Analysis

Comment by Patrick Liddy* The last few weeks have witnessed an interesting debate on energy reliability in Australia, although this debate is also happening around the world. It has exposed the inconvenient facts around renewables, regulation and market failure. And provided us with a bit of political entertainment in the process. It has also brought…

The recently launched Remerga emerging markets ‘sustainable leaders fund’ has introduced an innovate fee structure for investors which rewards them for having a long-term outlook. The boutique manager charges 45bps plus a 10 per cent performance fee over benchmark for the first three years of an investor’s relationship, dropping to 40bps and then 35bps after…

As big super funds insource more of their investment management they will probably be changing the way they think about their whole portfolio. A new research paper provides some interesting insights into the relationship between individual manager skill and total portfolio returns. The research, by implementation manager Parametric, goes to support the use of centralised portfolio…

Supervised Investments Australia, the family office style manager controlled by David Constable and Ken Cooper, is looking to widen its product offering and build its investment team, according to new chief executive, Michael Ohlsson. Speaking at an investor briefing in Sydney last week, at which Constable, Cooper and the firm’s chair Helen Coonan, the former…

By Michael Gordon* The rise of passive management is one of the greatest and probably most significant trends in asset management in recent years. The case for passive investing is well known and is hard to refute. However, there are hidden costs. Not just for investors, but for whole economies too. The lure of lower…

By Emily Gordon* Data can be a powerful enabler of change, particularly when transparent, as we’re seeing when it comes to driving gender-diversity change and corporate-culture reform. It is an historical moment for markets when the ‘push’ for gender diversity becomes a ‘pull,’ as growing sets of data reveal the adopters from the laggards. Further,…

The financial services industry will lose its emotional connection with thousands of members and clients unless it finds new ways to stop advisers from prematurely retiring ahead of the introduction of the Life Insurance Framework, according to a white paper by ClearView. Titled ‘What’s old is new again’, the paper claims many mature advisers in their…

Historical evidence suggests global listed infrastructure would bounce back strongly after a poor run in the latter half of 2016 that included the worst monthly performance relative to equities for more than 10 years, according to new research from AMP Capital. In ‘Global listed infrastructure: not just a bond proxy’, AMP Capital says the recent divergence…

Investment insourcing by big super funds has been a hot topic for the institutional segment of the industry for several years. But the insource/outsource topic is bigger than just investments. A paper by implementation specialist manager Parametric has weighed into the discussion. The paper, written by Raewyn Williams, managing director of research in Australia, shows…

by Greg Bright Bernie Fraser may not be what you’d think of as “independent” from the not-for-profit super fund sector. But his report on fund governance delivered last week represents the most reasoned assessment of “independence” so far presented for the industry’s and Government’s consideration. The Fraser report, which came about because of the Government former…

There is a growing expectation from employees that their workplaces need to be “mentally healthy”, with most likely to leave if it is not, according to a survey for the annual ‘Work in Progress’ report by SuperFriend. The report measures the current state of mental health in Australian workplaces, rating organisations against 38 “desired state…

After several years of insourcing big parts of their investment portfolios it is now clear that the process can add value for super funds, according to Damian Moloney, the chief executive of Frontier Advisors. Commenting on the recent news that the US$35 billion Harvard Endowment was to outsource most of its investments, making redundant more…