News

Michael Hallinan Large, or ‘uber’, SMSFs are now almost impossible to build, according to Michael Hallinan, a superannuation lawyer. And capping the pension-phase earnings is a solution to a problem which no longer exists. According to Hallinan, special counsel for Townsends Business & Corporate Lawyers, the problem with capping the amount of super which can…

Graham Hand The Australian Taxation Office estimate of 0.5 per cent for the asset allocation of SMSFs to international investments – often assumed as accurate by industry participants – is way off the mark. Research by investment newsletter Cuffelinks last week indicated the figure is much higher. The Cuffelinks report (view here) says that international equities…

Geoff Wilson It goes to show what fund managers and other service providers can do about fees when they put their minds to it. The latest global LIC, organised by manager and philanthropist Geoff Wilson and featuring a best-of-breed manager line-up, will donate 1 per cent a year of assets under management to various mental…

Stephen Jackman The non-uniform self-classification of certain alternative and other assets as ‘defensive’ or ‘growth’ is disadvantaging some super funds in the ratings agencies’ league tables and perhaps confusing members who rely on these tables to assess the riskiness of a fund’s investment allocations, according to a PwC report (view here). The report, ‘Comparing Super Funds:…

Paul Khoury Paul Khoury, the new head of State Street Global Services for Australia and New Zealand, believes that the custodians which have invested in their systems, operating model and people over the past few years, when margins have been tighter than ever, will be the winners from the current pipeline of contract reviews. Khoury,…

The surprise proposed merger between Towers Watson and Willis Group announced last week has pushed the consulting firm to the top of the betting to win the auction for Russell Investments, which is reputedly down to a short list of three: Towers Watson and two Chinese firms – financial services conglomerate Citic and the unlikely…

Janet Hayden by David Chaplin Aon Hewitt is understood to have sold its superannuation and KiwiSaver fund administration business to a new entrant in the New Zealand market. According to industry sources, Aon has been in discussions with the unidentified purchaser for the last nine months. The deal – that may also include the group’s…

comment by Greg Bright After first being proposed by former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinas in 2012, when still in opposition, legislation was finally introduced into parliament last week to mandate that APRA-regulated super funds will be required to have at least one-third of their trustee boards as independents, as defined by APRA. The debate has…

Andrew Lill Michael Coop, longstanding senior consultant at Ibbotson Associates and its predecessor Intech, who was most recently head of multi-asset strategies, has returned to the UK to take up a job with an insurance company. Kevin Wan Lum, who was head of Australian equities, has also left to go to Vic Super. But five…

Grant Forster Despite a multi-year bull run and sky-high valuations, equities will become the go-to asset class for most investors over the next few years, according to a study by UK-based researcher Create in association with Principal Global Investors (PGI). The study, published last week, found that more than 70 per cent of the 705…

Gavin Walker It is their long-term horizons rather than portfolio size that give sovereign wealth funds a significant edge over other investors in performance, according to a research note by JP Morgan Asset Management. The discipline they show in sticking to longer horizons mean they have increasingly taken advantage of liquidity premia from alternatives. Looking…

Matt Davison In an interesting deviation from conventional thinking, there appear to be more fintech start-ups targeting incumbent financial institutions as buyers of their inventions than there are those who want to become genuine disruptors in the marketplace, according to a senior research analyst with Martin Currie Australia. Matt Davison, the financial analyst at Martin…