Donna Mason has been appointed to the newly created role of chief customer officer at the NZX-owned funds management firm, Smartshares. Mason joined Smartshares in 2020 as head of client development after a 12-year stint at AMP NZ wealth in various adviser support and corporate superannuation roles. She led the group’s winning bid for KiwiSaver… [Read More…]
Investment News
Extra-rich advice: Capgemini charts changing tastes of the uber-wealthy
The global super-rich have taken an estimated 4 per cent hit to their collective worth over the year-to-date following a bumper 2021, according to the latest Capgemini annual survey. “While 2021 was a strong growth year, 2022 is already turning out to be significantly different,” the Capgemini report says. “High inflation since the start of… [Read More…]
Bare-faced facts: study finds fat-tail risks in alpha males
Academics have delivered bad news for fat-faced fund managers – and a possible vindication for the ancient art of phrenology – in a new paper published in the Journal Of Financial And Quantitative Analysis this month. The study found a link between alpha-male hedge fund managers, defined by a high facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), and… [Read More…]
Sovereign wealth funds in a disappointing year
The world’s most transparent sovereign wealth and pension funds have returned “disappointing results” as the drop in bond and stock prices finally kneecapped a decade of growth, according to Global SWF’s August While it’s too early to issue a definite statement, Global SWF (headed up by Diego Lopez, photo at top) says 2022 might finally… [Read More…]
US securities industry prepares to move fast and not break things
The US market is gearing up for a transition to T+1 securities trading in a move that will have wide-sweeping implications for investors and financial service providers across the world. Last week a collective of US industry bodies and market infrastructure giant, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), published a detailed plan revealing how… [Read More…]
Why Frontier wants to be big in Japan
The Australian asset consultant is taking its first tentative steps offshore with an eye to servicing the real assets niche of Japan’s pension market. But it’s consolidation among Frontier’s biggest clients that’s really driving the move. Frontier Advisors has opened a Tokyo office and hired Yuichi Alex Takayama from Misaki Capital to head it up… [Read More…]
UPDATED: Fisher profit hits $94m; Milford revs up despite performance fee fall (and other fund facts)
Fisher Funds has reported a net profit after tax of almost $94 million, almost double the previous year’s effort. The Takapuna-based manager raked in almost $200 million in revenue over the 12 months to March 31 included $77 million in performance fees equating to more than triple the 2021 result of $23.3 million. According to… [Read More…]
Apply with caution: industry body questions FMA anti-greenwash solution…
Implied new disclosure standards for so-called ‘integrated financial products’ stray well ‘off-piste’, according to a funds management industry body. Simon Haines, Boutique Investment Group (BIG) chair, said the just-released Financial Markets Authority (FMA) disclosure recommendations for funds labeled as sustainable and ethical etc go too far into a legal grey zone while offering no clear… [Read More…]
… as XRB shows fund managers the way on climate-reporting
Mandatory climate-related reporting for the NZ funds management industry was always going to be a complex business. And the draft climate-reporting guidance for licensed managed investment schemes (MIS) released by the External Reporting Board (XRB) last week provides strong evidence of the complexity ahead. At 68 pages, the XRB draft guide for fund managers covers… [Read More…]
Hatch co-founders leave FNZ home; Morrison & Co installs sustainability specialist at Infratil; Mercer bolsters workforce ranks
Half of the Hatch founding quartet, Kristen Lunman and Natalie Ferguson, have left the business less than nine months after the business changed hands from Kiwi Wealth to FNZ. Lunman and Ferguson – along with Jarred Sewell and Jakub Chodounský – developed the US share-trading platform under the aegis of Kiwi Wealth in 2018, growing… [Read More…]