As the developers of investment products keep coming up with more and more diverse ideas, the correlations between underlying markets are getting closer. Alpha is getting harder to find particularly since the credit market crunch of last August. The recent volatility has hit two of the major elements of returns: momentum and the small-cap effect. … Read more
Pension funds finally are turning to multiasset class managers in numbers. While pension executives have been reluctant to give managers investment discretion for large chunks of their funds, the idea is reaching the tipping point. Increasingly, pension officials are forging strategic partnerships or master manager arrangements and naming the money manager as a co-fiduciary. That … Read more
Money manager moves into options are spurring new trading models and technologies that market experts said will help support institutional investors’ growing interest. According to estimates from exchange executives, institutional investors now account for 50 per cent of options trading, up from an estimated 35 per cent five years ago. Options volumes have set one … Read more
Years have passed since he was in it full-time, but Chris Cuffe clearly retains plenty of friends in the financial services industry. Across most parts of it, anyway. Since joining the non-profit sector with Social Ventures Australia (SVA), Cuffe had noticed that many potentially great charities were hamstrung by a lack of capital. Old habits … Read more
The financial cost of saving the planet became a bit clearer last month, after AGL Energy sold Westpac 10,000 tonnes of emissions trading units, settling in 2012, at a nominal price of $19 a tonne. We’re all starting to feel the lifestyle costs too, as any bloke who’s ever had to use a waterless urinal … Read more
Graham Long, pastor of the Wayside Chapel and helper of the homeless in Sydney’s rough-and-ready Kings Cross, put his unique spin on the endless ‘Sydney versus Melbourne’ debate at last month’s Conexus/Comminsure roundtable (see page 20). “There’s nothing quite the same as Wayside Chapel here in Melbourne. The numbers on the streets are not so … Read more
It would be the last thing on the minds of those PMs and analysts who shed institutional restraints to ‘go boutique’, but they soon end up debating, mid-flight, the best ways to deal with bleary eyes and muddled heads. Without the expenses budget of a big player to fall back on, many start-up managers find … Read more
This is the third in a series of roundtables sponsored by CommInsure, organised in conjunction with Conexus and Industry Funds Forum (IFF), in which members of the superannuation and insurance industries explore how they might make a tangible difference in reducing the incidence of psychiatric disorders. According to the mental health professionals, research and early … Read more
The Goldman Sachs JBWere Charitable Endowment Fund (CEF) last month made its first annual distribution of grants. Over $40,000 was distributed between 34 different charitable organisations, including those supporting international aid, health and medical research and help for the socially disadvantaged. Concurrently, GSJBWere said it had reduced the minimum investment amount into the CEF from … Read more
Young Australian aid volunteers, like JANA principal Michael O’Dea, are undertaking and themselves funding domestic and overseas community-development projects beyond the remit of governments, writes SIMON MUMME. Qualifying for the Vincent Fairfax Fellowship ethics and leadership program required Michael O’Dea to trek through Katherine Gorge in 40 degree heat while carrying a 20 kilogram pack. … Read more
It’s a well known fact – at least among independent commentators and ratings agencies in the super industry – that the not-for-profit super funds are winning the race in terms of delivering superior retirement outcomes for members. Even before the release last year of landmark Australian Prudential Regulation Authority research showing that the not-for-profit sector … Read more
The investment intelligence behind Australia’s largest asset owners and their teams
In-depth interviews with leaders, experts and visionaries in the institutional investment community
Updates on the latest industry policy developments and regulation
The challenges and innovations of custody, technology and operational due diligence
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.
