Michael Rice
Michael Rice has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia (General Division) for distinguished service to business and economics, particularly to the actuarial profession, and through advisory roles.
His notable achievements and extensive service include promoting and advocating higher superannuation payments to women and public policy work that has secured a framework for better retirement options for all Australians.
A founder and executive director of actuarial firm Rice Warner, Mr Rice was named Actuary of the Year in 2017 and chaired the Actuaries Institute’s Public Policy Committee for five years from 2014. In his advisory capacity, Mr Rice has been an honorary member of the Australian National University’s Advisory Board of the College of Business and Economics since 2014 and was a board member of State Plus from 2016-2019 and a committee member of QSuper from 2009-2016.
Rice Warner’s ‘Valuing Females’ package, introduced in 2013, offered women extra benefits including flexible work conditions, paid parental leave, and crucially, an additional 2% payment of their salary into their super fund. Mr Rice took the battle for better benefits for women to the Human Rights Commission, arguing for positive discrimination in favour of Rice Warner’s women employees.
He has led submissions to government on major reviews of Australia’s financial services. These include submissions to the Henry Tax Review, Cooper Superannuation Review and Financial System Inquiry, along with submissions to Treasury, Senate Committees and the Productivity Commission.
“Mr Rice has been a powerful and persuasive advocate for essential and equitable reform in the superannuation and retirement sectors,” said Actuaries Institute chief executive Elayne Grace. “His thoughtful and incisive input is actively sought by policymakers in Canberra and by leading industry groups involved in the wealth management and retirement sectors,” Ms Grace said.
Actuaries Institute President Hoa Bui said, “Michael has been an active voice in the superannuation space for many years and through this has driven increased actuarial involvement in public policy, in order to achieve better outcomes for the community.”
Mr Rice has been involved in papers that examine the Age Pension and dependency, superannuation fund fees, projections of both the superannuation and personal investments markets, analysis of member choices, and the evaluation of retirement strategies for superannuation funds.
He has also advocated better outcomes for young savers wooed into higher-fee superannuation accounts by social media savvy marketers and he has urged the superannuation industry to identify underperforming funds with a view to improving benefits for members.