officer Penny Ransom will assume the role of chief executive investment management on July 1.

Ransom joined Lendlease in 2022 as group head of investments and was appointed chief investment officer in July 2024, with responsibility for capital allocation, as well as global capital raising and product development.

She has more than 30 years' experience across institutional real estate, transactions and investment management, including chief investment officer at Investa Property Group, and senior positions at Dexus.

Ransom's appointment follows Gabbani's decision to pursue an external opportunity which allows him to remain in Singapore with his family, Lendlease said.

He has held senior leadership roles across investment management, finance and regional segments in Australia, Asia and Europe.

Commenting, Lendlease group chief executive Tony Lombardo said Ransom is well positioned to lead its international investment management business.

"Penny has been instrumental in strengthening Lendlease's capital position and sharpening our investment strategy. She brings deep global investment management experience, strong investor relationships and a disciplined approach to driving performance," Lombardo said.

"Her appointment provides continuity and momentum as we continue to execute our strategy, deepen investor relationships and drive performance across our international investment management business.

"I would like to thank Justin for his significant contribution to Lendlease over more than two decades and wish him success for the future."

Speaking at the Financial Standard Advisers Big Day Out (ABDO) in Sydney, Simpson said the asset class has attractive valuations and has been a good income generator for underlying clients.

Simpson added the fund manager sees significant value in emerging market bonds when assessing real yields, which measure the returns earned after accounting for projected inflation.

According to Colchester, emerging market bonds prospective real yield came in at 2.85% at end of February.

"You look where it is now - it's not the cheapest it's ever been - but compared to history, it does to us, look relatively attractive," Simpson said.

He added while not all countries have shown resilience, select emerging markets have increasingly resilient economies that have not been fully repriced.

Colchester's investment opportunity set includes names like Taiwan and South Korean with AA credit rating; China and Malaysia with A credit rating; India and Mexico with BBB credit rating and countries like Brazil and Turkey with BB credit rating.

Simpson said these countries have been able to get good credit ratings on the back of decent economic policies such as inflation targeting and strong fiscal rules since the global financial crisis.

However, he also flagged event risks when looking at the asset class.

"Even though there has been things that have gone wrong you've got reasonable returns over time," he said.

"It doesn't mean you get a positive return all the time. I'm not promising that, but at real times, historically, it's tending to do okay."

Simpson, however, noted if the Strait of Hormuz stays shut for a long period of time, emerging markets probably aren't the place to be.

"But neither is any other risk asset that I could think of because it will be a really, really big problem," he said.

The Colchester Emerging Markets Bond Fund has provided an annual return of 5.66% on average since inception to end of January.

Speaking at the Financial Standard Advisers Big Day Out (ABDO) in Sydney, Bennett said the fund manager is using the data sets to drive better return and risk outcomes in their portfolios.

"While the fundamentals of investing are relatively straightforward and simple, we do think you can gain a slight edge by using some of the more interesting data sets and compute power that we now have available relative to what we had 20 years ago," he said.

Bennett said Invesco has recently started looking at credit card data to evaluate a company's earning momentum and sentiment.

Rather than waiting quarterly to get information on key metrics like company sales, Invesco is assessing credit card transactions data that happen every day globally.

"The ability to not have to wait means we can actually get a slight edge on the market but it also allows us to effectively get a better predictor of what those earnings announcements will be ahead of them," he said.

Another way Invesco is trying to get an edge is by comparing what the management says on the day to what they have said in the past.

"It's not so much what they're saying in their scripted comments but we like to measure the tone of how the actual Q and A session is going, so when management is talking to sell side analysts," he said.

"We track every single manager for every company around the world, so whether they were working at BHP and then switched over to Rio or whether they were working at NAB and now they're working at ANZ. We effectively track their career and their history, and we track everything that they've ever said in history over time."

Bennett said they do the same for sell side analysts, as the tone of their questions can help determine the sentiment.

"The sell side analyst is probably where we get more insight than from the management, because we track every single analyst and we can measure the questions they're asking a particular company relative to questions they've asked other companies around the same time," Bennett said.

However, he said strong compute power and scalability is required to process these large data sets over time.

Bennett also said an investor must have an economic intuition when looking at any of the data that comes in. He gives the example of Glassdoor data.

