Sovereign wealth funds are special purpose investment funds that are owned by government.
In other words, sovereign wealth funds are financial institutions set up to manage public funds on behalf of a government.
Created for a diverse range of macroeconomic purposes, sovereign wealth funds hold, manage, or administer assets to achieve financial objectives, and employ a set of investment strategies which include investing in foreign financial assets.
No. The Future Fund is a sovereign wealth fund, not a superannuation fund. Assets in the Fund are managed on behalf of the Australian government, not on behalf of individual members.
The Fund does not manage individuals’ money and individuals cannot invest with us.
Our role is to both grow and protect the public assets of the Future Fund and the various other special purpose funds for which we are responsible.
The Future Fund is Australia’s sovereign wealth fund.
We invest on behalf of the Australian Government. The Fund is not open to members of the public.
No. We do not invest directly; we are required by legislation to invest via external investment managers in alignment with our overarching investment strategy. As such as we do not assess individual investment opportunities.
Organisations proposing investment opportunities are welcome to contact the relevant external manager/s from our publicly published list.
The Future Fund was established in 2006 to strengthen the Commonwealth's long-term financial position by making provision for unfunded superannuation liabilities that will become payable during a period when an ageing population is likely to place significant pressure on the Commonwealth's finances.
You can read more about the establishment of the Future Fund and the Future Fund Act 2006 here.
The objectives of the other special purpose public asset funds are detailed in legislation. Further detail on each of the funds is available here.
The Future Fund has no role in determining how earnings or capital from the various Funds are spent.
The legislation for each fund sets up arrangements for money to be withdrawn and allocated in line with the objectives of each fund.
The Future Fund was established by the Commonwealth Government in 2006 with a contribution of $60.5 billion.
There have not been any further cash inflows, or any withdrawals, from the Future Fund since then.
Arrangements for contributions and withdrawals for the other funds are set out in their respective legislation.
While legislation permits drawdowns from the Future Fund from 1 July 2020, the Government announced in the 2017-18 budget that it will refrain from making withdrawals until at least 2026-27.
Drawing down later on the Fund is projected to strengthen the Government’s financial position over the long term.
Arrangements for withdrawals for the other funds are set out in their respective legislation.
Our environmental, social and governance risk management policy provides a framework which helps us to determine what entities and sectors are excluded from the investment portfolio for non-financial reasons.
In line with this policy the Board has excluded a number of entities in connection with certain military weapons and tobacco.
You can view the list the list of companies excluded from our portfolio here.
No. The legislation gives the Board responsibility for determining the investment strategy, including asset allocation and geographic allocation and the Board constructs a portfolio designed to meet its risk and return objectives.
The Future Fund is a global institutional investor: taking a whole-of-portfolio approach, we look for the best available investment opportunities around the world and within Australia.
We build a diverse portfolio and invest in a broad range of categories including listed equities, private equity, infrastructure, property, debt, alternative assets, cash and portfolio overlays.
Our Statement of Investment Policies details our approach to managing environmental social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities, including climate risk.
Climate risk has been incorporated into our investment program for many years. We continue to ensure it is given due consideration alongside the many other risks, such as inflation, deglobalisation, fiscal and monetary policy.
We take an integrated and investment-led approach towards the low carbon transition. It is a key consideration in how we build our portfolios and is integrated dynamically into our process alongside other risks and opportunities.
We review climate risk during due diligence for specific investments; monitor how our investment managers are addressing climate risk where appropriate to their strategy; engage with the assets and companies we invest in and consider climate related risks in our proxy voting and Board engagement activities.
The Future Fund has broad exposures across the ASX200. We publish a list of our top 100 listed equity holdings, which you can find on this page on our website.
The organisation’s accountability arrangements are established through the Future Fund Act 2006 and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The organisation has extensive reporting obligations to Parliament through the responsible Ministers. This includes tabling an annual report and audited financial statements in Parliament and answering questions from Senators in regular public hearings.
We have set out below links to the relevant materials that we regularly publish, for ease of reference.