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(Pictured: Philip Metcalf) Socius Technologies, a UK-based investment technology start-up, which has opened a regional office in Hong Kong, has developed a form of protected pensions service for super funds which uses portfolio insurance strategies. It appears to be a more palatable alternative for members who have so far been reluctant to give up most or…

(Pictured: Robert Caporale) Milestone Group is expanding its North American presence and has hired an experienced securities services executive, Robert Caporale, from JP Morgan to head up the operation, based in Boston. Caporale has spent the past 12 years at JP Morgan in strategy business and sales roles, most recently as head of sales for the…

(Pictured: Kenneth McAtamney) Kenneth McAtamney thinks that recent trends in investing appear to be veering away from old-fashioned fundamental beliefs and something important is being lost in the process. “What if we just invest in great companies?” he asks. McAtamney, a partner in and portfolio manager for global manager William Blair & Co, says “better” companies…

Andrew Lill… ‘the core of our process is really dynamic asset allocation’ We talk a lot about culture in the funds management industry. Apart from money, it’s what attracts people to work at an organization, be it a funds management firm, a super fund, dealer group or asset consultant. For Andrew Lill, the newish chief…

(Pictured: Andrew Fairley (left) and David Miles) by Greg Bright SMSFs do not represent the threat to APRA-regulated super funds that many have thought, according to two fund chairs who happen also to be experienced lawyers. But perhaps APRA itself may be a threat. In a frank and entertaining final session at last Thursday’s Fund…

(Pictured: Jonathan Green) What’s new about the insourcing discussion, according to Lounarda David, head of investment operations at Sunsuper, is the pace at which it is going on. She warned that doing an assessment of benefits was relatively easy, but getting out if it doesn’t work might be very costly. The session on insourcing at the…

(Pictured: Giselle Awad) eSecLending, the world’s largest non-bank-aligned securities lending firm, has closed its Australian office and is expected to revert to servicing the APAC region from Boston and London. Giselle Awad, a former trader at RBC in Australia, the US and UK, had been the Australasian representative for eSecLending for the past five years, based…

(Pictured: Peter Gunning) Russell Investments, which has been on the back foot in the institutional market in Australia in recent years, has had a strong start to 2014, following completion of the arrangement with CSR over its outsourcing of the Harwood Superannuation Fund. Harwood, Australia’s oldest super fund, dating back to 1890, has about $1.4 billion…

(Pictured: Andy Grimes) Winton Capital, the UK-based global manager which has recently set up in Australia, will have an ongoing relationship with Macquarie, which has represented it for several years. Winton is one of the few managers to offer clients a performance-only fee arrangement. Andy Grimes, who heads the new office, said the manager has about…

(Pictured: Simon Ho) Triple3 Partners, the volatility manager which comes under the Grant Samuel Funds Management umbrella, is launching a retail fund this week following some success in the institutional market. Can volatility be seen as a separate asset class? Volatility is well known to be an investible characteristic, although its derivatives dependency can make…