The winners of the third annual Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards were announced last night in a ceremony at Ivy Ballroom in Sydney, with 300 guests in attendance.
Awards were handed out across nine categories, with the night’s biggest award going to AustralianSuper for overall fund of the year.
This night’s top fund was determined from an analysis of the winners of the large, medium-sized and small fund of the year awards.
The top award was presented by Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in a pre-recorded video message.
In the announcement he praised fund chair Heather Ridout, chief executive Ian Silk and the team from AustralianSuper.
Frydenberg also took time to acknowledge Bernie Ripoll MP, who recently announced his intention to quit federal politics at the next election. He described the shadow minister for financial services and superannuation as a “valued colleague whose contribution would be missed in Parliament”.
And the winners are…
The winners across all nine categories are:
Fund of the year – overall: AustralianSuper
Fund of the year – large: AustralianSuper
Fund of the year – medium: MTAA Super
Fund of the year – small: RBF
Default fund of the year: AustralianSuper
Pension fund of the year: QSuper
Fund of the year – member engagement: Sunsuper
Innovator of the year: Mercer
Chief investment officer of the year: Jim Christensen, Telstra Super
The Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards were determined by a selection committee chaired by Nick Sherry – senior adviser, superannuation and pensions, Citi; chairman, FNZ; former Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law; and a former Senator for Tasmania.
The committee members were Jocelyn Furlan – a principal of Furlan Consulting and a 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; and Colin Tate – chief executive, Conexus Financial.
The committee were chosen to reflect multiple viewpoints and to ensure that none were beholden to any vested commercial interests.
The committee agreed on the criteria that should be used to assess funds and the weightings for each of the criteria. They then applied that to assess each of the self-nominated fund entrants.
No licensing or marketing fee will be charged to winning or shortlisted funds to promote their achievements in the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards 2015.
The sole sponsor for the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards Evening is Vanguard.
Michael Lovett, head of distribution at fund manager, said: “Vanguard is proud to be sponsoring the Conexus Superannuation Awards for the third year in a row.”
“Helping Australian’s reach their retirement savings goals is something that Vanguard places the utmost importance on, and we think that this event is a great opportunity to recognise excellence, and acknowledge those who are contributing to better retirement outcomes for the end investor,” Lovett said.
“Vanguard’s investment principles focus on setting a strategic asset allocation, keeping a long term perspective, and minimising cost– and it is gratifying to see that these tenants are reflected in the work of many nominees and winners at tonight’s awards.”
Interviews with the winners will appear in a special newsletter later today.
