The Evolving Role of Trust in Superannuation

The Law Council of Australia has held an annual conference on the law of superannuation each year since 1990. Over the years papers have been delivered by some of Australia, Canada and the UK’s leading judges, legal practitioners and academics. The papers have in many cases laid the foundation for, and explained the consequences of, the successive rounds of regulatory reform seen in the Australian superannuation system. This book represents the first time that these seminal papers have been collected in the one place. As such it offers a unique perspective on the evolving conversation that has informed the regulatory scheme and shaped Australia’s superannuation system

Part 1: The Policy and Regulatory Backdrop 1. The Objectives of the Superannuation Supervisory Legislation (1994) Donald Duval 2. Reflections on the Design and Manufacture of Australia’s Financial Services (2006) Associate Professor Pamela Hanrahan 3. Beneficiary, Investor, Citizen: Characterising Australia’s Super Fund Participants (2008) Dr M. Scott Donald Part 2: The Infrastructural Role of Trust Law in the Superannuation System 4. Equity and its Relevance to Superannuation Schemes Today (1992) Lord Browne-Wilkinson 5. Equity and its Role for Superannuation Pension Schemes in the 1990s (1994) The Right HonourableLord Justice Hoffmann 6. The Future of Trust Law in a Regulated Superannuation Industry (1997) Dr Donovan Waters QC 7. The Survival of the Trustee Model of Governance in the Era of Financial Engineering (2009) Associate Professor Ronald B. Davis 8. Structuring Super: Courting the Contract or Trusting the Trust?(2010) Dr Lisa Butler Beatty Part 3: The Substantive Role of Trust Law in the Superannuation System 9. Trustees and their Broader Community: Where Duty, Morality and Ethics Converge (1999) Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead 10. Superannuation Fund Trustees and Conflicts of Interest (1999) David Maclean 11. The Superannuation Trustee: Are Fiduciary Obligations and Standards Appropriate? (2007) TheHon Margaret Stone 12. Challenging the Exercise of Powers by Trustees (2007) Professor Geraint Thomas 13. Exercise by Superannuation Trustees of Discretionary Powers (2008) TheHon Joseph Campbell 14. Interpreting and Exercising Powers of Amendment in Superannuation Trusts: An Exercise in Gloss? (2008) Professor Gino Dal Pont 15. Prudence under Pressure (2009) Dr M. Scott Donald 16. Institutional Shareholders and Corporate Governance (2010) TheHon James Spigelman AC QC 17. Duties of Superannuation Trustees: From Equity to Statute (2012) TheHon Ronald Sackville AO QC

M. Scott Donald PhD CFA is Deputy Director of the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation, UNSW Law and External Consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills.