Three of Australia’s four asset consultants have signed up for eVestment Alliance, a web-based provider of investment data and analytic technology which competes with Mercer’s Global Investment Manager Database (which is entrenched enough to be known colloquially as ‘the Jim D’). eVestment differentiates itself from Mercer’s offering in various crucial ways, says eVestment’s president Asia Pacific, Frithjof “Fridge” van Zyp. Unlike Mercer, which is an asset consultant, “we’re a third party online software, services and information provider. Our focus is on collecting data and developing software to run analytics.
Consolidating super funds a Kafkaesque ‘Trial’
When Investment Magazine journalist PHILIPPA YELLAND was instructed to consolidate her four super funds and write a diary of the experience, we were hoping for a tale of straight-through processing and customer satisfaction. We didn’t get one. In fact, she found many similarities between her experiences and those of ‘Josef K.’ in Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, the classic story of a citizen tormented by a remote, inaccessible authority. “SOMEONE must have been telling tales about Josef K, for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested … There was a knock at the door and a man he had never seen in the apartment came in.” The Trial, Franz Kafka*
Uncovering the ABCs – alphas, betas and costs – of hedge funds
Hedge funds, in aggregate, have generated positive alpha in the past 11 years. This finding, made by Roger Ibbotson, founder of Ibbotson Associates and Professor of Finance at Yale University, proves the strategies can resist powerful market declines but often fall short of providing absolute returns to investors. Investors should learn the ABCs – alphas, betas and costs – of hedge funds. SIMON MUMME reports.
Asia, Europe fight for slice of unlisted portfolio pie
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An unspoken argument between Asia [with its ‘greenfield’ risk of the developing world] and Continental Europe [with its ‘brownfield’ stability] was fought between two unlisted manager visitors to Australia last month. MICHAEL BAILEY reports.
Liquidity is king for BlackRock
Liquidity is the paramount risk factor for institutional investors to be cognisant of according to Ben Golub, vice chairman and chief risk officer, BlackRock, who has co-authored a new paper outlining the risks learned from the credit crisis. He spoke to AMANDA WHITE about the suitable internal structure for institutional risk management and the risk challenges at BlackRock.
Green stars profit while laggards just talk the walk
Green properties are better financial performers, says Piet Eichholtz, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who recently helped build a global environmental real estate index. But most managers are either unaware of this dynamic or prefer to talk about sustainability rather than take action. However, some exceptions – primarily from Australia – provide a “green” benchmark for institutional investors in property. SIMON MUMME reports.
Climate change is a ‘glass half-full’ for investors
Global head of climate change investment research at DB Climate Change Advisors, Mark Fulton, has a contrary view to most observers, post-Copenhagen. He spoke to AMANDA WHITE about the climate change market and the asset allocation implications for investors, two areas he will address in his presentation at CMSF 2010.
AIST looks back to go forward
As the peak representative body for the $450 billion not-for-profit sector, AIST has played a major role in driving policy outcomes in the superannuation space to the benefit of the millions of working Australians who belong to industry, corporate and public sector funds, writes PHILIPPA YELLAND.
Maintaining the Rage
The one certainty about superannuation over the next 20 years is that it will grow. It’s the miracle of compound interest plus a legislated minimum of the flow of foregone wages every week. The structure of the industry, either through evolution or new regulation, is a little more difficult to predict. There will be fewer but larger funds, perhaps even more SMSFs [when will they stop growing in number?] and perhaps fewer managers. The influence of sponsoring organisations, such as unions and employer bodies, may wane – with or without possible legislative change to the make-up of trustee boards – with the sheer size of funds and continued push for professionalism and best practice. Adequacy will have been addressed, or at least debated. Paul Howes, one of the industry’s new faces of the past couple of years, says that super adequacy will be the next big discussion. Most doomed to straitened old age
Many Australians are heading for a less than comfortable retirement unless the federal government moves to increase the Superannuation Guarantee, after new research revealed there is a big hole in what we have saved and what we will need for a comfortable retirement, writes JOHN BROGDEN
