Forcing New Zealand Government funds to sell down holdings in collective investment vehicles (CIVs) to avoid controversial companies could “result in potentially material costs”, according to a NZ Treasury analysis published last week. Published under Official Information Act (OIA) rules, the April 2016 Treasury report on the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) and New Zealand Superannuation…
By Michael Gordon* The rise of passive management is one of the greatest and probably most significant trends in asset management in recent years. The case for passive investing is well known and is hard to refute. However, there are hidden costs. Not just for investors, but for whole economies too. The lure of lower…
With the help of record flows into index funds in their various forms – smart beta, RAFI funds, scientifically designed funds, high frequency trading funds and good old-fashioned market-cap indices-matching funds – you would think that this would be a stock-picker’s dream. But it’s not, yet. Simon Savage, director of alternative beta at Man Group,…
As ETF investing continues to rise around the world, a big proportion of recent flows is going into fixed income products. In the first two-and-a-half months of this year alone, US$14 billion of a total of US$37 billion flowing into ETFs went to bond funds. The ETF growth phenomenon, until recently concentrated in the retail,…
Graham Rich’s Portfolio Construction Forum has expanded its reach in investor education with an arrangement with the University of Technology Sydney’s former Paul Woolley Centre, now known as the UTS Investment Management Research Program. The UTS program, still to be run by Professor Ron Bird, who set up the Paul Woolley Centre in Australia, includes…
Private equity fund managers will have to work harder to continue producing the high returns that investors expect from their sector, which has become increasingly competitive and is currently “awash with money”. This was the view of private equity fund managers and institutional investors who spoke at last week’s AVCJ Annual Private Equity & Venture…
By Emily Gordon* Data can be a powerful enabler of change, particularly when transparent, as we’re seeing when it comes to driving gender-diversity change and corporate-culture reform. It is an historical moment for markets when the ‘push’ for gender diversity becomes a ‘pull,’ as growing sets of data reveal the adopters from the laggards. Further,…
CheckRisk, the UK-based risk consultancy with an Australian office run by former super fund CEO Denis Carroll, has published new research on post-retirement modelling that shows just how much retirees are likely to fall short of their goals. Ross Pepperell, director of research at CheckRisk, who led the research team on the project says: “Our…
The financial services industry will lose its emotional connection with thousands of members and clients unless it finds new ways to stop advisers from prematurely retiring ahead of the introduction of the Life Insurance Framework, according to a white paper by ClearView. Titled ‘What’s old is new again’, the paper claims many mature advisers in their…
Historical evidence suggests global listed infrastructure would bounce back strongly after a poor run in the latter half of 2016 that included the worst monthly performance relative to equities for more than 10 years, according to new research from AMP Capital. In ‘Global listed infrastructure: not just a bond proxy’, AMP Capital says the recent divergence…
