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(Pictured: Peter Baker) Mercer Sentinel is looking to expand its capabilities in workflows among super funds and other clients, targeting inefficiencies between front, middle and back-office systems and procedures. Peter Baker, who joined the firm as Australia and New Zealand head late last year, has already recruited a senior consultant. Baker, who joined from BNP Paribas…

(Pictured: Warren Chant and Andrea West) Fees, retirement incomes and insurance are dominant issues for big super funds and other fiduciary investors. They are the themes backgrounding selection of the annual Chant West superannuation and pension fund award winners, to be presented at a black-tie dinner in Sydney on May 6. The third annual awards cover…

(Pictured: Peter Costello) It’s funny how likable politicians become after they leave office. Take Peter Costello. Even though he is still in public life, as chair of the Future Fund no less, his charm has now surpassed his smugness. He is even self-deprecating. Helped by interviewer Peter Switzer, Costello took about 400 people on an entertaining…

(Pictured: Dan Norman) In the world of fixed income, not since what is sometimes referred to as the ‘cult of equities’ got underway in the 1950s – thanks to Harry Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory – has there been such demand and yet such limited supply of product. Everyone is searching for yield and everyone is wary…

(Pictured: Jonathan Green) The integration of back and middle-office functions at big super funds is having knock-on benefits, such as the reorientation for the fund operations management to also include implementation. And there are returns benefits. According to Jonathan Green, the general manager of investments at NSW Treasury Corporation, the new paradigm involves the recognition of…

(Pictured: Ashley Porter) The ‘value chain’ in funds management, currently worth about 100bps, will deflate by 70-90bps in the next five-10 years, according to Ashley Porter, the founder of the zero-fee SMSF admin company McLowd. He provided a shock-and-awe presentation to the industry on the Gold Coast last week. At the ‘My Platform Rules’ conference in…

(Pictured: Damian Moloney) Frontier Advisors has announced the launch of its Partners Platform technology, which the consulting firm believes moves the practice into a ‘new era of collaborative consulting’. It is a suite of analytical tools and research databases. The Partners Platform was foreshadowed at last year’s Frontier client conference in Melbourne. It was previously used…

(Pictured: Jason Clarke) Jason Clarke, the former managing director of the Lonsec Fiscal group and partner of Jeff Bresnahan in the development and expansion of the SuperRatings business, has joined administration company Recreo Financial Technologies as a director. He is known as a long-time critic of the service offerings of the big administration firms and system…

(Pictured: Paul Moore) Ben Skilbeck, a former investment banker with Merril Lynch and Credit Suisse, has become the new chief executive of Australian-based international manager PM Capital. This follows the departure of Chris Donohoe, the former chief executive, in December last. Skilbeck has started at PM Capital this month, most recently having worked at quant research…

(Pictured: Matthew Brown) Matthew Brown, who has about 20 years experience in securities servicing, will replace Christine Bartlett as general manager of NAB Asset Servicing when she retires next month. Bartlett, who took on a non-executive directorship of property group Mirvac in December, has decided to pursue further such roles and depart NAB at the end…