Bipartisan support is needed for the Superannuation Guarantee to increase to 12 per cent, according to the super industry’s five peak bodies, who competed with the aggrieved mining sector for airtime in Canberra yesterday.
Scottish coup prompts new emerging markets fund
Martin Currie Investment Management will bring forward its plans to launch an Australia-domiciled emerging markets fund following a coup in which the Edinburgh-based firm lured a team of specialists from a local rival.
Zenith to move into insto advice with alternatives expansion
Zenith Investment Partners has recruited an experienced hedge fund researcher to spearhead a move into institutional asset consulting.
Big seed mandate for ex-Alliance growth boutique
A $200 million seed mandate and backoffice support are understood to have lured AllianceBernstein’s growth equities team into boutiquedom.
Colonial First State GAM set for Kiwi injection
First it was Crowded House, then Russell Crowe, now NZ$5 billion could be headed over the Tasman as the investment arm of the Auckland Savings Bank is wound down, at the behest of its owner, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
New master for State Super Financial Services' $8bn
State Super Financial Services, which advises on $8.3 billion predominantly on behalf of retired NSW public servants, has drawn from the senior ranks of an asset consultant for its new chief investment officer.
Series' pan-Asia boutique staffs up for debt strategy
Eight Investment Partners, the pan-Asia boutique, has appointed an executive director to implement a credit capability to be run alongside Kerry Series’ equity strategy.
Unbalanced
MTAA on the canvas MTAA Super has been the first in many things over the years: such as having a painting commissioned of its secretariat. (Cbus famously owns a bunch of artworks, but none of itself as far as we know.) The story starts back in 1999, when chief executive of the fund and the motor trades association, Michael Delaney, was walking out of a meeting in Parliament House. As a contemporary report in The CanberraTimes has it, he noticed the huge Tom Roberts’ impression of the opening of the Australian Parliament, and thought ‘we should have one of those’. In classic ‘bicentennial project’ fashion, Canberra artist Michael Winters was contracted, and soon attended one of the MTAA’s board meetings to note ‘personal idiosyncrasies’ and make sure he got the likenesses of directors and their staff. Seven months later, Winters had completed a huge oil on canvas measuring 3.3 by 1.4 metres, and depicting no fewer than 39 of the MTAA milieu. The painting took pride of place in the second boardroom at MTAA House for many years. Unfortunately the MTAA communicates with us via lawyers’ letters only these days, so we can’t confirm a story that the work has more recently been retired, along with Winters’ individual portraits of certain former MTAA presidents.
Super gets a reality check
For as long as I’ve worked in the super industry – 15 years at last count – member engagement has been a hot topic, writes AIST CEO Fiona Reynolds. Be it at industry conferences, roundtable debates or at the office water-cooler, when the talk turns to member engagement – particularly the challenge of getting young people interested in their super – there is invariably a lot of heavy sighing and head-scratching.
Top hedge funds earning 20% pa + since inception
Australian hedge funds reported a positive 0.15 per cent return on average for February, and a minus 1.11 per cent for the first two months of 2010. The annualised compound return for the industry on average (since inception for each hedge fund) is 8.64 per cent. Nine funds returned more than 20 per cent a year on annualised compound returns over at least three years. These nine are on the table that follows.
Options increase for risk-management in asset allocation strategies
As risk becomes more relevant to fund members as they enter retirement, new approaches to investment are being assessed. Broadly speaking, they fall into one of three categories: • Administration strategies • Derivative strategies • Insurance/outsourcing Administration strategies Administration strategies rely on dynamically altering the underlying investment mix to achieve a smoother return or risk-management outcome. Three approaches that appear to be growing in popularity are targetdate funds, target-volatility funds, and continuous portfolio protection insurance (CPPI). Target-date funds: This strategy rebalances investors’ assets between different mixes of conservative and growth assets based on an age-based “glide path,” traditionally focused on the investor’s planned retirement age. The principle behind target-date funds (also known as life-cycle funds, targetmaturity funds, and age-based retirement funds) is that investors need to adopt more conservative investment styles as they approach retirement. Target-date funds, however, have become the subject of much criticism.
