The ASIC report into death benefit claims revealing the devastating impact of poor industry practices on grieving Australians has again highlighted the pressing need for change. While some funds have taken up the cudgels, others are still playing hardball on improving their service offering.
A Retirement Income Covenant obligation notwithstanding, there is still a paucity of these complex products on offer. The Advice Through Superannuation draft legislation might offer a way forward.
An original Wild Colonial Boy joins Jupiter
(Pictured: Martin Harris)
Martin Harris, a former senior funds management marketer in Australia, including at Colonial First State and what is now UBS Asset Management, has become global head of institutional business at Jupiter Investment Management in London.
The position is a new role for the big UK firm, which has concentrated most of its efforts on the UK market to date. Simon Hynes, global head of distribution at Jupiter, said in a press release last week that the firm’s ambitions were global.
Harris has lived in the UK for more than a dozen years. Most recently he was head of distribution at Kames Capital, for the past five years. He was in a similar role at the hedge fund manager CQS Capital, controlled by Australian-raised Sir Michael Hinze, during the global financial crisis. He also spent four years as head of institutional business for Fidelity in the UK.
Harris was at Colonial in the heady final period of the Chris Cuffe era, from 2000 to early 2003, which included Rob Adams and Matt Gaden (who both moved to the UK and are now running Hendersons in Australia) when the firm went on a rapid expansion path, in both London and Edinburgh. They were known in London as the “Wild Colonial Boys”. Harris started the new job last week.
The holding company, Jupiter Fund Management, is listed in the UK and operates a number of asset management subsidiaries across a broad suite of products. Outside the UK it has offices in Germany, Singapore, Bermuda and Jersey. The group had £32 billion (A$57 billion) under management as at March 31. Most of this money is in mutual funds. The firm had £3.9 billion in segregated mandates.