While the initial proposition with the Glassdoor data set was that if a company has a lot of positive ratings from employees, that will likely mean it's a positive company with a good culture and will provide positive returns. Bennett contends the data shows something completely opposite.

"The worse your Glassdoor rating was, the better your share price performance was," he said, noting the narrative was the company mistreats their employees because they are rewarding their shareholders.

"That's the type of data set that we're very, very skeptical of and doesn't hold a lot of economic intuition. Interesting data set, but not really useful for how would you actually go about building a long term fundamental portfolio," he said.

Tonya Ripley has joined from BT where she was head of national accounts. Prior to that Ripley also held roles at HUB24 and AMP.

"Tonya brings over 20-plus years experiences across wealth platforms and distribution along with a strong track record of building strategic partnerships and driving growth," Russell Investments head of distribution Australia and New Zealand Neil Rogan said.

"Her appointment reflects our continued momentum in the Australian wealth market and our focus on strengthening support for our key accounts and platform partners.

"With strong partnerships across a range of licensees and platform providers, we're delighted to have someone with the depth of relationships and experience in the wealth management space join our team and to support our growth strategy."

Commenting on her appointment, Ripley told Financial Standard she was excited to be joining the team at Russell.

"I am excited to be joining Russell Investments at a time of strong momentum for the business in the Australian wealth market," Ripley said.

"Russell Investments has a 40-year pedigree in the Australian market in designing, constructing and managing investment solutions for financial advisers, and I look forward to contributing to the next phase of growth."

Last month Russell Investments also appointed a new head of superannuation in NGS Super's Ben Facer.

Facer had been with NGS Super since 2017, having first joined as chief risk and governance officer. During his tenure he held a raft of roles, and most recently had the dual title of chief member officer and deputy chief executive.

At Russell, Facer replaces Bronwyn Yates, who is leaving the company after close to two decades. She became head of super in July 2025 after holding a variety of roles in strategy and product.

Facer brings over 30 years' experience in superannuation, with previous roles including partner at Deloitte for over five years, and close to 20 years at Mercer in Sydney, London and Singapore.

ASIC said for the next six months it will prioritise working with APRA and other regulators to streamline and consolidate data requests and support the government's law reform, promoting productivity.

Heading into 2027, the focus will be on RegistryConnect to deliver streamlined digital services for company registrations.

"We are deliberately prioritising initiatives that deliver the greatest benefit and are consulting openly with industry. I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed their insights, ideas, and time to improve our simplification agenda," ASIC chair Joe Longo said.

"Together, we can create a regulatory framework that supports compliance, fosters innovation and strengthens trust in Australia's financial system."

This comes as ASIC also released Report 830, Regulatory simplification progress report, which outlines the work the regulator has already done, including expanding its digital services capability, streamlining its website, and simplifying regulatory guidance.

Longo said the outcomes highlighted in Report 830 show the organisations commitment to making regulation clearer, more accessible and easier to navigate.

"Regulatory complexity continues to be a challenge for Australian businesses by increasing costs, slowing innovation, creating unnecessary barriers and risking poorer consumer outcomes," Longo said.

"We have listened to feedback through our extensive engagement with the regulated community and will continue to explore opportunities to remove barriers within our control. Our efforts will focus on striking the right balance to ensure we maintain the strong protections that make Australia an attractive place to invest and do business."

In response to feedback received following the release of Regulatory simplification (REP 813) in September 2025, ASIC has also developed clearer guidance and simplified legislative instruments to ensure they are easy to understand, while implementing sector-based regulatory roadmaps to help small company directors and financial advice businesses understand their obligations.

It also improved access to regulatory information on ASIC's website with 280 form landing pages updated to make it easier for industry to comply with regulatory obligations, and modernised digital services, which it said has driven a 380% increase in forms available for electronic lodgement, resulting in 45,000 fewer paper-based lodgements annually, simplifying how businesses interact with ASIC.

According to bfinance's Q1 2026 Manager Intelligence and Market Trends Report, institutional investors are displaying more appetite for infrastructure, with the asset class accounting more than a quarter (27%) of private market mandates, compared to only 13% on the previous corresponding period.

The increased attention also lifted real assets to account for more than half of total private markets activity. Real estate's share was stable at 24%, broadly unchanged from 23% over the previous 12-month period to 31 March 2025, it said.

