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24 July 2025

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Podcast: Big flows into super funds force unlisted allocations

Season 2, Episode 5

In this week's episode, we welcome special guest, John Abernethy. John is the Founder and Chairman of Clime Investment Management. He's seemingly done it all across 40-plus years in investing, from managing multi-asset portfolios, to venture capital, and now overseeing a sizeable investment portfolio and financial advice business. John tells us that super funds aren't admitting to their biggest problem: having too much money is driving them into alternative assets. In a broad-ranging interview, he also outlines why bonds aren't great value right now and Aussie equities look good in comparison, as well as how the current government isn't doing enough to help reduce inflation.

Regular guest, Peter Warnes, has a different take to John's on super funds and unlisted assets. And he's scratching his head at a recent scathing review into APRA and its supervision of super. Finally, Graham Hand discusses why homeowning retirees should never run out of money, even though many fear they will.

The podcast is also available via our dedicated website page, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and BuzzSprout.

Please share with friends and colleagues, and a favourable rating would help spread the word. We welcome questions and suggestions at firstlinks@morningstar.com.

Grab a cuppa and settle in for our chat.

James Gruber
Editorial, Firstlinks and Morningstar

 

4 Comments
Michael2
August 12, 2023

Hi Graham, in your comments about reverse mortgages on the home, I don’t remember you mentioning that people often view the home as a deposit to get into a nursing home.

What are your views on not having a reverse mortgage to fund nursing home entry,

Michael

Graham Hand
August 12, 2023

Hi Michael2, good question, thanks. As you know, the cost of aged care is a complex and specialist subject which is why we often run Rachel Lane's articles, and in the same edition as the podcast, this article: https://www.firstlinks.com.au/consider-paying-nursing-home-accommodation

So to answer your question, the point I was making is that a major concern of homeowning retirees is that they may run out of money, and I argue they will not actually 'run out of money' as Australia offers a safety net system. I'm not suggesting people should aim to live on social security, just saying they will not literally 'run out of money'.

So in the same way some people can fall back on the age pension, as the nursing home articles says: "While some have their nursing home accommodation costs fully covered by the government (based on a means test), most will have to pay their own way. The average lump sum room value is A$334,000."

All circumstances are different but for many people, the value of their home will far exceed the cost of nursing home entry.

Michael2
August 13, 2023

Thanks Graham, much appreciated

Graham Hand
August 11, 2023

A correction on a statistic mentioned in my section. I should have said that based on life expectancies of people in a couple at age 65, there is a 50% chance one of them will still be alive at age 90.

 

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