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(Pictured: 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: 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…

(Pictured: James Moore) Fund manager distribution models and the introduction of FOFA may present impediments to the introduction of the latest US-style retirement solutions to Australia, as well as uncertainty around future taxation of annuities, according to a paper by PIMCO. The paper, ‘Retirement Income Options: The Next Step for Australia’, looks at the worldwide challenge…

by Matthew Peter* Movie buffs will know that the full name of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satirical masterpiece is “Dr Strangelove or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.” It’s a mouthful, so it’s no wonder that most people only know it by the far shorter “Dr Strangelove.”   Compared to the threat of…

Australia led the way in the Asia Pacific region for dividend growth among listed companies in the past 12 months, according to the latest figures in the Henderson Global Dividend Index, a report from fund manager Henderson Global Investors. Australian dividends, in US-dollar terms, rose 2.4 per cent in the March quarter compared to the…

(Pictured: Rob De Dominicis) SMSFs are starting to get a similar level of sophistication at the back end of the administration systems being offered to them as the very big funds have, with the first live SuperStream messages for electronic choice contributions. Systems provider GBST and SMSF administrator Class Super announced their successful program last week….

Chris Taylor has spent more of his 25 years with State Street, where he started as a graduate fund accountant in Sydney, in either the UK or Asian offices. On his recent return to Australia to head up the firm’s Global Services and Global Markets businesses, he said he was “really struck” by the local…

(Pictured: Leeanne Turner) by Greg Bright Leeanne Turner, chief executive of the Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund (MTAA Super), has won the 2014 Fund Executive of the Year award. While she doesn’t like to dwell on the past, the award recognizes a significant feat in turning around a fund which had previously been beset…

(Pictured: Andrew McGill) by Penny Pryor A chance encounter in London last year and a subsequent meeting of the minds has led to an alliance that will form one of the largest independent boutique incubator, or multi-affiliate, firms in the world. Treasury Group is to merge with Northern Lights Capital Group. Treasury Group shareholders will come…