POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Aussie pension market leading the world for growth
Australia has been the fastest growing pension market for the last 10 years, achieving excess growth of around 40 per cent compared to other large pension markets globally.
Research from Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute also found that global pension fund assets were close to double their size of 10 years ago. The latter however, were down 3.3 per cent in the past year. The United States remained the world’s largest pension market, accounting for 61.5 per cent of worldwide pension assets, followed by Japan with 7.7 per cent and the United Kingdom with 7.1 per cent.
Alternative asset allocations in the seven markets grew by 20 per cent in aggregate in the last 20 years, which was funded by a corresponding 20 per cent decrease to 40 per cent in equities allocations.
Furthermore, defined contribution assets now account for over 50 per cent of total assets across the seven markets for the first time. This continued a trend of defined contributions growing faster than defined benefits over the last 10 years, with assets in each growing by 8.9 and 4.6 respectively over the period.
“While defined contribution assets have surpassed 50 per cent for the first time, it is 86 per cent in Australia and the highest of this group by a considerable margin. Australia also holds a bigger element in cash, which takes into account the impact of SMSFs,” Willis Towers Watson senior investment consultant, Paul Newfield, said.
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(%)
