April 2019

04Apr

Australian Pension Funds in Talks to Create $78 Billion Giant

Two of Australia’s biggest pension funds are exploring a merger that would create a retirement-savings giant with more than A$110 billion ($78 billion) in assets under management. First State Super and VicSuper Pty signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding and believe a merger could “deliver significant benefits to members,” according to a statement Thursday. A recommendation to the pair’s respective boards is expected around the middle of the year. Consolidation in Australia’s A$2.8 trillion pension industry is gathering pace...

April 4, 2019
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March 2019

13Mar

Australia to publish pension fund ratings, pressure underperformers

Australia will begin publishing “heat maps” of the performance of pension funds next year and will pressure those with poor records to exit the industry, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said on Wednesday. Australian pension funds manage A$1.7 trillion ($1.20 trillion) in savings but lack “maturity” in governance and risk management practices, APRA Deputy Chair Helen Rowell said in a speech published on the regulator’s website. The sector is under pressure to lift standards and improve accountability...

March 13, 2019
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12Mar

Australia. Innovations in Retirement Income Solutions

The headline gave me hope: “Innovative income product now available for retiring Australians”. It was July 2017. The description of this new product was promising as it was “designed to help Australians more easily and confidently manage their superannuation in the lead up to and during retirement.” But then, like so many times before … ”[A]n account-based pension that offers a flexible and simple way for people to convert their superannuation into a steady income stream.” Lessons for...

March 12, 2019
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06Mar

Pension-Fund Giant Warns Policy Mistake Risk Is Now Elevated

MLC Ltd., one of Australia’s largest pension funds, is pinning its hopes on private-equity investments to lift returns amid an outlook for increasingly volatile markets and an elevated risk of policy errors as the global economic cycle ages. There is now a higher risk of policy mistakes coming from governments or central banks and the sustainability of corporate profit margins near all-time highs is under threat, according to Jonathan Armitage, the firm’s chief investment officer in Sydney, where he...

March 6, 2019
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February 2019

20Feb

Australia. Labor tax safety net to fail 50,000 pensioners

Up to 50,000 pensioners over the next decade could fail to meet Labor’s safety net threshold and lose their annual cash refunds for excess franking credits under Bill Shorten’s plans to axe $55 billion in tax breaks for retirees. Treasury analysis of tax data shows that every year between 3000 and 5000 pensioners who were also members of a self-managed super fund would fail to meet the criteria for Labor’s “pensioner guarantee”. Labor argues the policy was ­announced a...

February 20, 2019
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13Feb

Australia. Pensioners set for income threshold boost

Draft laws allowing pensioners to earn $300 a fortnight - up from $250 - without it hurting their welfare payments passed the first green light of parliament. Pensioners will soon be able to earn $300 a fortnight without it hurting their welfare payments under draft laws which passed the first hurdle of parliament. The proposal cleared the lower house alongside two other measures - means testing pooled-retirement-income products and allowing more older Australians to access the pension loan scheme...

February 13, 2019
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05Feb

Australia. We need generational change on retirement incomes

Most retirees are better off than we previously thought. Public policy should reflect this. It's been a quarter of a century since the Keating government introduced a retirement-income package in 1992 and Vince Fitzgerald reported on national savings in 1993. For a generation, Australian retirement incomes policy has been dominated by their assumptions.We've had a generation of policy thinkers who assumed that people won't have enough money in retirement. Many fear retirees will be financially insecure, and...

February 5, 2019
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January 2019

30Jan

Australia. Veterans accuse Federal Government of ‘ripping off’ thousands from retirement benefits

A Federal Coalition backbencher is lobbying the Government to investigate how much money he believes it owes some older Australian military veterans. Veterans, including some who served in Korea, Malaya and Vietnam, signed up for compulsory superannuation called the Defence Force Retirement Benefits (DFRDB) scheme between 1948 and 1972. The Defence Force Welfare Organisation (DFWO) estimated there are 2,305 pensioners still covered by this scheme. It calculated there are 52,000 pensioners who are members of the scheme that operated...

January 30, 2019
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14Jan

Is it time for the Government to get more involved in protecting retirement savings of workers?

However the superannuation industry wants to gloss over it, the Productivity Commission's inquiry into the sector is a damning indictment. A $3.8 billion-a-year indictment.That's how much Australians are missing out on because of a superannuation industry that appears to be more interested in its own wellbeing, rather than the retirements of the Australian workers it's meant to be providing for.Former federal treasurer, now Future Fund chairman, Peter Costello nailed the industry's self-interest in a speech in Sydney a few...

January 14, 2019
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14Jan

The Vulnerability of Older Australians in Bankruptcy: Insights from an Empirical Study

By Lev Bromberg (The University of Melbourne), Ian Ramsay (Melbourne Law School - University of Melbourne), Paul Ali (University of Melbourne - Law School; Centre for International Finance and Regulation)This article presents the results of the first empirical study focused on older Australians in bankruptcy. Our study — based on the examination of a large and unique dataset obtained by the authors from the bankruptcy regulator — provides a valuable insight into the severe financial challenges faced by many...

January 14, 2019
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