TWUSUPER has fifth CEO in two years
Former chief executive Bill McMillin is due to return to TWUSUPER after the current chief executive, Paul Sayer, resigned from the position after less than a year in the role. Sayer was the fourth chief executive at TWU Super in the space of two years, starting the role in late 2014. Debora Jackson, who took … Read more
Vision Super CIO successful in mandate to lower MERs
A year on from appointing its first chief investment officer, Vision Super has reduced the operational management expense ratio (MER) by 42 per cent and the investment MER by 25 per cent. Michael Wyrsch was appointed with the expressed mandate of reducing the investment costs with its custodian (National Australia Bank), its investment consultant (Frontier … Read more
Christian Super, VicSuper, First State Super, HESTA contribute to impact investing research
At least four super funds are contributing to the inaugural Impact Investor Survey which aims to provide critical insights to help grow the opportunities for investments that deliver positive social or environmental impacts in addition to a financial return. Christian Super, First State Super, HESTA and VicSuper, who have all separately shown leadership in this … Read more
QSuper to merge accumulation and decumulation phases
QSuper will start managing default members’ investments through, instead of to retirement within the next few years. Speaking at an IMCA seminar in Sydney, Brad Holzberger, chief investment officer of QSuper, revealed it had always been the fund’s intention to do this, but its first goal had been to launch its accumulation cohort strategy in … Read more
The metamorphosis of passive managers
Industry funds, with their ideology and history of affecting change due to profit-for-member motives, have been instrumental in driving transformation over the past decade, pressuring passive fund managers to vote their stock in companies. Investment Magazine examines how this is changing the skill set of passive managers and if this will impact on costs. Increasing pressure … Read more
PIMCO adopts ESG investments as intrinsic to its strategy
The sixth largest asset manager in the world has said ESG investments have become intrinsic to its strategy. Douglas Hodge, chief executive of the $1.59 trillion global investment management firm PIMCO, argued it was in their own interest to analyse ESG risks in todays changed world, in his opening address to delegates at the PRI … Read more
SSgA calculates the optimal domestic equity allocation
An equities portfolio that truly maximises returns and minimises risk will have an allocation of only 34 per cent domestic equities and 66 per cent in global equities, according to Olivia Engel, head of active quantitative equity, Asia Pacific at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). Research carried out by SSgA to find the optimal Sharpe … Read more
Caution pays off for AustralianSuper’s internal team
AustralianSuper over-compensated for the risk of its in-house equities project management in 2013 to ensure success, according to its head of equities, Innes McKeand. He told delegates at the Equities Summit that while this had created much work for himself and head of investment operations, Peter Curtis, it would have been preferable to a higher risk … Read more
The breaking down of equity buckets
Investors at the Conexus Financial Equities Summit discussed the emerging break down of allocation buckets when investing in equities, as a result of favoured fund managers reaching capacity constraints because of the growth of superannuation funds. As funds continue to get larger they might need to consider giving managers more flexibility with mandates, says Brett … Read more
Short-term contracts harm long term value
‘Long-term investors’ will remain short-term investors until they move beyond three year contracts with external managers, according to Saker Nusseibeh, chief executive of Hermes. Challenging delegates at the Equities Summit to question accepted beliefs, Nusseibeh said a bias to owning ‘quality companies’ without carrying out engagement to improve governance was another common investor deceit. The … Read more
