News

Dennison Hambling  With the Australian share market set to have its worst month since October 2008 at the height of the GFC and the total global market officially in a bear market, being off more than 20 per cent from its peak, one fund manager has provided some soothing advice. Don’t worry about the market,…

Lisa Gray and David Deverall Two of Australia’s largest fiduciary investors, Victoria Funds Management Corporation and NSW Treasury Corporation (TCorp) last week announced new chief executives to fill the vacancies from last year. VFMC has appointed former NAB executive Lisa Gray and TCorp has appointed former Perpetual Trustees chief executive David Deverall. Deverall resigned from…

(pictured: Debby Blakey) By Greg Bright Having an investment program which fits the culture of a super fund – aligning those investments with the beliefs of the members – is a way to attract and retain members in a competitive super landscape. Take impact investing as an example. The $32 billion HESTA health care industry…

Ana-Marie Lockyer In a cautionary tale of potential users of robo-advice websites and services, current bank customers are prepared to pay an average of only $53.50 for an online personal financial plan. And a significant proportion expect to pay nothing, according to a bank’s survey of its customers. The ANZ Bank survey, published last week,…

Trevor Dixon Distributed ledger technologies – usually beneath the headline-grabbing Bitcoin and blockchain examples – are going to present a major disruption to the operations of wealth management platforms and big super funds. So far, the big banks have made all the running. The others need to catch up. According to Trevor Dixon, a working…

The top six trends driving the outlook for the newly formed investment consulting and insurance giant Willis Towers Watson are combining to provide a generally “mediocre” outlook for markets over the medium term. In its January global markets paper the firm’s asset research team explains the three-to-five-year asset class weightings. It is a cautious outlook, with…

December inflows of US$52 billion tipped the global exchange-traded product (ETP) market into record territory last year with investors increasingly adopting more diversified and opportunistic strategies, the latest BlackRock on the sector shows. According to the December 2015 BlackRock ‘Global ETP Landscape’ report, annual flows hit more than US$350 billion over the calendar year –…

Jason Hsu Jason Hsu, a co-founder of California-based Research Affiliates, creator of the ‘fundamental index’ and promoter of smart beta, has bought a majority interest in the firm’s Asian business, which has been re-formed into a new company known as Rayliant Global Advisors. Hsu will remain the vice chairman and a shareholder of Research Affiliates,…

US-based global manager Ranger International Management has drawn a comparison between the so-called FANG stocks in the US market and the Nifty 50 of the late1960s and early 1970s. The comparison could help investors get a better perspective on current market sentiment. The FANGs – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet (Google) – were the darlings…

(pictured: Elliot Hentov) Sovereign Wealth Funds invest in a contrarian manner compared with fund managers and super funds, according to new research from State Street Global Advisors. They take bigger bets on growth assets and use their size and longer-term liabilities time horizon to best advantage. Everyday investors can learn from them. The research paper,…

(pictured: Hansi Mehrotra) Hansi (Rashmi) Mehrotra, a former senior consultant at Mercer in Australia, and before that at van Eyk Research, has launched a new managed funds research platform in the region, known as ‘Diligence Vault’. After leaving Mercer in 2011, after nine years with the firm, she returned to India, helping to manage a…

(pictured: Dan Chapman) Argentem Creek Partners, the emerging markets credit business formerly part of Black River Asset Management, has been hived off as a separate employee-owned firm, focusing on opportunities for institutional investors. Daniel Chapman, who led the EM team at Black River and is an emerging markets distressed debt specialist, is CEO and CIO…