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Unbalanced

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iPad? iDon’t, says Jack Gray Conexus Financial – the publisher of the bundle of dead trees you hold now in your hands – also has its finger on the pulse of cutting edge media technology. At last month’s Fiduciary Investors’ Symposium at the Manly Novotel, we thought we had a lucky door prize guaranteed to wow delegates – an Apple iPad, just two days after its release in Australia. Interestingly for us, however, the prize was won by Jack Gray, the former GMO contrarian for whom a phrase such as ‘finger on the pulse of cutting-edge media technology’ is a cue to stick his fingers in his ears. Unbalanced had caught up with Gray that morning, after he’d walked out of a presentation by digital consultant Anthony Bertini, entitled ‘What’s changing the world – technology and more technology!’. “What a load of crap,” the funds manager was heard to grumble, taking particular exception to Bertini’s evangelising of, ahem, the Apple iPad. Gray assured us he thinks the internet is wonderful, but hates the “hype and bullshit” that has become a hallmark of the online age, particularly when every “latest gizmo” is hailed as making all before it redundant.

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Super policy must rise above resources stoush

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Across the developed world, pension systems face funding crises. This makes Australia’s aim to raise the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent stand out as fine public policy and should not be derailed by the mining industry’s campaign against the tax on super profits of resources companies. GERARD NOONAN, president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation trustees and a former editor of The Australian Financial Review, lays out the argument.

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Hedge funds up in April but performances differ widely

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Australian hedge funds (including offshore funds offered for sale in Australia) reported a positive 0.68 per cent return for the month of April, and a positive 1.67 per cent for the first four months of 2010. The top 10 funds, ranked by year-to-date performance, were offered by just six managers: London-based RAB Capital; Sydney’s Platinum AM; New York-based Ramius; and HCAP, a recently established Sydney-based manager. Each of these managers had two funds in the top 10. Ashton and FRM rounded out the list. The best performing strategies were fixed income with a 5.41 per cent return year-to-date, followed by multi-strategy with 3.27 per cent.

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Fundies musn’t be precious, nor custodians too eager to please

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To capture the full benefits of an  outsourcing relationship, there  must be a focused effort by the  industry to repair trust and to  realign service expectations  between fund managers and  custodians. We have the  technology and we have the  desire. But the lack of trust  between parties and unrealistic  service expectations remain as  real roadblocks, writes BRUCE  RUSSELL, a director with  Shoreline, a consultancy for  investment industry businesses.

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Ausmaq moves swiftly to reduce risk

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The payments system of the funds management industry is lumbering into the 21st century as custodian Ausmaq goes online with the order-sending component of SWIFT’s electronic messaging system, called Funds. The driver for automation has not been “the immediate dollar savings,” says Ausmaq’s chief executive, Robert Brown, “because there are still some issues with takeup in the market.” Ausmaq is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NAB, and jostles with HSBC for the second and third places after behemoth RBC Dexia. Custodian Ausmaq now takes third place behind RBC Dexia Investor Services’ registry business, the biggest by transaction volume in the industry, and HSBC Securities Services’ custody arm, the second by volume.

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JPMorgan to break with DST by year-end

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imag_july_coverJPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services ( JPMorgan WSS) aims to shift Australian clients on to its global fund accounting platform by the end of next year, potentially meaning it will no longer require DST Global Solutions’ HiPortfolio system. JPMorgan WSS is now two years into the three-year ‘Project Union’, which is creating a fullyintegrated global platform for investment accounting and fund accounting. The global CEO of the business, Conrad Kozak, admits it was tricky to incorporate Australia’s idiosyncratic tax rules into a global platform, but is confident this could be done by the end of next year. Meanwhile India has become the seventh market in which JPMorgan WSS performs its own sub-custody (that is, the safekeeping and settlement of local assets).

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Why managed accounts win funds

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In funds management distribution, the new kids on the block are separately managed accounts (SMAs), and the glamour of this next-bigthing lies in its tax, transfers and transparency benefits. Despite their vanilla names, they’re appearing in an array of investment styles (growth, value, income or ethical), market capitalisation (small, mid or large) and concentration. But they are not the silver bullet that enthusiasts would have investors believe, because their advantages and disadvantages are legion. PHILIPPA YELLAND talks with the players.

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The resistance: how super funds can toughen defensive portfolios

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Fat tails. These skewed beasts can bulge out from nowhere and push investment returns far into positive territory or claw portfolios into the red. While investors can never know when the next financial calamity will strike, or what form it will take, they can maintain strong defensive exposures. But which assets will truly keep capital safe, and how much should superannuation funds allocate to them? SIMON MUMME reports. Super funds are invariably overweight riskier, returnseeking assets. They need to be, if they are going to generate returns above inflation and keep up with the performance of their peers. This leaves less room for defensive exposures – investmentgrade debt, cash and, more recently, hedge funds – to insulate them from fat-tail whippings.

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Investment Magazine provides in-depth, monthly analysis of trends and developments for all the businesses in which superannuation funds engage‚ including asset allocation, investment manager selection, custody and fund accounting, member administration, group insurance and compliance.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land upon which Conexus Financial sits, the Cadigal of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respects to them and their culture, and to Elders both past and present.

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