POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
AIA backs KPMG report
AIA Australia has welcomed a KPMG report showing that there will be significant financial impacts and unintended consequences from the Federal Budget’s proposed changes to insurance inside superannuation, saying young people still have insurance needs.
The report found that the adoption of the reforms could potentially halve insurance inside super held and lead to a 26 per cent raise in insurance premiums for those members retaining it. It also warned that retirement outcomes could worsen.
Furthermore, AIA said that members with active but low balance accounts or those under 25 still may need insurance. The firm paid out $75 million in claims made by low balance account holders last year and had paid $84 million on 1,200 claims for members under 25 since 2015.
“We share the Federal Government’s intention to reduce the unnecessary erosion of retirement balances, but research conducted into this issue is demonstrating that the Australian public will be financially worse off under the proposed reforms,” AIA Australia and New Zealand chief executive, Damien Mu, said.
“This is not an acceptable outcome even before we consider the serious health risks of being uninsured.
“The government should not remove appropriate levels of protection or coverage for active, working Australians, nor should they distinguish between active members due to age or account balances, as these individuals are at risk, and they do have insurance needs as with other member cohorts.
“Instead, they should be focused on new measures for inactive accounts, which would achieve two-thirds of their targeted cost savings for members, while addressing the important issue of duplicate accounts.”
Recommended for you
The lower outlook for inflation has set the stage for another two rate cuts over the first half of 2026, according to Westpac.
With private asset valuations emerging as a key concern for both regulators and the broader market, Apollo Global Management has called on the corporate regulator to issue clear principles on valuation practices, including guidance on the disclosures it expects from market participants.
Institutional asset owners are largely rethinking their exposure to the US, with private markets increasingly being viewed as a strategic investment allocation, new research has shown.
Australia’s corporate regulator has been told it must quickly modernise its oversight of private markets, after being caught off guard by the complexity, size, and opacity of the asset class now dominating institutional portfolios.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
92.15 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
53.24 3 y p.a(%)
3
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
43.15 3 y p.a(%)
4
DomaCom Shoreline North Coogee
36.26 3 y p.a(%)
5
GAM LSA Private Shares AU I
35.87 3 y p.a(%)
