Analysis

(pictured: Damian Hill and Ken Marshman) By Greg Bright REST Industry Super is searching for a new general manager investments. It is not a chief investment officer role; it is a general manager investments role. The distinction is important and it is the main reason the role is currently being filled, pending a new person, by…

The smart beta trend has hit warp speed, according to new research from index provider FTSE Russell, with interest from global institutional investors up more than 60 per cent over the past year. More than 70 per cent of asset owners are either “using or actively evaluating smart beta” the 2016 FTSE Russell smart beta…

(pictured: Daniel Celeghin) By Greg Bright For future fee revenue for fund managers operating in the Asia Pacific region only one country matters – China. While Australia accounts for 16 per cent of the regional market it will pay only 10 per cent of the fees. But there are bright spots for certain managers. According to…

(pictured: Fiona Trafford-Walker) The biggest challenge facing traditional asset consultants is the internalisation of investment management by big funds and the provision of advice inside the funds, according to Fiona Trafford-Walker, the director of consulting at Frontier Advisers. At the same time, the work of those consultants was getting broader. She addressed the Women in Super…

(pictured: Chris Redman) Investors have historically paid too much to access illiquid assets, a new study by global asset consultancy Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has found. And the liquidity premium varies considerably over time. In a just-published research paper, WTW says – based on its bespoke measure – the illiquidity risk premium (IRP) has been below…

(pictured: David Braga) The search for investment returns and the current risks in markets have replaced the former major concerns about dealing with regulatory changes and cutting costs among those involved in investments and operations at both super funds and fund managers, according to the latest annual survey by BNP Paribas Securities Services. In a sense,…

(pictured: Kathryn McDonald) In the evolution of investment management, the lines between active and passive are becoming blurred. Indices no longer reflect “the market”, or not many of them do. Investors should be aware of the implications. Kathryn McDonald, director of investment strategy at AXA Rosenberg Investment management, gave an interesting series of presentations in Australia…

(pictured: Cynthia Clemson) By Greg Bright J.K. Galbraith, the radical Canadian-American economist, called it “private affluence amid public squalor”. What he was referring to, in the 1960s, was the long slow decline of much of his adopted country’s infrastructure. Since the GFC, however, things are improving, thanks in part to the evolution of the municipal bond…

(pictured: Christopher Schelling) A big US pension fund is investigating the use of personality and aptitude tests for fund managers to become part of its due diligence process. The fund’s head of private equity investments, Christopher Schelling, has written a paper explaining the rationale. Schelling, the director of private equity at the Texas Municipal Retirement System,…

(pictured: Jonathan Shead) New research by State Street Global Advisors indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done for, even, big fiduciary investors to understand the value in factor investing. The research also shows these investors seem a bit unrealistic about expected returns. In its regular survey of 400 of the world’s largest…

(pictured: Raewyn Williams) The amount of tax saved from efficient after-tax management by super funds can vary through various market cycles, requiring different techniques to maximise returns. A new paper by Parametric illustrates the potential returns by treating the strategy as ‘tax alpha’. The paper, “The New Recruit to Your Alpha Team”, was written by Sydney-based…

(pictured: Nigel Douglas) Global small caps tend to outperform large caps over most timeframes, but with slightly higher volatility, as most investors know. But for Australian investors, global small caps also have a distinct advantage over the domestic variety – they don’t have the same capacity problems A recent study by asset consultant Nigel Douglas, principal…