Going the distance

Super funds come to terms with a new dynamic

ASFA’s annual conference finds the superannuation industry accommodating major change from both the regulators and the Government.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s (ASFA) national conference in Perth this year will deal in detail with the key changes that have occurred in Australia’s superannuation environment over the past 12 months.

The conference, titled ‘Going the distance’, will specifically look at the changes to the superannuation system contained in the Federal Budget, and the manner in which they alter the retirement incomes equation.

The tone for the conference will be set in the first concurrent session, where Mercer Investment Consulting Asia Pacific leader Tony Cole joins Rice Warner Actuaries director Jeff Warner and HESTA chief executive Anne-Marie Corboy to review the year and to look at the implications for the future.

The panel discussion will see them examining the Budget changes, the implementation of the Future Fund, the general

investment environment and the implications that flow from the new trustee licensing regime.

However, as in other years, one of the key elements of this year’s ASFA conference will be the release of the findings of the latest Australian National Opinion Polls (ANOP) research by its chairman, Rod Cameron, and director, Margaret Gibbs.

At ASFA’s 2005 conference the ANOP research painted a picture of an industry on the brink of far-reaching change, and this year’s research is expected to point to the levels of acceptance surrounding the Budget and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) licensing changes.

In circumstances where many commentators predicted that Australia’s new choice of superannuation fund regime would fuel further growth in the number of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is expected to give an assessment of the outcome of the changes of the past 18 months.

The ASFA program is flagging the session, to be addressed by the ATO deputy commissioner, superannuation, Raelene Vivian, as giving delegates a stocktake of the new regime.

“Given changes to the rules of the game, are SMSFs still a good bet for people … and, if so, who should be lining up to get a piece of the action?” the conference paper ask.

In what probably represents the last ASFA conference before the next Federal Election, a good deal of attention is expected to be directed towards the concurrent session involving Liberal Senator Grant Chapman, who is chairing the joint statutory committee on corporations and financial services, and the Opposition shadow minister for superannuation, Senator Nick Sherry.

Sherry is expected to place further flesh on the bones of the Australian Labor Party’s superannuation and retirement incomes policy, while Chapman’s appearance comes ahead of the somewhat controversial Parliamentary Inquiry into the future and structure of the superannuation industry.

While representatives from both APRA and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are scheduled to speak at the conference, a good deal of interest is expected to be on ASFA’s own research with respect to the impact of regulatory fees and charges.

ASFA principal researcher Ross Clare will release research that examines the costs and benefits of regulation — something that is likely to stir controversy in circumstances where ASFA earlier this year questioned the cost of regulation and the manner in which levies were being raised to cover that cost. SR