Our Authors

(pictured: Ian Silk) Comment by Greg Bright Quite possibly. AustralianSuper, the bellwether go-to and surprisingly innovative super fund, Australia’s largest and, arguably, best across a range of metrics, proved to all and sundry this week what can be achieved when you try. But maybe this is the time to also worry a little about the future…

(pictured: Russell Clarke) Mercer chief investment officer Russell Clarke has thrown his weight behind the growing criticism of Australia’s fee obsession. Fees are driving investment decisions and that’s not in the best interests of the end investor, he says. Clarke participated last week in a webinar organised by researcher Stewart Oldfield of Field Research. Clarke said…

(pictured: David Scobie) Investors should put more weight on alignment of interests when hiring or firing fund managers, according to a new Mercer report. And they should avoid changing managers wherever possible. While investors necessarily focus on a manager’s investment and operational strength, the study says the “often overlooked” alignment factor provides some important flow-on benefits. For…

(pictured: Patrick Farrell)  Pat Farrell, the former chief investment officer at BT Financial Group, who left that firm in May, will become the new chief investment officer at Suncorp, following the retirement last month of Nick Basile. The appointment is expected to be announced this week. The role, based in Sydney, oversees the mostly outsourced…

(pictured: Eusebio Teofilo-Sanchez) Securities lending, which was dealt a blow during the global financial crisis as a lot of lenders withdrew from the market, is making a comeback. Investors are adapting to the likely continuation of a low-return environment. According to Eusebio Teofilo-Sanchez, Citi’s regional head of securities lending, the increasing sophistication of super funds and…

(pictured: Brett Baker) Evergreen Consultants, the boutique asset consultant for financial planners and family offices launched early this year by Angela Ashton and Brett Baker, has finalised its asset allocation committee. The members are: Angela Ashton, Tom Cottam, Stephen Duchesne, Kingsley Jones and Daniel Liptak. Baker said last week: “We’ve spent a few months talking and…

(pictured: Lochiel Crafter) The need to boost investment performance in a low return and volatile market environment is fuelling interest from investors in new strategies which are reshaping traditional active equities management, according to State Street Global Advisors. And a key trend is downside protection. Lochiel Crafter, SSGA’s Sydney-based head of Asia Pacific, says: “In this…

(pictured: Rob Everett) Policing robo-advice is a global challenge that was unlikely to be solved by waging “algorithm wars”, according to Financial Markets Authority (FMA) chief, Rob Everett. With the NZ financial regulator poised to take on the robo-cop role under new Financial Adviser Act (FAA) reforms released last week, Everett said the FMA was developing…

(pictured: David Klinger)  As liquidity in the Australian share market continues to drop and algorithmic trading has splintered institutional activity into tiny parcels, the challenge for big super funds to get in and out of domestic stocks is getting worse. Institutional flows into Australia have plummeted. Against this backdrop, a group of former traders has…

(pictured: Craig Russ)  In uncertain times, such as these, investors have traditionally turned to the fixed interest market for their downside protection. But this time it really might be different. In the ‘new normal’ of low-to-zero-to-negative interest rates, investors may well be better off in the floating-rate debt market than taking on increasing duration –…