UK-headquartered fund transaction facilitator, Calastone, has established a beachhead in NZ with two foundation clients confirmed this week. Calastone, via its Sydney office, signed up Auckland-based investment admin firm, MMC, and Public Trust, to the service that allows funds to transact seamlessly in any format and across borders. Sarah Hayward, Calastone Australia head, said the… [Read More…]
Return gap found for performance-chasing NZ investors
Real returns achieved by New Zealand retail investors generally fall below published fund performance figures, a new analysis by Morningstar Research shows. The analysis by Morningstar head of manager research, Tim Murphy, to be released this week, suggests the ‘fear and greed’ behavioural cycle dampens real returns for NZ investors. Murphy said the NZ research… [Read More…]
Many are culled, few are chosen for NZ Super
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) has slimmed down to 36 external managers following its latest mandate cull. After dispatching four real estate investment firms (covering five mandates) last week, the NZS is well off its peak of 44 external managers recorded just four years ago. Including the most-recent exits, the NZS has cut 10… [Read More…]
Lower forever: NZ stock prices take long-term to the extreme
Many New Zealand shares will need interest rates to stay at record lows forever to justify current prices, according to the latest Harbour Asset Management monthly report. The Harbour note says the New Zealand share market is characterised by firms that have “high earnings certainty, but low earnings growth”. “By market capitalisation, low volatility and… [Read More…]
Aussie banks pile on KiwiSaver FUM in March quarter
All the Australian-owned banks posted above-par growth rates in their respective KiwiSaver schemes during the March quarter, new figures from research house Plan for Life (PFL) show. According to the PFL report, the KiwiSaver market in total grew 4.5 per cent over the three-month period, rising from almost $32.4 billion as at end December 2015… [Read More…]
Risk premia investing: hedge funds win out
Risk premia and smart beta strategies will quadruple in the next four years, according to a Citi Investor Services survey. Lars Jaeger, a pioneer in the risk premia space, held a roundtable in Australia last week. He says it’s a natural progression. Here’s why. The Citi survey of big pension funds around the world, published… [Read More…]
Kiwi Wealth digs digital future with retirement income tool
Kiwi Wealth’s new online retirement income tool is more than a calculator but a few algorithms short of full-robot, according to the group’s head of retail wealth, Joe Bishop. Bishop said the just-released digital tools dished out free to members of the Kiwibank-owned KiwiSaver scheme provide a more nuanced approach to retirement income planning than… [Read More…]
Diversification not the panacea we thought – Milliman
Shock horror! Milliman says that diversification may not deliver what we have thought it would deliver since way back, since the dawn of Modern Portfolio Theory, when we were kids. A new study shows that investors need a ‘multi-layered’ approach. Michael Armitage, the Sydney-based head of fund advisory services for consulting firm Milliman, says diversification… [Read More…]
Industry divides along party lines, MBIE submissions show
The ongoing Financial Advisers Act (FAA) review has revealed a sharp divide between institutions and most other interested parties, according to an Investment News NZ (IN NZ) analysis. After compiling responses from almost 150 entities to a number of key questions contained in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) FAA ‘Options Paper’, IN… [Read More…]
Code for trust: what young professionals want from advisers
Investors aged under 30 are more likely to trust financial advice delivered by robots than humans, an in-house Minter Ellison Rudd Watts (MERW) survey has found. After surveying 80 of its lawyers aged less than 30, with further detail supplied by a focus group of six, MERW concludes “automated online platforms are the best way… [Read More…]