The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 22 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Hostplus demands intrusive personal financial details from prospective fund managers
“How much money do you earn? How many kids do you have? What schools do they go to? What are the school fees like? At what stage are you at? What car do you drive? Is it mortgaged? There's a whole set of, you have a right not to answer those questions, but you'…”
Hostplus allocates 0% to fixed income, opting for unlisted assets instead
“53% of our strategic asset allocation is public equities, listed equities. It's a combination of domestic equities and international equities developed markets and international equities emerging markets. 53% in total. The other 47% is unlisted infrastructure,…”
Hostplus uses hedge funds as crisis liquidity, not for volatility protection
“So we view hedge funds playing that role rather than protecting the portfolio from The volatility of equity markets. Our unlisted assets have that role.”
Traditional pension models are mathematically broken by multi-decade retirement lifespans
“The real issue is that pension funds were designed at times when people retired at age 65 and conveniently died at age 68.
Today, people retire at 65 or 70 and live to a 108.
How are you going to survive 30 or 40 years not working, not generating an income, li…”
Sicilia: Hostplus invests in specific individuals rather than brand-name asset managers
“In fact, if you look at Host Plus's website, you won't see too many brand names across any asset class, because we don't invest in brands We invest in individuals.”
Sicilia: Performance should never be the reason to exit an investment
“If you know why you make an investment, then you have a ready-made reason to get out of it if that reason changes. Performance is never one of them.”
Sicilia: Boutique, hungry investment managers bearing business risk outperform
“Boutique is better. Hungry is better. Having a business risk is better.”
Sicilia: Asset management fees should plateau rather than increase linearly
“How do you justify the fact that if you're managing a bond portfolio or an equities portfolio and you're trading, that the fee goes up in a linear way, more or less, if I give you five hundred million or a billion or three billion? Surely it should plateau At …”
Sicilia: Relationships drive 95% of private equity investing success
“And in some asset classes, like private equity in general, or private markets, but private equity in particular, without a relationship, we won't do the investment. Relationships are 95% of the driving force. People underestimate how important relationships ar…”
Sicilia: Allocators should resist deploying capital into 6% infrastructure returns
“So the temptation to invest in infrastructure assets that are generating six percent returns, therefore diluting your portfolio return,
Is huge.
But you should resist that temptation.
That is not a good idea to go down that path.
It's better to find some other…”
Hostplus uses a 4-director subcommittee for agile co-investment approvals
“Internally, the board has formed a small subcommittee of four directors, which we call the SIG, the Special Investment Group, and they can be called on demand
On a deal by deal basis.
And they can get together and work with the internal team and have a delegat…”
Hostplus board makes all investment decisions, acting as a jury
“The board makes all investment decisions. Our job is to work with Jana, our asset consultant. And prepare the case, if you like. Think of the board like a jury.”
Sicilia: Hostplus placed top-quartile in 16 of past 20 years
“So over the last 20 financial years, Host Plus has been top quartile in 16 of them.”
Sicilia: Hostplus committed $1.2B to VC, largest among Australian super funds
“Including Hostplus putting 1.2 billion dollars into venture capital, which makes Hostplus the biggest Australian institutional investor super fund in venture capital by a long shot”
Hostplus outsources all $42B in asset management with 18 investment staff
“The investment staff is currently 18 people, but we do not manage any money in-house. At this point in time, we prefer to outsource all money management”
Sicilia: Hospitality and Retail Funds Capture Half of First-Time Workers
“About half of the first time job entrance belong to those two funds, and every other super fund in the country gets the other half.”
Sicilia: Industry super funds collectively own asset managers IFM and ISPT
“We own two asset management firms. So, 20 or so industry funds, and almost 30 or so industry funds own IFM, Industry Fund Management Advisors, or IFM Advisors, and who does infrastructure globally, and another entity, ISPT, Industry Super Property Trust, who d…”
Sicilia: Hostplus Serves 1.2M Members with Average Age of 34
“We have a 180,000 contributing employers and 1.2 million members.
Average age, 34.”
Hostplus has never lost a frontline investment professional in its history
“In the frontline investment people, operations has had, you'd expect to have some turnover in the operations, but we've never lost an investment person. It's been cumulative, but it's never gone the other way.”
Sicilia: Hostplus return target is inflation plus 4% over 20 years
“So for Host Plus, our return objectives are inflation plus four percent per annum over 20 year periods.”
Sicilia: Poor operational execution and vehicle structuring leaves money on the table
“You can leave money on the table by not implementing Investments properly, by not implementing board decisions properly, by not structuring vehicles properly, by not taking into account tax and other obligations that we have, FX, settlements, et cetera, proper…”