Using centralised portfolio management (CPM) for superannuation funds looking to merge could allow the funds to find their “scale dividends”, according to Parametric Portfolio.
Parametric said merging funds needed to deliver investment solutions that better matched the needs and preferences of fund members at the right cost. Funds that failed to do this would be meagre, and members could face more limited, ill-fitting options that simply passed on returns and culture dilution, and at worst “mission drift” could substitute super funds as the neo-bank conglomerates of the future.
Parametric head of research, Australia and New Zealand, Raewyn Williams, said CPM used the best ideas of each super fund’s individual funds managers and managed them in a single live portfolio that removed tax and trading inefficiencies.
She said the benefits of this process included:
“In our view using CPM will allow them to move to the implementation phase of the investment rationalisation project with a detailed understanding of the expected portfolio holdings, risks, fees, tax positions, environmental, social, and governance, and other sensitive attributes of the newly designed, rationalised portfolio,” Williams said.
She noted the bigger the potential investment changes, the more the value of a CPM structure and best-of-breed implementation came to the fore.
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The professional body is calling for the annual performance test to transition to a two-metric test, so it better aligns with the overarching duty of super fund trustees to act in the best financial interests of their members.
AustralianSuper, Rest, and HESTA agree on the need to retain and enhance the test, yet they differ in their perspectives on the specific areas that warrant further refinement.
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