Private equity activity was also steady (22% versus 21%), while private debt searches fell from 35% of segment activity in 2025 to 27% in the year to end March 2026, bfinance said.

It comes as the period was marked by a "weaker start" to the year, with global fundraising falling to its lowest level since 2015. bfinance said it is due to re-intensify caution among investors amid heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

"Real estate was particularly impacted, with fundraising effectively stalling in Europe and only a handful of US focused funds reaching closes above the US$1 billion mark, reflecting the pressure of persistently high interest rates," the report said.

"Against this backdrop, private equity showed clearer signs of resilience, particularly in buyout and secondary strategies."

The report noted private debt fundraising also lost momentum over the quarter. Weighed down by negative flow linked to the "SaaS apocalypse", driven by AI-related volatility.

Despite the heightened attention, infrastructure fundraising was also subdued over the period, largely reflecting a lighter calendar of mega fund closings rather than a material deterioration in underlying investor appetite, bfinance said.

"Against this backdrop, spreads have widened and activity in the broadly syndicated loan market has softened, potentially improving the opportunity set for private lenders," the report said.

"For disciplined managers, periods like this can support better pricing and, often, stronger lender protections and tighter documentation."

The report gathered responses from some 620 bfinance clients across 47 countries, including Australia, representing over US$9 trillion in assets.

It comes as Quay Global Investors portfolio manager Chris Bedingfield said opportunities in listed real estate are emerging as the strongest opportunities away from data centres and AI-linked infrastructure.

FICA's membership now spans nine industry associations across banking, investments and broader financial services, with ASFA's inclusions bringing Australia's $4.5 trillion superannuation sector directly into cross sector policy discussions.

ASFA chief executive Mary Delahunty said superannuation has become a central pillar of Australian financial system and needed representation in policy debates affected the wider sector.

"With over $4.5 trillion in assets under management and 18 million Australians with an account, superannuation is one of the cornerstones of Australia's financial system," Delahunty said.

"It's important that the sector has a seat at the table when issues that cut across the system are being discussed," she said.

Delahunty noted current priorities included the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, scam and fraud protections, and regulatory simplification with ASFA aiming to ensure superannuation perspectives are reflected as the policy agenda evolves.

The move comes as policymakers increasingly examine interconnected risks across the financial system, particularly around consumer protection retirement adequacy, regulation and digital fraud.

FICA chair Andrew Hall said ASFA's inclusion would strengthen the organisation's ability to deliver coordinated policy advice to government across the financial services landscape.

"Superannuation is integral to Australia's financial system, and its inclusion in FICA strengthens our ability to provide government with cohesive, whole-of-system policy advice spanning banking, insurance, investment and retirement," Hall said.

The addition of ASFA also reflected the growing policy significance of the superannuation sector as retirement savings pools continue to expand and super funds play an increasingly influential role across capital markets, infrastructure investment and financial systems.

Global private equity investor Advent has appointed Patricia Cross as an operating partner for Australia and New Zealand, strengthening its regional financial services expertise as it looks to drive growth across portfolio companies.

Cross brings more than four decades of executive and board level experience spanning wealth management, asset management, institutional banking and governance. In the role, she will work closely with Advent's investment professionals and portfolio company leadership teams on strategic directions, governance and long-term value creation initiatives across the region.

Advent managing director and head of Australia and New Zealand Beau Dixon said Cross's appointment adds significant sector and governance expertise to the firm's local operations.

"Her perspective will be highly valuable to our investment professionals and portfolio company leadership teams as we continue to build our presence in the region," said Dixon.

Cross said she was joining the firm at a time of significant change across the financial services landscape.

"Financial services is a sector undergoing profound change, and I look forward to working alongside Advent's teams to help portfolio companies navigate that environment, strengthen their strategic positioning, and drive sustainable growth," Cross said.

Cross currently serves as chair of OFX and as an independent non-executive director of Transurban. She also recently completed a five-year term on the board of guardians for Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund.

Her previous board roles include positions as Macquarie Group, National Australia Bank, AMP, Quantas Airways, Wesfarmers and Avia.

Prior to her board career, Cross held senior executive roles across seven countries with institutions including Chase Manhattan Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris, and National Australia Bank.

The appointment adds to Advent's global network of more than 145 operating partners and operational advisers supporting the firm's portfolio companies.

