Industry superannuation funds have acknowledged that the remuneration scrutiny directed at financial planners will ultimately reflect back on salaries paid to super fund executives.
Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) officer Andrew Barr has told the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds that the scrutiny on remuneration risked "the blow torch being turned back on us".
Explaining the AIST's approach to the Cooper Review, he said the likelihood of scrutiny being turned on levels of fund executive remuneration had resulted in a recommendation that funds make such information public. Barr said the AIST was recommending that member funds publish the remuneration of their top five executives in aggregate.
However, he suggested it would be open to funds to provide more detail if they saw fit.
Barr said the AIST had also recommended that superannuation ratings houses make their commercial arrangements with funds more transparent.
He said that if funds had paid to be rated then members should be made aware of the nature of that transaction.
Super funds had a “tremendous month” in November, according to new data.
Australia faces a decade of deficits, with the sum of deficits over the next four years expected to overshoot forecasts by $21.8 billion.
APRA has raised an alarm about gaps in how superannuation trustees are managing the risks associated with unlisted assets, after releasing the findings of its latest review.
Compared to how funds were allocated to March this year, industry super funds have slightly decreased their allocation to infrastructure in the six months to September – dropping from 11 per cent to 10.6 per cent, according to the latest APRA data.