The just-released draft report of Australia’s Productivity Commission into superannuation, as critical as it is about the system, at least has a silver lining with respect to fees. Unlike APRA’s public statements in the past, the Commission has made 38 references to “net returns” and only three references to “low cost”. Maybe we have turned… [Read More…]
Investment News
BlackRock’s Aladdin into new stratosphere in Australasia
BlackRock’s Aladdin information and analytics platform, by far the biggest such service in the investment world, has taken on a new and important position in Australia. Our two largest fiduciary funds, AustralianSuper and the Future Fund, are about to sign up, which may well double the platform’s reach in this region. Aussie Super has, actually,… [Read More…]
Getting real: why listed infrastructure is now good value
Listed infrastructure is back in the buy zone after experiencing one of its worst quarters on record over the three months to March this year, according to AMP Capital’s Giuseppe Corona. The London-based Corona, AMP Capital head of global listed infrastructure, said the asset class was richly-priced at the beginning of 2018. “But the last… [Read More…]
Bank probe findings could be months away
Results from the regulatory Royal Commission-lite enquiry into the NZ banking sector could take months to emerge. According to a Financial Markets Authority (FMA) spokesperson, the regulatory bank information-gathering exercise – triggered in response to a horror-show performance at the Australian Royal Commission (RC) into financial services in April – would take some time to… [Read More…]
Cryptos, robos face regulatory fire
UK and US regulators fired respective warning shots last week at fintech darlings robo-advice and crypto-currency. In its first review of the UK online advice sector published last week, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found serious flaws in “disclosures and suitability processes” of 10 targeted firms. The FCA examined seven automated online discretionary investment management… [Read More…]
Bumper year sees global flows nudge $2tn; why fund parents must be stewards
The global managed funds industry reaped the largest harvest of inflows in a decade last year, according to a new Morningstar report, with passive vehicles the major beneficiary. Overall net flows into “global open-end funds and exchange-traded products” hit almost US$2 trillion during 2017, more than double the US$835 billion recorded the previous year, the… [Read More…]
Smartshares, AMP fall in difficult first quarter for KiwiSaver
Both AMP and the NZX-owned Smartshares KiwiSaver schemes slipped backwards in the first quarter of 2018, according to the latest data from Australian research house, Strategic Insight (SI). In a tough three-month stretch for most KiwiSaver providers, AMP and Smartshares saw respective funds under management (FUM) drop by 0.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent,… [Read More…]
Kerr Neilson’s quite interesting facts about investing
One of the reasons Kerr Neilson has been a long-run hit with investors is that he is a great communicator. Not so much as an entertainer – there tend not to be too many jokes – but in his ability to awaken his audience to little-known facts to prove a point. In much the same… [Read More…]
Global smart-set max out on factors
The ‘smart beta’ growth trend eased slightly over the last year with just a 2 per cent uptick in adoption of the factor-based strategies among global institutional investors, a new survey reveals. However, the survey by index provider FTSE Russell found of the 52 per cent of asset owners currently smart-beta-less about half were considering… [Read More…]
Milltrust examines launch of Australasian agribusiness REIT
Milltrust Agricultural Investments (MAI), an affiliate of the international Milltrust funds management firm, is scoping out the possibility of launching an Australian-REIT to house Australian and New Zealand farm assets. MAI already manages diversified farmland portfolios in Australasia. The REIT structure would use the existing investment process and networks of the group to deploy further… [Read More…]