Analysis

The Actuaries Institute has suggested three main initiatives to help address the gender gap in retirement in a study prepared to coincide with the current ‘2021 All Actuaries Virtual Summit’. The report by a group of prominent actuaries and super specialists, tackles the decades-old issue of women retiring with less money than men from a…

FNZ has wrung out some relief from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) despite losing on most counts in the latest – and almost last – round of its bid to prevent a forced sale of GBST. In a provisional report handed down mid-April, the CMA upheld its November 2020 finding that a merger…

Actuaries are looking to broaden the horizons of their profession, while cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship and also giving themselves an image boost in the process. These aims were outlined in the opening plenary session of the Actuaries Institute last week (April 27) in what must be the longest industry conference ever held. It is the…

Last year proved once again that market timing can be very profitable but an extremely difficult task to pull off, according to a new analysis of tactical asset allocation. The paper, by influential Auckland-based actuarial advisory firm Melville Jessup Weaver and authored by newly minted actuary William Nelson, found NZ share investors could have engineered…

Yarra Capital last week completed its acquisition of Nikko Asset Management’s Australian business, taking its assets under management to about $20 billion. Now the hard work begins. Branding has been decided, with Yarra Capital to remain the overall brand, Nikko’s fixed income business to be subsumed into Yarra’s and the old Tyndall Asset Management brand…

ESG investing continues to polarise institutional investors around the world, with a surprisingly large number considered ‘contrarians’ who tend to buck the trend to ESG’s adoption and integration. This is one of the outcomes from research by Nuveen, the NYSE-listed global funds management arm of big US-based TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF), a profit-for-members financial services organisation….

While a combination of factors is driving the alternatives investment sector towards full maturity, pressure is also mounting on fund manager and investor capabilities for efficiency and governance. According to a short paper by Northern Trust’s asset servicing arm, the weight of money into alternatives leading to a broadening investor base, regulators and increasing congestion…

Value managers are hopeful that, following the second consecutive quarter of the factor’s outperformance, their world has returned to normal. Value may well be back. For the March quarter, for Australian shares, the S&P/ASX 200 value factor index was up 8.50 per cent, making a 12-month return of 42.71 per cent. The S&P/ASX 200 growth…

As the ESG investment world prepares for what may come out of the COP26 climate change conference in November, Martin Currie has set out the four major challenges in making the transition to net zero emissions. In its ‘Net Zero: From Policy to Action‘ research note published this month, which is part of its four-part…

It may be intuitive but there is now evidence that investors with more testosterone and those who drive flashy sports cars tend to produce lower returns over time. They take too much risk. We have Yan Lu, an American academic, to largely thank for those observational gems. From a position at the University of Central…

Longreach Alternatives, a multi-affiliate manager started by Sam Mann in late 2016, has added to its range of boutique offerings with the launch of a fisheries quota firm. A common theme for the range is “sustainable income”. Mann, best known for setting up and running for nearly 10 years the K2 Advisors hedge fund business…

The shift in investor preference for passive over active funds continued in the last two years, but Australian investors were more resistant to the global trend, according to research from Calastone. Calastone’s latest report, ‘Tidal Forces – Can Active Funds Fight the Passive Flows?’ compiled from analysis of fund transactions across its network during the last…