More youth urged for super boards

Superannuation funds may need to start looking at a younger demographic to fill their trustee ranks.

That is the bottom line of new research commissioned by the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), which found that while trustee directors are overwhelmingly confident that their funds are well governed, they need to address the question of board succession planning.

The research, released at today’s AIST Fund Governance Conference in Melbourne, was based on a survey conducted over two periods from April to December 2008 and involved more than 150 trustee directors and the chief executives of 28 funds.

Commenting on the survey results, AIST chief executive Fiona Reynolds said it suggested that Australians who had their superannuation invested in not-for-profit funds could be confident that their money was being managed by well-educated trustee directors who were passionate and highly committed.

However, she said the survey had pointed to the need for improved succession planning on boards.

“In the same way that the rest of Australia is wrestling with the challenges of an ageing population, superannuation fund boards — much like corporate boards — face a similar hurdle, with more than 76 per cent of trustees on super boards aged over 50 and most of them male,” Reynolds said.

She said this suggested the superannuation industry needed to ensure the pathways were in place to encourage young people and more women to join super boards.