Mercer

Dotted with various government funds, the Pacific Islands has emerged as a competitive space for NZ and Australian-based investment advisers.

Until now, Japanese funds have largely been bond and cash investors. As they expand into real assets, Frontier wants to own that consulting niche.

Mercer Super Trust’s merger with Westpac’s superannuation assets will prepare the retail fund for a new era of competition in Australia’s rapidly consolidating super sector. BT’s Personal and Corporate superannuation funds will be merged into the Mercer Super Trust in a successor fund transfer that will create a superannuation fund with $65 billion under management…

Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) is creating a two-speed system in unlisted property where the biggest funds are forced offshore and the smallest must play in their own backyard. That might soon change. It’s a testament to the idiosyncrasies of the YFYS performance test that super funds are still trying to figure out the best…

Mercer has proposed a slew of tax changes to address the super system’s “inherent bias towards high income earners” and reduce the gender pension gap. Under Mercer’s proposed changes, individuals with balances over $5 million would be required to reduce their balance to that amount and those over the age of 75 would be required…

Asset owners haven’t been challenged with a sustained crisis in nearly 20 years, and it’s possible they’ll get one just as they make the jump into markets they’re unfamiliar with. Governance will be key. As inflation climbs and market volatility increases, Rich Nuzum, president of Mercer’s investments and retirements business, says that asset owners need…

Mercer has urged investors to consider a wider range of inflation scenarios in portfolio design plans as price uncertainty ramps up across the world. In a new paper, the global multi-manager and consultancy firm says investors now face more complicated decisions amid confusing inflation signals. “Adding a less predictable inflation environment now increases complexity for…

Local equities fund shops have increasingly allocated to Australian shares over the last four years, a new Mercer NZ analysis has found, partly to ease pressure from ballooning assets under management. The Mercer study of a dozen NZ fund managers found Australian shares now represent 34 per cent of their collective portfolios compared to 26…

There is a growing fear that the post-YFYS landscape will be dominated by a handful of megafunds, with competition – and differentiated member outcomes – disappearing.Super funds are about to experience a quick and bloody cull. With the first underperformance results expected on September 1, and letters to be sent out soon after advising members…

The long-awaited mega-merger between two global financial services giants, Aon and Willis Towers Watson, has hit a major snag as the US Department of Justice moved to block the transaction. In a statement last week (June 16), the Department of Justice (DOJ) says it had “filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today to block Aon’s [US]$30…