Since the emergence of “Modern Portfolio Theory” and the “Capital Asset Pricing Model” in the late 1960s, institutional investors have taken a quantitatively driven approach to portfolio construction, looking to create portfolio diversification and obtain better risk-adjusted returns by balancing their asset-class exposures. This journey has seen several important advancements in thinking about how to optimally achieve desired results.
Funds that want to take the total portfolio approach first need to get the total portfolio view. To do that they not only need data – and lots of it – but a rock-solid understanding of exactly how they’re going to use it.
Turner takes a package as Harwood readies to close
Mike Turner, the manager of communications at the Harwood super fund, has taken a redundancy package ahead of the proposed outsourcing of the fund to a master trust or industry fund (see separate report this edition). Turner, a former securities servicing and super administration executive, said last week that he was taking a holiday before considering his options.
Turner left Harwood, the CSR Ltd and associated company fund, last week after four years. He had previously spent three years at Australian Administration Services but is probably best known in the industry for his five years at Pillar Administration before that.
As general manager of marketing at Pillar, Turner drove the NSW Government-owned body’s expansion into the wider marketplace, winning its first non-government clients and implementing a contemporary marketing plan.
Turner said he wanted to take some time to decide on the next phase of his career. He began in financial services as a broker and later moved into securities servicing at what was then National Australia Custodian Services (now NAB Asset Servicing), heading up the Sydney presence.
