Since the emergence of “Modern Portfolio Theory” and the “Capital Asset Pricing Model” in the late 1960s, institutional investors have taken a quantitatively driven approach to portfolio construction, looking to create portfolio diversification and obtain better risk-adjusted returns by balancing their asset-class exposures. This journey has seen several important advancements in thinking about how to optimally achieve desired results.
Funds that want to take the total portfolio approach first need to get the total portfolio view. To do that they not only need data – and lots of it – but a rock-solid understanding of exactly how they’re going to use it.
QSuper wins major SuperRatings award
QSuper took out the SuperRatings Fund of the Year award for 2021 while also taking out two other important awards, for Pension of the Year and Smooth Ride Award, for consistency of performance, at an event broadcast live from Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art last week (October 29).
The other major award winners at the virtual event were UniSuper with MySuper of Year, for default funds, and Sunsuper, with MyChoice Super of the Year, for the single-option fund offerings. Those three funds have tended to dominate the top awards at both the SuperRatings annual event and that of the firm’s main competitor Chant West for the past several years. No commercial super funds won an award this year.
Kirby Rappell, SuperRatings executive director, said it was important to recognise the significant work that all funds had done to support their members through a very challenging year. “In a highly competitive field, we decided that QSuper was the fund that performed most strongly across the key criteria of investment performance, fees, member services, financial advice and insurance, and fund governance.”
With respect to Fund of the Year, Rappell said: “It was a strong field this year and we note the high calibre of all award winners, with the quality of their offerings shining through the pandemic. A lot has changed in super, and there are even more changes to come.
“We should always be focused on improvement, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the incredible outcomes being produced by a large number of funds, both for their members and the retirement system as a whole. Despite the uncertainty, there is every reason to be positive about super.” The full list of winners is:
- Fund of the Year – QSuper
- MySuper of the Year – UniSuper
- MyChoice of the Year – SunSuper
- Pension of the Year – QSuper
- Career Fund of the Year – Cbus
- Momentum Award – Aware Super
- Net Benefit Award – AustralianSuper and HESTA
- Smooth Ride Award – QSuper
- Infinity Award – Local Government Super
- Lonsec Investment Option Award – CareSuper: Sustainable Balanced.
- Zenith Fund Awards
Meanwhile, in retail land, Zenith Investment Partners, which this year acquired the ChantWest business which was part of a small listed company, held its annual awards in similar vein last Friday (October 30).
The top award of Fund Manager of the Year, was won by Pendal, which beat the two other finalists, BlackRock and Magellan Asset Management. In other major awards of the 22 on offer, equities category winners included: Australian equities (large cap) was won by Greencape Capital; Australian equities (small cap) by Aberdeen Standard; Responsible Investments by Ausbil; Australian equities (alternatives) by New Zealand-based Milford; International equities (global) by Magellan; international equities (alternatives) by Munro Partners; and international equities (emerging markets and regional) by GQG.
Fixed income categories winners included: Australian fixed interest, Pendal; and, global and diversified fixed interest, Ardea Investment Management.
– G.B.
