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The need for financial education is rising with the increasing individualization of superannuation but a void remains in the provision and delivery of that education in a cost-effective manner. Chris Condon and Peter Vann believe they can fill at least part of that void with their new service. As previously reported, Condon, former chief investment…

Larger general insurers in Australia, which tend to have larger surpluses, have greater flexibility in their investment portfolios because of Australian regulations governing insurers. So, according to Robert Goodman, smaller insurers may be more dramatically impacted by the lower-yield environment. Goodman, the global head of insurance relationships for Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) in the…

There was a strong focus on security, especially for mobile devices, at this year’s annual technology summit held by JP Morgan in London earlier this month. The industry needed “a fundamental shift in thinking” to protect a company’s data and assets, the summit was told. Angus Burden, head of IT risk management for EMEA region…

The high-net-worth market has bounced back, according to a report by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, particularly in the US and the Asia Pacific region. The total population of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) increased 9.2 per cent in 2012 after a flat 2011. The report, an annual study, this year included the results of one of…

An analysis of US fund flow data based on how “foreign” a manager’s name sounds shows significant bias among mutual fund investors over an extended period, particularly in regions where racial or ethnic stereotypes are more pronounced. Work by Dr Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi of the University of Mannheim, presented at a Sydney University seminar last week,…

Ann Byrne, the former chief executive of two big super funds who has headed up the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors for the past five years, has decided to transition herself into retirement. Byrne, who ran STA, which merged with ARF to form what is now Australia’s biggest fund, AustralianSuper, followed by UniSuper, said last…

BMO Global Asset Management, the investment arm of the Bank of Montreal, has decided on the country head to open its Australian office – Ravi Sriskandarajah. He is the former managing director and head of business development at BlackRock and one of its predecessors, Merrill Lynch, who left that firm in March after a restructure….

When the G8 meets in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland Monday night, high on the economic agenda will be Japan’s ‘Abenomics’. “With this growth strategy we would like to consolidate our economic growth which would contribute to the world economy as a whole,” Yasushi Takase, deputy director-general of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign…

PIMCO, the world’s largest bond manager, has constructed a ‘balance sheet’ of the Chinese financial sector and subjected it to various stress tests. The manager concludes: the situation is manageable but watch out. In its latest ‘Secular Outlook’ series of client information notes, PIMCO provides what is probably the consensus view of China’s outlook, such…

The Significant Investor Visa program is gathering pace with the sector’s first regular publication, SIV Australia, predicting the initiative could generate A$5 billion in capital inflows in its first full year. David Chin, principal of the publisher Basis Point Consulting, says the publication aims to help Australian funds and businesses to capture opportunities from this…

Bank of Montreal’s asset management business – BMO Global Asset Management – is on the verge of launching in Australia with the appointment of a full-time marketer for its institutional strategies, following a search by recruitment firm Russell Reynolds. BMO Global Asset Management, which has total funds under management of about $US70 billion, is headquartered…

An academic report into the investment management of Australian general and life insurance companies’ statutory and regulatory funds shows a stable environment over the past three years, with capital or risk management requirements likely to be the major driver of any future asset allocation shifts. The report includes a survey of 14 life and general…