The project included the development of 20 wholesale tokenised market use cases across multiple asset classes, including fixed income, managed funds, repos, structured products, private markets, and more. This includes the pilot of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), which was a three-year program flagged by the RBA and Treasury in September 2024.

The final report indicates a "strong interest" for the tokenisation of assets to improve efficiency, resiliency and functionality of financial markets.

"Project Acacia revealed considerable industry interest in tokenisation and demonstrated the potential for tokenisation to materially improve the efficiency and functioning of Australia's wholesale asset markets, both directly and indirectly," the report said.

"This partly reflects the relatively lower level of dynamism in Australia's wholesale financial markets compared with other areas of the financial system, such as retail payments."

The use cases highlighted opportunities across an asset lifecycle, including improved capital efficiency, shorter settlement cycles, reduced counterparty risk, 24/7 liquidity access, and reductions in intermediation costs and operational errors.

However, they also presented where the ecosystem can improve outside of tokenisation, such as more expansive use of existing fast payment rails, better alignment of operating hours with global markets, and greater transparency in key funding areas.

Commenting, RBA assistant governor Brad Jones said the initial phase was a success for Project Acacia.

"[The research phase] surfaced a set of common opportunities and challenges in making our financial system more dynamic and resilient through a period of intense technological disruption," Jones said.

"The scope of future initiatives we are outlining today is ambitious - covering tokenised assets, money and new infrastructure arrangements - and recognises that it will take a collective effort to ensure Australia's financial system is well positioned for the digital age."

DFCRC co-chief executive Tālis Putniņš added: "Project Acacia demonstrated how tokenised assets, digital money and new settlement infrastructure can improve the efficiency and functioning of wholesale financial markets."

"This includes faster settlement, reduced counterparty risk, improved capital efficiency and automated asset servicing.

"Australia achieved important world firsts through Project Acacia, including the issuance of pilot wholesale CBDC onto both public and private distributed ledger infrastructure for research purposes, demonstrating Australia's capability to play a leading role in the next generation of financial market infrastructure."

The opportunity now is to build on the momentum from Project Acacia by translating successful experimentation into real-world adoption through continued collaboration between industry, regulators and government, Putniņš said.

The completion of the project phase was welcomed by the industry, however BTC Markets chief commercial officer Paul Stonham advised the scaling of the innovation will be the challenge moving forward.

"The report explicitly identifies 'challenges to scaling' and the need for deeper regulatory and industry coordination. That's an honest assessment, and an important one," he said.

"In my experience, this is exactly the pattern you see when financial market infrastructure matures. The capability gets proven. Then the hard work begins; getting regulators aligned, getting industry to agree on common frameworks, and making sure the underlying plumbing, in this case the RBA's own settlement infrastructure, is fit for purpose."

Stonham said the continued research and industry consultation will be key to the success in expanding the capability across the broader financial markets.

Meanwhile, chief executive of AUDD Effie Dimitropoulos, a stablecoin that was heavily involved in Project Acacia, said the final report reinforces the role of stablecoins play.

"As Project Acacia demonstrates, stablecoins are already being explored alongside central bank money and tokenised bank deposits as core settlement assets in wholesale and institutional markets," Dimitropoulos said.

"This reflects a broader shift, where digital money is increasingly being incorporated into traditional financial infrastructure to support faster, more automated and lower-risk transactions.

"The findings highlight the urgency of moving from experimentation to implementation... Federal Parliament and government bodies like the RBA must continue to provide the regulatory frameworks needed to support the ongoing growth of the stablecoin industry. As the industry evolves and expands, so too must these frameworks."

Simultaneously, Coinbase Australia has launched decentralised exchange trading (DEX), expanding tradable assets in-app to millions.

Coinbase managing director APAC John O'Loghlen said the launch of DEX trading in Australia is the latest step in Coinbase's global push to build an app to exchange everything.

"For a long time, Australians wanting to trade on decentralised protocols would need to do so outside the Coinbase app, requiring an additional layer of administration and knowledge. Launching DEX is another step in our goal of enabling Australians to trade anything from anywhere in the world, all with the familiarity and security of the Coinbase app," O'Loghlen said.

"Australian users are among the first to have access to Coinbase's DEX integration, alongside those in the US, UK, and Brazil. We're looking forward to continually updating our users on new and expanded services as regulatory clarity continues to mature globally."

