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by Greg Bright Except for a couple of well-known cases, Australia’s fourth-largest super fund system in the world has eschewed venture capital as an investment. And, to make matters worse, any money the big funds have spent in recent years has tended to go offshore. We wonder why Israel has become the new Silicon Valley….

Schroders has had a good-size presence in Australia for a long time, since the 1960s in fact, with investment banking first, and, more importantly in the past 50-or-so years, funds management. The family controlled British company dates back to the first half of the 19th century. But it is not set in its ways. Private…

The longer-term risks are well-enough known, according to the speakers at last Friday’s Portfolio Construction Forum (August 14) virtual conference. The problem is they are not getting a lot of attention. COVID-19 is both a wake-up call and a reason we have recently become so short-term focused. What starts out looking like a non-financial risk…

Perhaps a major risk for media outlets is to spend too much time examining the risks associated with COVID-19 and not enough time on everything else going on in the world, which is analogous with the Portfolio Construction Form search for the “next big shock” (report this edition). Research Affiliates has done an analysis of…

by David Chaplin AMP Capital will swing towards more-lucrative private markets as its ASX-listed financial services parent seeks to regroup after a disastrous couple of years. In a move that will see a reorientation of its listed markets fund business, Francesco De Ferrari, AMP’s chief executive, outlined the new private asset strategy for AMP Capital…

It is clear that COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on the way that all businesses, including funds management and wealth management, will operate beyond when, hopefully soon, the pandemic has abated. One of the impacts will be to accelerate the use of digital services. A new white paper, by digital player Infosys, has outlined…

Maryann Mannix-White, AIST’s chief membership officer, is leaving the organisation having held a variety of senior executive roles, including the general manager role, for more than 15 years. She will leave on October 7 and is looking forward to a holiday before deciding on her next adventure. During her time at AIST, Maryann drove the…

Integrated Portfolio Solutions has appointed Damien Hatfield, one of the founders of the hedge fund industry in Australia who, more recently has focused on marketing a range of alternative and some traditional investment strategies for big and small providers, as the newest member of its board. Integrated Portfolio Solutions (IPS) is a low-cost platform which…

by Greg Bright It had to happen, of course, but sometimes when it does it is still a bit of a shock. John McMurtrie, the driving force for nearly 20 years behind what became Link Group, announced last Friday (August 7) his intention to retire early in 2021. The Link board has gone outside the…

The Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia were ranked as the top three pension systems by country, according to a report from Visual Capitalist analytics company. New Zealand, despite having little in the way of compulsory savings, came in at 8th in the world. Rounding out the top 10, in order, were: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, New…

Big investors seem reasonably sanguine about both their performance during the current market volatility and the outlook for markets generally over the next few months, according to a report by global manager search firm and investment advisor bfinance. The report was based on a survey, in June, of 368 of the largest pension funds in…

Martin Currie Australia last week, on August 6, sent a letter to the chairs of all of the companies in which the firm invests in Australia and New Zealand for its income strategies, emphasising what it has relayed in meetings about the “power of dividends” for investors – especially for retirees, charities and foundations. Dividends…