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…
(Pictured:Â Pru Bennett) by Greg Bright The influential proxy voting and governance consulting firms are becoming increasingly involved in the push for greater board diversity at public companies, with one of them saying it will vote against the chair, if necessary, to sway boards to introduce women directors. The trend in Australia for greater diversity, as…
(Pictured:Â Brian Slade) In a timely confirmation of something we all suspected – in a week when lawyers Maurice Blackburn announced their Class Action against each of the big banks over credit card charges – the Goal Group predicted that the number of securities class actions in Australia was about to rise significantly. Andreas Costi, who…
by Michael Delaney* I write and speak on account of your story on MTAA Superannuation Fund of August 11. I’m pleased for the fund and for my good friend Leeanne [Turner] by the award given to her (the FEAL Fund Executive of the Year). Like Leeanne, I do not usually dwell on the past in…
