News

(Pictured: Nick Bullman) by Greg Bright At the annual Portfolio Construction Forum last week, which took the 500 attendees on an entertaining journey through the past 100-or-so years, including the evolution of investment theory and practice, the audience warmed to the importance of risk. By the end of the event, during which they were peppered with…

(Pictured: Amin Rajan) Pension funds which did well through the market turmoil of the last decade, according to Amin Rajan, the chief executive of CREATE-Research and an Oxford don, had three things in common which meant they did not need to rely on market recovery to bail them out. They had strong investment beliefs, they had…

Richard Smith, the long-time CIO and CEO of the $20 billion South Australian Government manager Funds SA, is to retire soon. Applications for the CEO role closed last Friday. Smith was on leave last week, with John Piteo, the chief financial officer, acting as CEO. Smith will remain at Funds SA, after he returns from…

(Pictured: Ian Knox) Shares in HUB24 jumped on the news as the listed financial systems company announced last Thursday its takeover of advisor licensee Paragem for cash and shares spread over the next three years. The deal, and response to it, is a fillip for the whole IFA market. Under the deal, Paragem founders, Ian Knox,…

(Pictured: Peter Murphy) by Penny Pryor Australia’s first social benefit bond (SBB) has announced an initial annual return of 7.5 per cent. The Newpin SBB Pilot return, as certified by Deloitte, was at the lower end of a targeted annual return of between 10-12 per cent for the seven-year life of the investment. Christian Super invested…

(Pictured: Rhys Octigan) As the systems they provide are changing with each technological advance, so too are the systems providers’ roles. A recent trend by big users of investment administration software overseas for instance, is for the provider to also host the data. According to Rhys Octigan, head of business development, Australia and New Zealand, for…

(Pictured: Al Clark) Multi-asset investing, alongside the broader concept of dynamic asset allocation, is is one of the trends of the moment in funds management. But investors with memories of the explosion in tactical asset allocation (TAA) strategies in the 1990s must be wondering whether it’s a trend or fad. Some fund managers are putting a…

(Pictured: Brian Slade) In a timely confirmation of something we all suspected – in a week when lawyers Maurice Blackburn announced their Class Action against each of the big banks over credit card charges – the Goal Group predicted that the number of securities class actions in Australia was about to rise significantly. Andreas Costi, who…

by Michael Delaney* I write and speak on account of your story on MTAA Superannuation Fund of August 11. I’m pleased for the fund and for my good friend Leeanne [Turner] by the award given to her (the FEAL Fund Executive of the Year). Like Leeanne, I do not usually dwell on the past in…

(Pictured: James Moore) Fund manager distribution models and the introduction of FOFA may present impediments to the introduction of the latest US-style retirement solutions to Australia, as well as uncertainty around future taxation of annuities, according to a paper by PIMCO. The paper, ‘Retirement Income Options: The Next Step for Australia’, looks at the worldwide challenge…

Australia led the way in the Asia Pacific region for dividend growth among listed companies in the past 12 months, according to the latest figures in the Henderson Global Dividend Index, a report from fund manager Henderson Global Investors. Australian dividends, in US-dollar terms, rose 2.4 per cent in the March quarter compared to the…

(Pictured: Rob De Dominicis) SMSFs are starting to get a similar level of sophistication at the back end of the administration systems being offered to them as the very big funds have, with the first live SuperStream messages for electronic choice contributions. Systems provider GBST and SMSF administrator Class Super announced their successful program last week….