Archives for 2019

Milford Asset Management gained a march on Fisher Funds in June with the dueling boutiques neck-and-neck in retail funds under management (FUM), according to Australian consultancy firm, Plan for Life (PFL). The PFL figures show Milford was just $6 million behind Fisher in retail FUM as at the end of June after experiencing a 10.4… [Read More…]

In spite of a looming ownership change AMP has won a small master trust mandate as an almost 20-year old employer superannuation scheme closes shop. The AMP NZ Retirement Trust (NZRT) picked up the $21 million Douglas Pharmaceuticals scheme last month, which will bring the market-leading master trust close to $3.5 billion in funds under… [Read More…]

High-powered NZ economist, Laurence Kubiak, has joined Trustees Executors (TE) as independent director – marking the fourth board appointment in October for the Wellington-based firm as it embarks on a strategic reboot. Kubiak is currently New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) chief as well as serving as director of electricity distributor, Northpower, and chair… [Read More…]

In an important and timely report published last week, Adviser Ratings, a research and advice firm which studies both individual financial advisers and the overall Australian retail advice sector, has confirmed massive changes ahead. The changes will affect the whole super industry. And as the New Zealand advisory industry edges closer to a new regulatory… [Read More…]

Following its inaugural joint industry and government roundtable event last month, the FinTechNZ lobby group has laid out a three-pronged plan to supercharge the local sector. The FinTechNZ roundtable report says the industry needs to schedule more regular meetings with government, scope out the potential for an “ongoing regional fintech accelerator program” and embark on… [Read More…]

If the proposed merger of Queensland’s two biggest funds, QSuper and Sunsuper, goes ahead – and often merger discussions don’t result in an actual merger – there may well be political ramifications due to likely redundancies. Dare we say it, Queensland can be a bit parochial. The human cost of mergers is often overlooked, by… [Read More…]

Value is poised for a major comeback that could “generate some of the best returns in a quarter century”, according to a recent research paper by US quantitative and multi-asset shop, QMA. The QMA study, published last month, says value stocks have been heavily beaten down over the last 18 months despite underlying fundamentals that… [Read More…]

Super Recruiters, the superannuation industry’s specialist HR consulting firm, supported by Investor Strategy News, is currently undertaking its annual survey of the Australian and New Zealand market for financial services positions. The survey asks about employment prospects, of course, but also about the broader state of the market among big super funds and fund managers…. [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) saw licensing income fall by over $200,000 during the 12 months to June 30, as the regulator booked a small overall deficit for the year. However, the FMA has forecast licensing fee and other ah hoc industry-levied revenue will leap from the $721,000 during the previous financial year to at… [Read More…]

Fiduciary duty, KiwiSaver default asset allocation and passive investing could all face major changes under proposals in the broad-ranging Sustainable Finance Forum (SFF) interim report tabled last week. The SFF report, an initiative of the public-private sector thinktank – The Aotearoa Circle, says the notion of ‘fiduciary duty’ could be extended by law to compel… [Read More…]