To access DEX, users must create a self-custody DEX wallet prior to trading, Coinbase said.

Providing more details about how the government is approaching new regulation around MISs, which received a nearly $18 million funding boost on Budget night, Mulino said introducing "sensible guardrails" would not impede the contribution of MISs to the capital markets and economy.

The government's dedicated $10.3 million to MIS regulation, split across four years, will increase ASIC's data oversight capability to the structures.

The funding boosts comes off the back of the large-scale Shield and First Guardian Master Fund collapses - MIS structures that housed and put at risk about $1 billion of investor money.

An additional $7.6 million was committed to ASIC, Treasury and the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board to strengthen governance requirements for MISs, with $1.4 million per year to be ongoing.

"This is to help ensure that regulators have the data they need to better identify concerning these structures," he said.

"This, for example, puts ASIC in a better position to identify high-risk MISs [and] understand the risk profile of MISs, if it could firstly then have a better sense of looking into flows of retail investors into those MISs, it would allow a much more targeted approach by assets, so that it could examine flows of investors much more quickly than is currently possible, so that they can prevent large collapses happening before there are thousands of investors affected."

Mulino noted regulators potentially closely looking at flows into certain types of MISs where "certain red flags arise."

"It also gives the possibility of regulation of retail investors in that context in a way that might be differentiated from very low-risk MISs," he said.

Another review of MISs that recently concluded sought to improve ASIC's oversight of the structures.

Treasury proposed a new MIS regulatory framework will have stricter compliance plan requirements, such as a detailed description of the nature of the MIS and its investment strategy, and information outlining how significant risks will be identified, monitored and managed.

At the conference, Mulino said: "Managed investment schemes, clearly play a critical role in our system, as a collective investment vehicle, they play a critical role in capital markets. They can, in some contexts, though, be problematic for retail investors, either where a MIS is not particularly transparent or clear for a retail investor in the asset composition, or where it doesn't have sufficient diversification."

The assistant treasurer reiterated he is ultimately looking at pressing reforms in the financial services sector, including the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR), Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) and financial adviser education pathways, as a broad piece of work.

"What happened soon after I came into this role is that we saw the Shield and First Guardian collapses, which raised issues around consumer protection in that context, but also then raised related issues around the sustainability of the CSLR, the burden of the CSLR on different sectors, and so ultimately a lot of these issues required attention simultaneously, and what I and the government and the department have tried to do is to examine those issues in a holistic way," he said.

"It's critical that we think about whether regulation is fit for purpose very much with the mind to not over regulating, and that goes back to the point that I touched on earlier, that we are very focused on the regulatory design being appropriate and fit for purpose."

Financial Standard is the official media partner of the 2026 SIAA Conference.

According to the 2026 Super Insights report, which analysed 2025 financial year data from APRA, funds are already redesigning processes, strengthening governance and investing in front-office capability.

This comes off the back of Treasury and the financial services ministry floating new mandatory minimum service standards for all large APRA-regulated superannuation funds in early 2025, forced to take action on widespread administration and back-office practices.

One high profile example is Cbus paying a nearly $24 million fine for the lengthy delay of death benefit payments. Another is AustralianSuper copping a $27 million fine for sitting on death benefit claims.

The government now wants all super funds to step up and force the timely and compassionate handling of death benefits, fair and efficient processing of insurance claims, and clear, respectful and accessible communications with members.

The government also expects them to have better documentation and audit trails, carry out mandatory processes replacing discretionary practices. The first tranche of the standards is set to go live in July 2028.

KPMG's report showed super funds are implementing clearer accountability for service outcomes, improved performance measurement and better oversight of third-party providers, like administration and group insurance partners.

To improve member experience, over the next two years, super funds said they will concentrate on shifting from incremental digital enhancements to strengthening the underlying member experience architecture and operational disciplines that support scalable, consistent service delivery.

KPMG said experience initiatives should be embedded as levers to influence measurable member flows like early-stage intervention, consolidation completion and advice engagement and claim quality.

"Regulators are sharpening their enforcement focus on member servicing and in response funds are investing heavily in digital capability to meet member expectations," KPMG superannuation advisory lead Lisa Butler-Beatty said.

"Funds will need to deepen retirement engagement, improve guidance and communication, and continue evolving product and servicing models to support members' transition from accumulation to income, while meeting higher expectations for transparency, support and value."

