News

(Pictured: Susan Thorp) The average SMSF member is likely to be less “highly numerate” than the average member of a big super fund, but more financially numerate and more knowledgeable of the rules surrounding super. The SMSF trustee is also likely to be more trusting of financial services professionals, perhaps to the point of naivety. These…

 (Pictured: Paul Woolley) The study of capital market dysfunctionality, which former fund manager Paul Woolley embarked on in 2007, investing £5 million (A$9.25 million) of his own money to establish three study centres around the world, is turning out to be a unified body of theory. Woolley addressed the eighth annual conference organized by University of…

 (Pictured: Bruce Murphy) Bruce Murphy, managing director responsible for the Australian funds management business of BNY Mellon, is to leave that position to take up a senior role at one of the firm’s affiliate managers, Insight Pareto. A search is underway to fill the job. Murphy has been in the current role for nearly five years….

 (Pictured: David Chaplin) The NZ$21.4 billion (A$19.3 billion) KiwiSaver Scheme, which is shared between 35 banks, managers and other service providers, has seen an uptick in investor switching in the past year, with the two Australian-owned banks, ANZ and BNZ (owned by NAB), winning much of the inflows. The annual study of the market, produced by…

(Pictured: Chris Tse) The unlikely alliance of FTSE, the index provider owned by the London Stock Exchange, and ASFA, Australia’s super fund association, has teamed up again for a new series of indices in Australia, this time for bonds. The FTSE ASFA Australia Bond Index Series is being sold on its independence from any of the…

 (Pictured: Stephen Miller) As the fallout from the Bill Gross departure from PIMCO reverberated around the world last week, one of its main competitors, BlackRock, got lucky with the timing of its launch of a fixed income global opportunities (FIGO) fund for Australian investors, just like the one Gross famously managed at his old shop. According…

 (Pictured: Doug Hodge) One of Bill Gross’s legacies at PIMCO, the firm he co-founded 43 years ago, is a refurbished room for yoga, pilates and other exercises at Newport Beach head office. Gross was a bit like that and PIMCO, for years, indulged him. While the room’s future is unclear, the occasional US$200 million annual remuneration…

(Pictured: Dennis Sams) Australia Post’s $6 billion super fund has become the fourth in a series of securities servicing contract wins for Northern Trust this year – all involving JP Morgan as the incumbent provider. And in an unrelated move, the fund has made its head of investments redundant. The change of custodian follows a review…

 (Pictured: Bill Dwyer) Bill Dwyer, former head of investments at Western Australia’s Government Employees Superannuation Board, has returned to Sydney and taken up a position as senior consultant at JANA Investment Advisers. Dwyer said that after just over five years with GESB, he wanted to move back to Sydney with his young family. He joined GESB…

 (Pictured: Nick Niziolek) The emerging markets story is about to get a bit more interesting as China introduces its next iteration of the “Through Train.” The last time this happened, in 2007, the Hong Kong share market jumped 60 per cent before slumping to lower-than pre-announcement levels. Pundits are saying: this time it’s different. The Through…

 (Pictured: Bill Gross) When a 70-year-old portfolio manager can cause such a stir you know he was someone special. Bill Gross, the Warren Buffett of bonds, will, incredibly, join rival firm Janus Capital today, US time. Janus has opened a Newport Beach “office” just for Gross, who famously dislikes travel. Gross’s departure was announced last Friday,…

(Pictured: Susan Dietz-Henderson) With the China question – a big multi-facetted question facing all Australian investors – you have to look at the long term. Perhaps more than any other question facing investors. That’s what US-based global manager Capital Group is doing with its research effort. Susan Dietz-Henderson, the former Australian diplomat who is the China…