While the Federal Budget contained few changes to superannuation, what was there could lead to significantly fairer outcomes for Australian women in retirement.
NGS Super chief executive, Laura Wright, said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s changes to allow 65 and 66-year-olds to make voluntary super contribution without meeting work test requirements could be “particularly relevant” to older women who have had career breaks.
Wright also pointed to changes to increase the age limit for spouse contributions from 69 to 74 years as beneficial to women’s retirement savings.
“This is a great outcome and aligns the window that Australians can continue to contribute to their super savings with the Aged Pension age … [these] are measures that will assist in bridging the gender gap in superannuation balances, and ensuring the reliance on the aged pension lessens as our population ages,” she said.
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.