Failing to take advantage of the recovery trade looks bad. But with Alibaba, Magellan missed a risk you could see from space. Hamish Douglass, Magellan chairman and chief investment officer, has been much maligned in recent months for something that’s probably his fault but not actually his problem: missing the market rally in late 2020….
Trustees need to be wary of seeing everything through the lens of super, according to Chant West’s Ian Fryer. Engaging with controversial ideas around its uses can be a boon for member outcomes. As the big banks and their superannuation products copped a hiding in the Hayne royal commission , the rivers of gold correspondingly…
Trustees should consider “pre-mortem” stress tests and a whole of portfolio approach to the YFYS performance benchmarks to avoid underperformance, according to Willis Towers Watson (WTW). Jonathan Grigg, WTW director for investments, says avoiding test failure will be a high priority for funds, but not one that can override the obligation to act in members’…
There is a growing fear that the post-YFYS landscape will be dominated by a handful of megafunds, with competition – and differentiated member outcomes – disappearing. Super funds are about to experience a quick and bloody cull. With the first underperformance results expected on September 1, and letters to be sent out soon after advising…
Fresh from its sale of a 51 per cent stake in ETF provider BetaShares, Korean asset manager Mirae is preparing for an all-out assault on every segment of the Australian market. The analogy that Kristian Walesby, the new local chief executive of Korea-based Mirae Asset Global Investment, employs for its Australia expansion is that of…
The asset management colossus believes three key themes will shape a post-covid world of rising climate risk and extraordinary economic imbalances. Ben Powell, the chief investment strategist for Asia Pacific at BlackRock’s Investment Institute in Singapore, said: “To state the obvious, the last 18 months have been rather unusual. It hasn’t been a normal slowdown…
Last week was a big one for the chief executives of AustralianSuper and Cbus. Their funds announced record-setting returns for the financial year and the next day they both took another hammering from a Commonwealth parliamentary committee. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, chaired by Tim Wilson, a Liberal MP, is often enlivened…
While Japan has long been anathema to western investors, a series of corporate governance reforms are fueling renewed interest in the country. Japan’s status as a technologically advanced country with a happy, healthy population has long belied its stagnating economy and uncompetitive corporate landscape that has seen a slow grind downwards for markets since the…
While Asian financials will benefit from the world’s fastest growing middle-class, they also face massive headwinds from fintech disruptors and the looming threat of central bank digital currencies. Asian financials are still an important sector for investors and one that is poised to benefit from the region’s emerging middle-class and greater wealth accumulation in developed…
Super funds have battled with providing financial advice for decades but have not yet found a solution that can make it affordable and efficient for millions of low-balance members. Digital advice – including ‘robo’ – which in theory solves the affordable problem, has also been a decades-long dream for Australian wealth management, a revolution in…
