Following her appointment as ASFA Chair, Linda Elkins speaks with Scott Roberts about the career that brought her to superannuation, her priorities for ASFA and the lessons horses have taught her about leadership.
Linda Elkins’ career in superannuation began almost by accident.
Armed with a science degree, she found herself in a financial planning business doing paraplanning and technical services. Around 1992, as compulsory super was introduced, the business’s leadership came with a request. Could she get across all of this and be their superannuation guru?
“I was like, yeah, sure, sounds like fun.”
She attended her first ASFA conference shortly afterwards, an early encounter with the body she now chairs. That was the beginning of a career, or as she describes it, a passion, that led to running Colonial First State’s superannuation business and a non-executive directorship at AMP.
When Paul Clitheroe invited her to join the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board, she stayed for more than a decade. It remains a cause she cares about deeply .
Taking the chair
Ms Elkins becomes Chair of a body that has been the voice of super for more than 60 years.
“ASFA’s job is to help build a dignified retirement for all Australians. We are the only body that represents the whole superannuation ecosystem, funds of every kind, platforms and service providers, and that gives us a point of view no single fund or segment can offer.
Her aim, she says, is simple.
“I want ASFA to be the respected, representative voice for all super funds and their service providers, and the trusted expert from policy to practice. We’re not just commenting on legislation, but helping funds implement it.
On policy, her priorities come down to three words: safer, simpler, stable.
“Safer super protects members’ savings from misconduct, financial crime and scams. Simpler super is a system people can actually understand and navigate. Stable super means predictable, evidence-based policy settings that people and funds can plan around. The goal is an Australia where people retire with confidence, supported by a strong and efficient superannuation system.”
Having the right people with you
Anyone who has met Linda Elkins will attest that she radiates friendly confidence, grounded in decades of experience.
“My confidence has always come from the fact that I make sure I’ve got the right people with me. I’ve never thought the power of one meant anything. Why would I ever think I could do something better than a team of people working together?”
That means being comfortable surrounding yourself with people who may eventually surpass you.
“Leading a high-powered team is like managing a Formula One team. You can’t pull them together and then say, well actually you have to go at 60 kilometres an hour because I’m anxious about things moving too fast. You have to get out of their road.”
It is the approach she brings to ASFA.
Super in society
Ms Elkins’ long stint in financial literacy shapes how she thinks about super’s place in Australian society.
“The concept of safe defaults is really important. The system has to be safe for everybody, no matter their capability. I actually think MySuper is the jewel in the crown of our superannuation system.”
Financial literacy, she concedes, remains unfinished business, but that’s a reason for high-quality defaults rather than an argument against them.
“Tools like ASIC’s Moneysmart have been good investments, but I don’t think we’ve shifted the needle on financial literacy enough.”
Ms Elkins’ safety-first instinct now reaches beyond default settings, through the sector’s largest ever coordinated member protection effort, bringing funds together to combat cybercrime, fraud and scams: the Superannuation Cyber and Financial Crime Coordination (SC3) Framework.
Super is personal
Why she cares so much is not abstract.
Her father-in-law died of melanoma at just 49 years old, and her mother-in-law, now 80, has lived on a reversionary pension from his super fund ever since.
“Super gave her dignity, the ability to cope, the ability for the family to recover from the most awful loss.”
Horses and more dogs
Away from boardrooms, Ms Elkins is married with two young adult sons and splits her time between Sydney and Kangaroo Valley. There are dogs, naturally: a naughty Jack Russell and a well-behaved kelpie.
But it is horses that take up much of her time. Ms Elkins trains and competes in dressage, and the lessons she takes from them mirror her philosophy on leadership.
“With horses, the number one thing is consistency. You can’t say, I’ll let you get away with that today, but tomorrow that’s not okay. A horse will see through that pretty quickly.”
The second thing is connection. “I can’t make a 600-kilo animal do anything it doesn’t want to do. It’s got to want to do it. And that willingness comes from a relationship that is consistent and disciplined but also kind.”
