News

(pictured: Cate Wood) From next year big super funds, companies and other bodies with more than 100 employees will be forced to report on the gender balance within their organizations. Is this the only reason they should care? Research suggests no – a better gender balance, particularly at the top, has other benefits. Helen Conway…

(pictured: Kate Mulligan) Kate Mulligan, the chief executive of the investment industry legal services firm King Irving Consulting, has joined the board of the wealth management firm Netwealth, increasing the number of independents on the board to three. Netwealth is one of the largest privately owned wealth management and advisory companies. It is controlled by…

(picture: Angela Ashton) Comment by Angela Ashton and Vanessa Stoykov* Retail financial planning is at a bit of a juncture: FOFA, fee pressure, education standards, investor confidence, the bond bubble, changing demographics and lifecycle investing, SMSFs, limited licencing for accountants, continued competition from industry funds desperate to hold on to retirees. These are all issues…

BNP Paribas Securities Services has anointed Peter Baker to succeed Pierre Jond as managing director of Australia and New Zealand. Jond, who has been in the role for four years, will return to Paris at the end of the year. The company also announced last week that Michelle Crosbie, a New Zealander who had been…

(pictured: Andrew Mehrtens) Centric Wealth, the financial planning and individually managed account provider, has recruited another rugby international, former All Black Andrew Mehrtens, to market its platform and advisory services to super funds. Mehrtens joins an old rugby foe, Phil Kearns, the Centric CEO and a former Wallaby captain. Mehrtens, a history major who speaks…

The Sydney-based Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund has appointed Towers Watson as its new asset consultant, replacing Russell Investments. The $5 billion 90,000-member public offer industry fund has 11 investment options. In the year to June 2012 the growth fund returned minus 3.4 per cent while the My Super balanced fund was minus 1.1…

(Pictured: Martin Stevenson)  In his 42 years in the superannuation industry, Martin Stevenson has seen some changes. Most, he says, have been for the better. But Australia still has a looming retirement incomes problem and the eventual solution is to legislate for some form of compulsory income stream system, he believes. Stevenson retired from Mercer…

(Pictured: Don Ezra) As super funds move away from traditional approaches to measuring their investment success, or otherwise, and the members increasingly focus on expected outcomes, the Fund Executives Association Ltd national conference next month will dissect the topic: “Measuring What Matters Most”. A keynote speaker will be Don Ezra, the Russell Investments global director emeritus,…