In the 12 months to FY25, the average operating cost per member went from $237 to $250 across all funds, excluding SMFS.

Average operating cost on an asset basis declined from 0.23% to 0.22% thanks to strong growth in assets under management (AUM).

Super funds with AUM over $50 billion reported average cost per member of $232, up from $217 year on year. Those between $10 billion and $50 billion in AUM charged $389, up from $375.

KPMG noted "transformational activities and administration transitions are occurring in the industry" and as such have contributed to increased operating costs on a per member basis in FY25.

Members in Fiducian's Portfolio Services pay the highest amount of more than $2200, while FES Super members fork out $1727. BT, Netwealth and Macquarie superannuation members pay nearly $1000.

For MySuper fund members, administration fees charged on a $50,000 balance remained stable at 0.26%.

Industry funds continue to charge the lowest amount for default products at 0.23% while retail funds charge more at 0.35%.

Speaking at the Bloomberg Forum for Investment Managers event in Sydney, Chalmers addressed concerns on the application of CGT on all assets such as shares and not just real estate.

Chalmers explained the CGT changes are about more accurately compensating investors for inflation and to help ensure investment decisions are driven by economic outcomes, not tax outcomes.

"We recognise that a distorted tax system means distorted investment decisions," Chalmers said.

"We want to encourage investment for good economic reasons and not necessarily just for good tax reasons."

He noted the impact of the changes will depend on multiple factors such as the rate of return, the inflation rate and marginal tax rates. This would inherently mean some investments will do better under the new arrangement than under the current arrangement, he said.

However, Chalmers said if there is a comparison of the average impact of the current arrangement versus that of the new arrangement in the last 20 years, investors in shares would have been equal to or a bit better off with a discount based on indexation compared to the existing policy.

"Making changes to the CGT settings for one type of asset and not another type of asset, we think would just introduce new distortions, and ultimately that's bad for investors and for the economy," he said, noting if a company generates high returns from capital gains it will still generate a better post-tax return than a company with lower returns.

On the comparison of the effective capital gains tax compared to other jurisdictions in the world, Chalmers said it overlooked the difference between tax rates on real gains versus nominal gains.

"Even for an asset with gains of 10% the effective tax rate on the nominal gain after adjusting for inflation in the past decade would be less than 37%," he said.

"That's less than the rate in other jurisdictions, including California, which is a bit higher than 37% on average."

Chalmers added standalone housing tends to have strong capital gains relative to other assets, as well as more scope for leverage, which has been a recipe for the kinds of distortion seen in recent decades.

"The combination of our changes to CGT and negative gearing will reduce the incentives for excessive leverage to buy established housing, and this will help balance the system, not just towards new housing, which is obviously very important, but also to investments like shares and new businesses, where leverage doesn't play as big a role," he said.

Fiona Trafford-Walker commenced her term on May 12, and Adam Tindall will also join following the conclusion of Deborah Ralston's term in September 2026.

"These highly qualified appointees will ensure our sovereign wealth fund can continue its strong record of returns for the Australian people," Chalmers said.

Trafford-Walker is a highly experienced investment professional with over 30 years in institutional financial asset consulting and provision of institutional investment advice.

She has extensive experience in various leadership roles at Frontier Advisors.

Tindall has worked for over 35 years in the investment and real estate industries.

He has extensive global experience in portfolio, investment and asset management and corporate governance having held leadership and executive roles at AMP Capital, Macquarie Group and Lendlease.

"These appointments will complement the significant investment and corporate governance skills and experience on the board," Chalmers said.

"The government would like to take the opportunity to thank outgoing members, Patricia Cross and Deborah Ralston, for their significant contribution to the board over the past five years.

"During their tenure, the board oversaw the implementation of an updated Future Fund Investment Mandate focused on aligning the fund's investments with the nation's priorities, where it makes financial sense to do so."

In the year to 31 March 2026, following the introduction of the updated Investment Mandate, the fund made a return of over $28 billion, or 11.7%. This follows returns of 12.2% in 2024 and 8% in 2023.

The Future Fund also achieved a 10-year return of 8.6%, above the mandated target return of 7%.

"We look forward to the contribution that Trafford-Walker and Tindall will make to continuing this important work," Chalmers said.