Super funds need to “take a step back” in the current environment, however, there are a lot of opportunities for skilled managers, according to participants in a recent Watson Wyatt roundtable. Five Watson Wyatt investment consultants from the UK, US and Australia, participated in the discussion, which aimed to provide guidance to large funds in … Read more
Former colleagues at MLC/Lend Lease, Nick Basile, Krystyna Weston and Sarah Brennan, have been reunited following Ascalon Capital Managers possession of a controlling stake in The Private Collection. The deal means Ascalon’s boutique funds managers will now be promoted in the retail space. Ascalon, which is part owned by St George Bank and Kaplan Equity, … Read more
MTAA Super has reconfigured its Australian equities managers for the first time in two years, splitting a Macquarie Funds Management mandate in half and now equally weighting three enhanced equities managers in that asset class. BlackRock Investment Management has been awarded an after-tax Australian equities mandate of $450 million, with the third, unchanged manager being … Read more
Small boutiques and growth-at-a-reasonable-price Australian equity managers have achieved the biggest reductions in realised short-term capital gains since the ‘12 month rule’ came into effect in September 1999, a study by the Australian School Of Business (UNSW) has discovered. The study, ‘Do Active Fund Managers Care About Capital Gains Tax Efficiency?’ by UNSW associate professor … Read more
Three not-for-profit superannuation funds are planning to launch a transactional banking facility by July this year. The funds will issue cards with payment linked directly to members’ super balances, allowing members to withdraw money as they need it, much like a bank card linked to a bank account. Cuscal, a provider of transactional banking to … Read more
The debate over whether crediting rates or unit pricing is the better value attribution model for a superannuation fund has clouded a more important question of whose interest the frequency of attribution is made in, according to business systems consultant Askit Consulting. Jules Gribble, director of Askit Consulting, told an audience dominated by industry superannuation … Read more
The internationally-renowned community advocate, Rhonda Galbally, made a piercing observation about us all at last month’s Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees’ Sydney luncheon discussing retirement adequacy. “The lack of a whopping great inheritance tax shows Australians don’t mind social inequity,” she said. It’s certainly true that older, cashed-up Australians have been doing disproportionately better out … Read more
Cash has come back, shoring up portfolios with liquidity that can be siphoned towards emerging investment opportunities or used to beat bonds by sitting safely in bank bills. SIMON MUMME looks at how some cash managers have either profited or been upended by widespread credit problems. The global liquidity freeze has rattled even the traditionally … Read more
Forget shuffling between equities and bonds. As the underlying causes of market volatility become more complex, so do the tactical asset allocation tools used to manage and exploit it. AMANDA WHITE and SIMON MUMME report. The complexity and unpredictability of recent market movements are being reflected in asset allocation debates throughout the country’s superannuation investment … Read more
The web-enabling and connectivity that arises from service-oriented architecture (SOA) can be a mixed blessing if the underlying software’s processing speed is not fast enough, according to Synchronised Software managing director Rory Wainer. “You install an SOA layer on a system and you are opening up a path that otherwise might not have existed,” Wainer … Read more
Australian funds managers have been among the most willing in the world to reduce their trading volumes through full-service brokers in preference for alternative trading systems (ATSs) such as Liquidnet, according to Seth Merrin, CEO of the block-trading broker which transacted $200 million in the three weeks after launching here on February 20. Merrin said … Read more
The current market environment is a good one for funds to be able to increase the revenue they generate by securities lending. It follows that it’s also a time where the lending program is subject to greater risk. LOUNARDA DAVID, principal and regional director of Mercer Sentinel – Asia Pacific, presents a guide for trustees … Read more
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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.
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