Revalue unlisted assets more frequently – super funds told
Because the unlisted assets held by superannuation funds are not subject to daily pricing, trustees are currently walking a fine line in determining what is equitable, transparent and defensible in terms of both their members and the regulators, according to major consultancy, Willis Towers Watson (WTW).
The WTW analysis argues that, in circumstances as volatile as is currently the case, superannuation funds should be revaluing their unlisted assets more frequently “as significant value swings are likely to occur while there are large numbers of transactions across their membership accounts”.
“In periods of significant market volatility, unlisted asset valuations are problematic. We saw asset owners dealing with this quandary during the global financial crisis (GFC), so it’s not a new complication,” WTW senior investment consultant, Nick Kelly said. “But what may surprise, is that there’s very little consistency in the way super funds and other unlisted asset owners manage the valuation process.”
“What do trustees and executives need to consider? It’s a particularly important question, given that regulators will undoubtedly ask about what process they’ve adopted,” he said in an analysis released this week.
“The intractable conundrum of the super fund fiduciary is maintaining a medium- to long-term time horizon of the entire investment portfolio, while members have the ability to ‘switch’ on a short-term basis. Within that Gordian knot, unlisted assets play many valuable roles; however, because they remain without a daily assessment of their value, trustees are walking a fine line in determining what’s equitable, transparent and defensible.”
He notes that trustees and executives remain responsible for the unit prices struck. “Member switches or redemptions have already begun and are taking place more frequently, but for the most part, valuation changes are yet to flow through to unit prices. Regardless of what valuation a fund or institutional investor gets from its investment manager, trustees and executives remain ultimately responsible for the unit price they strike for members and beneficiaries.”
Recommended for you
Some 42 per cent of CEOs say they are actively reinventing their business to stay relevant in the next decade, with consumer services the most common choice for asset and wealth managers.
Former Ophir Asset Management chief executive, George Chirakis, has joined private equity manager Scarcity Partners, while the asset manager has appointed a replacement from Macquarie.
Australian Unity has appointed a fund manager for its Healthcare Property Trust, joining from Centuria Healthcare, as it restructures the product with a series of senior appointments.
Financial advisers nervous about the liquidity of private markets funds for their retail clients are the target of fund managers launching semi-liquid products which offer greater flexibility and redemptions.
