Analysis

The switch in focus to retirement incomes, ahead of the introduction of the Retirement Income Covenant, was evident at the annual SMSF Association conference last week. Deborah Ralston said: “Super has been a bit overdone”. Ralston, one of the panellists on the Government’s Retirement Income Review (RIR), which handed down its report in July 2020,…

If APRA wants to continue to encourage super fund mergers the regulator needs to make some changes to how it goes about its approvals process, according to one chief executive who is going through the process of having a successor fund transfer (TFR). Speaking at last weeks’ annual ASFA conference (on February 11), Leeanne Turner,…

Amundi Asset Management, Europe’s largest fund manager, has launched two strategies to build on its ESG-related offerings, a European equities and US equities fund, both of which focus on companies which are improving their ESG credentials. The three points of differentiation with the new funds are: an exclusion policy covering companies which sit outside the…

Lifecycle strategies have some problems. One, is how they compare their performance. Two, is how they explain their asset allocation. And three is whether they really fit APRA’s regulatory definition for a MySuper default fund. Alex Dunnin, the executive director of research at Rainmaker Research, who has been studying lifecycle products for the several years…

Aware Super is re-thinking its international exposures, particularly relating to China, and how it manages them as it expects they will continue to grow in importance within the $130 billion fund’s overall portfolio. “We haven’t taken any money out [of China] but as a minority investor we just think we should pause at the moment,”…

One would expect the inventors of the RAFI index to apply fundamental research to their work. When they turn to something as ephemeral as cryptocurrencies, the results are also entertaining. The Research Affiliates Fundamental Index (RAFI) is the strategy which kick-started the smart-beta trend; the best-known strategy developed by California-based manager Research Affiliates in 2005….

While all high-growth markets, such as many emerging markets, tend to disappoint equity market investors over long periods, China is a standout, according to Gerard Minack. The country is ‘the world’s best practice dilutor” of capital, he says. It’s the dilution of share capital, because of China’s allocation of capital through high levels of investment,…

The ASX is not Wall Street. A lot of the recent discussion about a style rotation, at long last, putting the value back in value investing, has focussed on the behaviour of US and global markets. A clearer focus on Australia offers a more nuanced, and relevant, analysis. According to a blog posted last week…

US-based niche thematic fund firm Ark Investment Management has jumped ahead of global giants BlackRock and State Street in exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows in January, according to a Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI) report. The SWFI report says Ark, which runs seven ETFs based on ‘disruptive technology’ themes, took in US$1 billion on a single…

Asia Pacific will lead the other major regions for growth in assets under management over the next five years, according to study by PwC. Asia Pacific growth will outpace that in Europe and North America in both best and worst-case scenarios. The study, ‘The Power to Shape the Future – Asset and Wealth Management Revolution,’…

Maple-Brown Abbott’s affiliated listed infrastructure management firm is turning off gas and switching more to electric as the world adjusts to a low-carbon energy future. In a paper published last month (January 25), the Sydney-based Global Listed Infrastructure says its analysis suggests electric utilities will be the major beneficiaries of global climate change energy policies…

Volumes have been written about the frustrations felt by value managers from the long performance drought endured by their investors because of the big tech stock boom for much of the past 10 years. But what the next chapter brings is still unknown. Signs are there that the rotation which started in the fourth quarter…