The almost $2.4 billion Police Superannuation Scheme (PSS) will tweak its asset allocation model and launch a new high-growth option in the wake some outsourced soul-searching. In its latest newsletter, the PSS says the changes follow the findings of an investment review and member survey carried out by consultancy firm Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) and… [Read More…]
Investment News
Medical KiwiSaver opens to the people with fee cuts, growth-dose increase
The Medical Assurance Society (MAS) re-joined the retail KiwiSaver market late in June launching the revamped scheme with minor surgery to fee and asset allocation settings. Formerly a restricted scheme, the new open-to-all MAS KiwiSaver has cut fees on its conservative, moderate and balanced funds by 0.2, 0.15 and 0.05 per cent, respectively: all three… [Read More…]
Manager selection in multi-sector fixed income
Multi-sector fixed income strategies are looking increasingly attractive as investors grapple with the implications of the global interest rate landscape. Manager selection is not so easy. A client paper by global manager search and research firm bfinance, titled ‘Multi-Sector Fixed Income: Back in Focus’, details the complexity of the asset sub-class mix, even with the… [Read More…]
Salt investor weather report finds clients more worried about climate than houses
Investors are now more interested in climate change than mortgage rates, according to a new Salt Funds Management paper, as clients increasingly push for action on sustainability. “It wasn’t that long ago that the first question after nearly every client presentation was on the outlook for mortgage interest rates; now it’s almost universally questioning what… [Read More…]
ACC tops up investment committee with ex fund managers
Veterans of the NZ fund management industry, Paul Richardson, and Amanda Smith have joined the investment committee of the $50 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) fund. Richardson, Mint Asset Management chief investment officer until 2017, and Smith, who served as head of equities for ANZ Investments among other senior roles, come to the ACC investment… [Read More…]
Zero news is good news as Mercer, BT Funds make carbon calls
Mercer NZ has added its weight to the net-zero fund management movement in a pledge that could see carbon emissions across the group’s $10 billion portfolio cut almost in half by 2030. In a release last week, Mercer says the NZ multi-manager is targeting “net-zero absolute carbon emissions” for its funds by 2050, following similar… [Read More…]
Big investors at tipping point for impact
Just as ESG investing has largely won its battle to convince investors returns don’t suffer, so too is impact investing making progress to the same end. Impact has become institutionalised. According to some of the world’s largest practitioners in the impact investing space, including the US$450 billion CalPERS public pension fund, impact funds are starting… [Read More…]
Millionaires factory reopens in NZ with AMP Capital buy
Macquarie has emerged as the new owner of AMP Capital NZ, ending almost a year of uncertainty about the future of the funds management group and marking a return across the ditch for the so-called ‘Millionaires Factory’. The NZ investment operation was slated for sale as part of the parent AMP company plan to offload… [Read More…]
UPDATED: FMA cancels MIS licence for first time
In a regulatory first, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has removed the licence of a managed investment scheme (MIS). The tiny Fund Managers Otago (FMO) was stripped of its MIS licence today following a long investigation by the FMA that found it was “no longer capable of being a fund manager”. James Grieg, FMA director… [Read More…]
New adviser-run KiwiSaver hits town, Henaghan as CIO
A new financial advisory firm-run KiwiSaver scheme is set to launch with former AMP Capital multi-asset chief investment officer, Sean Henaghan, in charge of portfolio management. Henaghan, an ex-pat Kiwi stranded back home last year under COVID-19 border restrictions, returns to active duties as chief investment officer for Aurora Capital. Aurora Capital is the funds… [Read More…]