Some members are excited for retirement, while others approach it with a “real sense of shame and fear”. Funds are going to have to figure out how to cater to both groups or risk failing them all.
If there’s one lesson for investors from the past five years, it’s that chopping and changing their strategy – even in the face of massive market turmoil – doesn’t always pay.
Ex-Telstra Super, Insignia CIO Steve Merlicek puts Activus in the rear-view mirror
Investment manager Steve Merlicek has announced his resignation as chair and director of boutique asset consultancy Activus, with the veteran executive’s last day at the firm registered as June 1.
Most would know Merlicek as an institutional fund manager who left the corporate sector following his former role as chief investment officer at Insignia Financial (then IOOF Holdings), where he took most of the listed entity’s multi-manager retail funds from bottom to top-quartile between late 2009 and mid-2017.
At the time he left Insignia it held around $140 billion in funds under management, despite the institutional provider suffering outflows due to financial planning issues with the securities regulator. Merlicek was named the inaugural winner of the ‘CIO of the year’ award sponsored by La Trobe Financial in 2012.
At IOOF he instigated a suite of changes including merging the old ‘United’ and multi-manager investment teams, revising the asset allocation process and appointing dedicated portfolio managers. He also implemented new risk systems and reviewed and diversified the manager line up at the institutional provider.
Merlicek, who started his career as a soldier in the Australian army, had joined Insignia after about 10 years at the helm of Australia’s largest corporate superannuation fund, Telstra Super.
The executive saw Telstra Super’s investment team through the global financial crisis and leant into subsequent value pockets in both emerging and developed markets. Merlicek also kicked off several alternative programs including global and local private equity, as well as listed and unlisted infrastructure.
In 2017 Merlicek founded the asset consultancy Activus with fellow ex-Telstra Super employee and JANA consultant Robert Talevski.
After six years at the agency, Merlicek says it’s time to move on.
“I feel the time is right to end my association with Activus for a number of reasons that’ll come out in due course,” he tells Investor Strategy News.
Merlicek says he is looking forward to contributing on a number of roles going forward. He is a director at the ASX-listed WCM International Equities Manager and sits on committees at the Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Foundation, as well as money manager Invesco.
“These positions mean a considerable amount to me and I’m keen to give as much as I can to ensuring the groups develop in the best way possible,” he says.
