Superannuation administration is a notoriously tough business. The big operators have to contend with ever-changing regulations, technological challenges and razor-thin margins. Since they are dealing with the retirement savings of the vast majority of Australians, they can’t afford to make too many mistakes, either. Greg Bright spoke with Suzanne Holden, the chief operating officer of…
(Pictured:Â Nick Bullman) by Greg Bright At the annual Portfolio Construction Forum last week, which took the 500 attendees on an entertaining journey through the past 100-or-so years, including the evolution of investment theory and practice, the audience warmed to the importance of risk. By the end of the event, during which they were peppered with…
(Pictured:Â Amin Rajan) Pension funds which did well through the market turmoil of the last decade, according to Amin Rajan, the chief executive of CREATE-Research and an Oxford don, had three things in common which meant they did not need to rely on market recovery to bail them out. They had strong investment beliefs, they had…
Richard Smith, the long-time CIO and CEO of the $20 billion South Australian Government manager Funds SA, is to retire soon. Applications for the CEO role closed last Friday. Smith was on leave last week, with John Piteo, the chief financial officer, acting as CEO. Smith will remain at Funds SA, after he returns from…
(Pictured:Â Ian Knox) Shares in HUB24 jumped on the news as the listed financial systems company announced last Thursday its takeover of advisor licensee Paragem for cash and shares spread over the next three years. The deal, and response to it, is a fillip for the whole IFA market. Under the deal, Paragem founders, Ian Knox,…
(Pictured:Â Peter Murphy) by Penny Pryor Australia’s first social benefit bond (SBB) has announced an initial annual return of 7.5 per cent. The Newpin SBB Pilot return, as certified by Deloitte, was at the lower end of a targeted annual return of between 10-12 per cent for the seven-year life of the investment. Christian Super invested…
(Pictured:Â Rhys Octigan) As the systems they provide are changing with each technological advance, so too are the systems providers’ roles. A recent trend by big users of investment administration software overseas for instance, is for the provider to also host the data. According to Rhys Octigan, head of business development, Australia and New Zealand, for…
(Pictured:Â Al Clark) Multi-asset investing, alongside the broader concept of dynamic asset allocation, is is one of the trends of the moment in funds management. But investors with memories of the explosion in tactical asset allocation (TAA) strategies in the 1990s must be wondering whether it’s a trend or fad. Some fund managers are putting a…
(Pictured:Â Justine O’Connell) Frontier Advisors has brought its senior consultants team to 10 with the promotion of Justine O’Connell, a specialist in fixed interest and cash. The firm has also appointed a new associate consultant and recruited a new analyst. O’Connell first joined Frontier in 2005 but left in 2008 to take up a role at…
Trevor Matthews … ‘what I’ve decided is I now want to be a superb director and chairman’ The story of Trevor Matthews’ long and illustrious career in life insurance and investment markets is, in a way, a reflection of the evolution of those markets over the past 35-or-so years. Now a non-executive director of several…
