ASFA: Celebrating 50 Years - Stories

Super was not a subject I knew much about in 1972 when I joined a superannuation policy unit with the NSW Government, so I approached Howard Prott about the learning curve I was facing. He slotted me into the NSW Benefit Study Group.

In 1988 major changes to super tax arrangements were made. They had the effect of roping public sector funds (with which I was then involved) into the mainstream; for the first time public sector super became subject to the same constraints as the rest of the industry. From that point, I became much more involved in ASFA activities.

Just before the 1990 federal election, Treasurer Keating asserted in a TV interview that capital gains tax didn’t affect super funds. ASFA was put in the unfortunate position of having, very publically, to confirm the Opposition response that this was not so. ASFA thus found itself seriously offside with Mr Keating. The Government’s door was firmly shut to us. Shortly after the election (which Labor won) I became ASFA President.

In my address to the Association’s 1990 Conference, I mentioned that I wanted to repair the damage to the ASFA/Government relationship and that I would proceed with constitutional changes to the Association to make it more relevant to funds, particularly industry and public sector funds.

To my surprise, in March 1991 I found myself opening the first Conference of Major Superannuation Funds and at the Conference Dinner sitting next to Paul Keating. I think someone in the industry fund movement may have engineered this. The Treasurer asked me where I fitted in and promptly used words of some colour to confirm his view of the Association.

Despite this, he was a convivial dinner companion and invited me to discuss the situation between ASFA and the Government with a certain Dr Henry in Canberra. This happened and relations were put back on the correct footing. Clearly, the Government also wanted the relationship fixed.

Peter Cox (FASFA) is an ASFA Life Member.

As a 22-year-old actuarial student I joined E.S.Knight&Co, a consulting actuarial firm which later became part of Mercer Campbell Cook and Knight (now Mercer) in 1961, close to the time ASFA was established. My boss, Ted Knight, played an important role in ASFA's early days and served as President in 1971.

I participated in some of the early ASFA Study Groups in Melbourne and attended my first ASFA Annual Conference in Canberra in the early 1960s. I've attended almost every Conference since and served as President in 1981.

ASFA meetings from the outset were seen by some as providing marketing opportunities for consultants, particularly among life office clients. This resulted in a lack of enthusiasm by some to encourage clients to attend ASFA functions.

In the early days, ASFA had no in-house research or technical resources. It operated only a secretariat, managed by Howard Prott in Sydney and Murray Buxton in Melbourne. For technical input and in particular the preparation of submissions to Government on matters such as the Hancock National Superannuation Enquiry, ASFA depended on the voluntary efforts of its members. I well remember the selfless efforts of otherwise competitors (eg life office and consulting actuaries) working together to research and prepare policy positions and submissions.

Annual Conferences in the early days were very different from what we know today. Numbers attending were small and it was possible to meet up with and get to know many of them. The partners of attending delegates (called wives in those days) were encouraged to attend and held their own ‘business’ sessions. The post-Conference tours on the Saturday after the Conference were popular and very well supported.

Bob Burgess (FASFA) is an ASFA Life Member.

In 1967 when I joined the actuarial firm which eventually became Towers Perrin and then Russell, the Tax Office document regulating the superannuation industry consisted of seven roneoed foolscap sheets stapled in the corner. Those were the days! I suspect the compound rate of growth of regulation has exceeded the average compound rate of return on funds since then (even excluding the impact of the GFC).

In 1985-86 when I was Federal President, the Federal Secretariat in Sydney consisted of the Federal Secretary, Howard Prott, and the Research Officer, Bob Balchin, plus a couple of support staff. Most of ASFA's work was done by volunteers. Each morning I received (at my office in Melbourne) an overnight courier envelope containing a memo from Bob with (usually) six to 10 items attached for attention or action. This was the era in which three per cent productivity super, the forerunner of compulsory coverage, was introduced.

ASFA's engagement with government included lengthy submissions and meetings in Canberra, some involving Treasurer Keating, who typically gave forthright direction rather than sought the industry's opinion. It involved a great deal of work for ASFA, which was punctuated by phone calls from the relevant Treasury official, sometimes only minutes before a press release, to substantiate a line indicating that the industry had been consulted.

Chris White (FASFA) is an ASFA Life Member.

When I first started in superannuation in the early 1980s I worked for a life office that had a number of direct corporate super fund clients. One year a colleague and I had the bright idea of mailing the benefit statements of the members of one manufacturing company’s superannuation fund to their home addresses rather than hand them out at work. The CEO agreed that this would be more efficient and we should go ahead. About a week after the benefit statements were mailed I received a call from the CEO saying that he had a major industrial issue and needed our assistance. It turned out that many of the company’s male employees were threatening to go on strike as, due to the home mailing, their spouses had received and opened the benefit statements and were surprised at the size of the benefits (and these were the days before award super, SG and preservation). It turned out that most of the male employees had never told their spouses about their superannuation entitlements, especially those whose domestic arrangements weren’t all that secure, and now a previously secret ‘pot of gold’ was no longer secret. It took quite a while for some of the members to settle down with promises that super material would never again be mailed home. How times have changed for the better!

Russell Mason (FASFA) is Partner - Superannuation, Deloitte.

I attended my first ASFA conference in Sydney 26 years ago (and I have only missed one since!). The attendance at the annual conference has grown in direct proportion to the number of pages in the legislation that regulates the industry.

The old adage that, ‘it is not what you know, but who you know’ is so true in the superannuation industry. As in any industry the cream rises to the top, and if you are looking for the best people in the superannuation industry, you will find them at the ASFA study groups, seminars and the annual conference.

Owen Weeks (FASFA) is an ASFA Life Member and Director, Lifestyle Matters.

In 1979 when I started working in superannuation with National Mutual no-one had heard of “super”. My parents assumed that my first job was in life insurance.

In the mid nineties one of my sisters asked me how to transfer her “policy thing that I don’t understand” into her industry fund which she “sort of understood”. The “thing” was a personal super policy with horrendous surrender value penalties. She cut her losses, surrendered the policy and transferred the balance.

Last year my step son who works in advertising called me to say he had come up with this great internet game to help younger people engage with their super.

So over my working lifetime the knowledge of super and the products we offer have improved enormously…and that’s just my family!

Lorraine Berends (FASFA) is an ASFA Life Member and Principal - Client Service & Marketing, Marvin & Palmer Associates.