Shortlists for the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards have been released.
The funds recognised as having the best MySuper defaults, the best member engaged services, the best pension funds and those that have created the most far reaching innovation in the past year, as well as nominees for the large, medium-sized and small fund of the year, have all been named in advance of the awards ceremony at the Ivy Ballroom, Sydney on May 20.
Nominees for the CIO of the year will be announced next week.
The funds nominated for the Superannuation Awards are:
Default Fund of the Year: AustralianSuper, QSuper, Sunsuper and Telstra Super.
Innovator of the Year: ANZ, Mercer, QSuper, Russell.
Member Engaged Fund of the Year: BT, NAB Wealth, Russell and Sunsuper
Pension Fund of the Year: AustralianSuper, QSuper, Russell and Telstra Super.
Large fund of the year: AustralianSuper, Sunsuper, Telstra Super and QSuper.
Medium-sized fund of the year: Auscoal, Energy Super, Equip Super and MTAA.
Small fund of the year: Aon, Legalsuper, Perpetual and RBF.
The shortlists have been drawn up by a quantitative assessment of each fund by RiceWarner, upon which the nomination committee placed relative weights on the criteria they thought most important. The nomination committee was chosen for its broad range of stakeholders, with consumer groups, industry knowledge and industry analysts all represented.
These are the weightings used:
Pension Fund of the Year: investment proposition 30 per cent, pension product design 30 per cent, member services 20 per cent, fees 15 per cent and general capability (scale and governance) 5 per cent.
Default Fund the Year: investment proposition 60 per cent, fees 20 per cent, member services 10 per cent and insurance 10 per cent.
Member Engaged Fund of the Year: call centre 20 per cent, website 20 per cent, advice 20 per cent, ancillary, KPIs, complaints and surveys all 10 per cent each.
Large/medium-sized/small fund of the year: fees 20 per cent, member services (call centre, website, advice, ancillary, KPIs, complaints and surveys) 20 per cent, investment (projections, volatility, flexibility, range and performance) 40 per cent, insurance (features and premiums) 10 per cent, pension (TTR, CGT, frequencies and other) 10 per cent.
Entries for all categories were assessed by the nomination committee for the Innovator of the Year category.
The members of the nomination committee are
Nick Sherry (chair) – senior adviser, superannuation and pensions, Citi; chairman, FNZ; former Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law; former Senator for Tasmania.
Jocelyn Furlan – former chair, Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.
Tom Garcia – chief executive, Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.
Jenni Mack – chair, Superannuation Consumers Centre.
Michael Rice – chief executive officer, Rice Warner.
Colin Tate – chief executive, Conexus Financial.
David Wright – managing director, Zenith Investment Partners
There are a limited number of seats available for the awards ceremony. To book either a table or a single ticket click here.
