Australian Superannuation - Articles & White Papers

The KPMG Super Insights Dashboard presents super industry analysis based on a combination of leading analytics applied to 18 years of APRA and ATO-published statistics. Developed by the KPMG data and analytics team, the Dashboard is supported by insights from our asset and wealth management specialists.

Infrastructure investment is increasingly important for institutional investors. This paper focuses on pension fund allocations to infrastructure, using the CEM Benchmarking database. We document that larger pension funds, public pension funds, and pension funds with a higher allocation to other alternative assets are more…

The Annual Preqin and Australian Investment Council Yearbook 2023 is a comprehensive overview of Australia’s private capital market produced in partnership with the Council’s official Yearbook data partner, Preqin. Aggregate capital raised in the year to 30 June 2022 (FY22) by private equity and venture capital funds more…

Six industry super funds as well as public sector fund Commonwealth Superannuation Corp paid their CIOs over a million dollars as investors endured one of the most volatile years on record. UniSuper’s John Pearce edged out AustralianSuper’s Mark Delaney for top spot in the year ending June 2022 according to information from…

A new report by Market Forces reveals Australia’s 30 biggest super funds increased their investment exposure to Australian and international companies most responsible for expanding fossil fuels in 2022 to a total of more than AU$34 billion. Australia’s biggest funds have increased their investment exposure to companies…

The Global Pension Report analyzes 75 pension schemes around the globe using its own Allianz Pension Index (API). The indicator consists of three pillars: analysis of the demographic and fiscal situation and determination of the sustainability (e.g. financing and contribution periods) and adequacy (e.g. degree of prevalence…

As the Australian superannuation industry consolidates, we ask whether large size – say $50-$100 billion in assets and beyond – is likely to benefit fund members. Our answer is a ‘definite maybe’. Large size has its advantages, but also gives rise to disadvantages and significant challenges.

Regulatory and stakeholder demands are driving superannuation funds to evaluate their operating models.

This report presents the findings of APRA’s review. APRA conducted the review in accordance with the requirements of the YSYC Act and did not identify any unintended consequences on the operation or ongoing viability and profitability of defined benefit schemes that can be attributed to the amendments to the SGAA. As a…

The Actuaries Institute paper, Not A Level Playing Field, for the first time brings together a raft of Australian survey data with new analysis to paint a snapshot of income inequality in Australia. Importantly, it builds on the established work of the Australian Actuaries Intergenerational Equity Index and the investment…

The 2022 Survey of Foreign Currency Exposure confirms that Australian entities’ financial positions, in aggregate, are well protected against a depreciation of the Australian dollar. The composition of Australia’s foreign currency denominated assets and liabilities means that, overall, Australian entities have a net foreign…

This Insights Paper provides key insights from the Choice Heatmap (‘the heatmap’) covering a specific segment of the Choice sector, namely accumulation phase and multi-sector investment options. RSE licensees are the key audience for the heatmap and this Insights Paper. APRA uses the heatmap as a tool to hold RSE licensees…

In 2022 Australia was named the most successful pensions market globally. As of October 2022, there were 141 APRA-regulated superannuation funds. The 16 largest of these funds represent the bulb of the Prince Rupert drop. Each holds more than $50 billion in funds under management (FUM) and collectively, over 70% of Australia…

As inflation continues to bite, the risk of stagflation has not disappeared. As a reaction, gold has been attracting attention from Australian investors due to its historical superior returns during such periods.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise stakeholder views expressed during the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) review. The views and issues represented in this paper are summarised from all sources of stakeholder feedback throughout the review, including meetings, roundtables, and formal submissions. Whilst Treasury has…

This report analyses the development of mortality assumptions to build mortality tables to better protect retirement income provision. Mortality assumptions are necessary to ensure the sustainability of lifetime incomes. It explores considerations and traditional approaches for developing mortality tables, as well as…

We used APRA’s publication, “Annual fund-level superannuation statistics”. This means we are exploring APRA-regulated funds and not considering government funds or the SMSF sector.

This research is intended to contribute to the development of a cohesive approach to a just transition by identifying investor expectations of listed companies. It defines the investment risk of an unjust transition, includes expectations of company actions and reporting as they approach a just transition, and sets out…

APRA publishes statistics on the superannuation industry on a quarterly basis. The industry performance statistics contains aggregate summaries of financial performance and position, asset allocation and key performance ratios. Statistics relating to corporate, industry, public sector and retail funds performance are also…

Superannuation tax concessions, SG payment frequency changes confirmed in 2023 Federal Budget