“In the last lockdown, myself and so many others had gone for such a long time without taking annual leave, that fatigue and languishing was kicking in,” she says.
“We introduced #takeabreak, if you took three days off, we gave employees an extra day.”
As many CEOs ponder the remote working revolution, and what it means for the long-term, Stewart is adamant flexibility is here to stay.
While she says in-person meetings will continue to be an important part of collaborative work, Aware Super staff will decide what amount of time in the office is appropriate for them.
“We are not mandating days back in,” she says. “We’re really enabling the teams to decide what rhythm works best.”
Switching sides
Before joining Aware Super in 2018, Stewart worked in the retail for the ‘other side’ of super.
Australia’s $3.4 trillion retirement savings industry is divided between industry and retail funds – one with ties to powerful unions linked to big employers, the other owned by large listed corporations with deep pockets.
The two segments fiercely compete for market share.
Stewart headed Westpac’s private bank in the naughties before joining the bank’s superannuation arm, BT Financial Group.
There is a “permanent trade-off” between two sets of interests in retail funds, she says, that feeds into decisions like setting fees and the level of investment to improve services.
“You are constantly having to juggle between what is in members’ best interest and shareholders’ best interests,” says Stewart, but holds back from expanding.
“I feel like if I gave you specific examples, it would be tough on certain individuals that are still around.”
Now, leading an industry fund with more than $150 billion in assets under management, Stewart is certain she’s made the right choice.
“If you look at the top-performing funds, they are dominated by industry funds. I don’t think that is by accident.”
This year has been described as the largest period of reform to the superannuation industry since super was made compulsory in 1992.
The Morrison government introduced sweeping changes, including annual performance tests, online comparison tools and new requirements to ensure every investment creates financial benefits for members.
While Stewart says on the whole the reforms will benefit members, and have mostly been free from politics, one area raised concerns – new rules for proxy advisors introduced by press release two weeks before Christmas.
Proxy advisers provide institutional investors with research on listed companies on matters of corporate governance, including voting recommendations for executive pay, director re-elections and shareholder resolutions on topics ranging from climate policies to board-room diversity.
The research is non-binding, as is the outcome of any shareholder vote. But there is increasing angst among some parts of corporate Australia about the level of influence proxies have on public debate.
Despite consultation from stakeholders, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has now stripped Australia’s proxy firms of financial services licences and, without warning, introduced a raft of new rules that dictate when and how proxies must deliver reports.
“It wasn’t what the business community were bringing up, nor the super funds,” Stewart says. “That was the bit that seems to have an ideological bent.”
Gender pay gap
Stewart grew up in the rural NSW town of Bathurst, with two parents who were teachers.
In the 1980s, during her final years at all-girls school, Mary McKillop Secondary, she was taking a compulsory lesson in typing when a teacher spotted potential.
Noticing the girls had greater ambitions than becoming a typist, the teacher negotiated with the principal to set up a class for those who wanted to study four unit maths instead.
Around 10 per cent of the class went onto study the highest level of maths in the final exams and many, including Stewart, topped the state. “For a country town you wouldn’t think that was possible,” she says. “You would expect them to come from James Ruse or Sydney Girls.”
More than two-thirds of Aware Super’s members are women. It’s in the fund’s financial interests to close the gender pay gap, but it’s a topic Stewart is also passionate about on a personal level.
Women retire with between 22 and 35 per cent less than men, according to KPMG research, and Stewart says there are well-known recommendations that could help close the gap, such as mandating super to be paid during parental leave.
But there’s one reform that Stewart says requires political will – tax reform.
“You have over 11,000 Australians, nearly 20,000 Australians now, that have more than $5 million in super,” she says. “That means they’re getting more than $78,000 tax relief per annum. That is more than the median wage.”
