Investment News

Government could include a PIE surprise in a planned August ‘omnibus’ tax bill, according to DLA Piper partner, David Johnston. Johnston told a DLA Piper industry gathering last week that officials were mulling changes to the portfolio investment entity (PIE) tax settings that would be included along with any KiwiSaver amendments in the August legislation…. [Read More…]

Pioneering NZ superannuation and investments legal specialist, Alasdair McBeth, has stepped down as DLA Piper partner after more than 45 years in the Wellington-based practice. McBeth joined what was then known as Phillips Shayle George in 1978 as a law clerk, rising to partner ranks the following decade while the business itself morphed through various… [Read More…]

Auckland-headquartered financial advisory business, Become Wealth, has consolidated its investment administration on the Consilium wrap platform after shifting about $65 million from rival services this month. Following the move, largely from the ANZ OneAnswer platform, Become – previously known as Milestone Direct – has more than $90 million with Consilium across its wrap, Evidential funds… [Read More…]

The Retirement Commission has cast doubt on a signal National pre-election policy after backing the current one-KiwiSaver-per-member regime. In a KiwiSaver review published last week, the Retirement Commission urged the government to retain the successful, simple single-scheme approach in line with OECD recommendations. The report notes that jurisdictions featuring multi-scheme membership of employment-based savings programs… [Read More…]

In the final installment of his tokenisation trilogy, NZ fintech leader, Binu Paul, outlines how businesses can move from blockchain dreams to real-life solutions…   Blockchain technology has often been labelled as a ‘solution looking for a problem’. Despite such scepticism, however, the potential of blockchain-based asset tokenisation to transform the financial services sector remains… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has moved to rein-in retail derivative products and ease conduct-licensing concerns for smaller financial firms during a busy week for the regulator. Retail bets on derivative products such as contracts-for-difference (CFDs) would face tight leverage constraints and tough new suitability rules under the FMA proposals. Currently, licensed retail derivative operators… [Read More…]

Passive investing has bloated the value and volatility of already overweight companies while possibly contributing to flat economic performance, according to a just-released academic paper. The study titled ‘Passive Investing and the Rise of Mega-Firms’ found flows to US S&P500 index exchange-traded funds over 25 years to the end of 2020 skewed returns and risk… [Read More…]

Financial advisers stand to reap significant operational efficiencies from the looming ‘open-banking’ upgrade, a new study by specialist technology firm, Akahu, suggests. The Akahu report says the government-backed move to encourage open-banking providers in NZ will flow beyond account transfers, lending or payments into wider financial services including advice. In particular, the paper says streamlining… [Read More…]

Perpetual Guardian (PG) is set to emerge with a broader retail fund offering after its surprise purchase of the slimmed-downed Castle Point boutique last week. Patrick Gamble, PG chief, said the estate planning specialist would likely repackage some of its in-house wholesale and discretionary investment management service (DIMS) strategies as retail funds under its newly… [Read More…]

Fisher Funds is staffing up as the approximately $25 billion investment manager continues to fold the Kiwi Wealth business into the mixture. The Takapuna-based firm, now headed by Simon Power, is on the hunt for three newly created senior general manager roles covering the respective divisions of KiwiSaver, managed funds and business development. “Like all… [Read More…]