Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Hume unfazed by ‘Your Future’ criticisms
In what was the first face-to-face investment industry gathering for more than a year, Senator Jane Hume, the minister for superannuation, appears to be holding the Government line on proposed ‘Your Future, Your Super’ changes.
This is despite almost universal and bi-partisan criticism from industry experts about the efficacy of the process to be used by APRA to weed out underperforming funds.
Hume told a record attendance at the annual industry cocktail function held by Pritchitt Bland Communications last week (January 28) that ‘Your Future, Your Super’ would name underperforming funds and prevent them from taking on new members.
She said: “Of all our reforms, this is a welcome outcome. There is a proliferation of funds and some of them remain hidden in the shadow of the good performers.”
Of all the changes proposed for 2021, the criticisms on what constitutes underperformance appear to be the least politically motivated, followed closely by the proposal to have a single default account which follows a member around during his or her career.
Industry groups from both sides of the policy debate on most issues – with the fund managers and insurance company-backed FSC at one end and the not-for-profit funds-backed AIST at the other – agree that the goals are good ones, but the form and processes adopted will have unintended adverse consequences for members with both of these two Bills.
On ‘underperformance’ APRA does not intend to cover all super products in its jurisdiction; only the MySuper default funds, which are the most conservative, have the highest exposure to index funds and therefore the lowest fees. Clever members invariably go for better-performing options within a fund. The benchmarks are not directly comparable between choice and default options.
With the so-called ‘stapling’ of a member’s account to his or her future employment, a new employer will be required to contact the ATO for existing fund details for new employees. There appears to be no requirement of assessment of the existing fund, such as whether it is actually open to new members.
Many other and more detailed criticisms have been levelled at these two Bills and also the third, which is the ‘Best Financial Interests Duty’ Bill. With ‘best financial interests’ there is less bi-partisanship, however, with some baulking at what they see as excessive power to dictate investment and expenditure decisions.
Senator Hume told the gathering in Sydney, via a video link, that fund members should become “more engaged” and also use their retirement savings “more efficiently”.
With retirement savings, she said that many retirees preferred not to draw on their capital but, rather, spend only their investment earnings.
She said that the super system had been subjected to “multiple add-ons” over the years and these tended to drive down efficiencies. “We must continue to keep chipping away at inefficiencies… Our goal for 2021 is to plug those and move to the best member outcomes.”
Pritchitt Bland (formerly known as Pritchitt Partners) introduced its new name and brand at the gathering, reflecting the partnership status of Leeanne Bland, alongside Claudia Pritchitt, who introduced Senator Hume to the audience. Bland said the 100-odd attendees was a record for the event, which was not held last year because of COVID restrictions.
