Investment News

Smart-beta exchange-traded products (ETPs) are gaining an increasing share of the global market, a new Morningstar report shows. The Morningstar study says smart-beta – or ‘strategic-beta’ in the research house’s preferred parlance – ETPs grew at a faster pace than products linked to more strait-laced benchmarks. “Strategic-beta ETPs are making inroads against their peers that… [Read More…]

Australian banks were unlikely to lop off their wealth management arms despite returns that haven’t reached pre-purchase hype, according to a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) analysis. The RBA report, published in its September quarter ‘Bulletin’, says the Australian banks’ expensive wealth management buyouts, which began in earnest during the late 1990s, “have not lived… [Read More…]

As the easy money era enters its “final innings” investors must adjust their game, Will Low, Nikko Asset Management head of global equities, told a New Zealand audience last week. And rather than relying on defensive shots Low said share investors need to get on the front foot with a strategic, attacking range of strokes…. [Read More…]

NAB Asset Servicing’s 22-year reign as Australia’s largest custodian has come to an end, according to the official market share figures to be published by the Australian Custodial Services Association within the next day or two. The new top of the charts and, for a long time, the largest securities servicing firm in the superannuation… [Read More…]

Investors better-attuned to physiological signals could have the edge over their intellectually-based rivals, a new scientific study suggests. According to the study recently published in Nature magazine, “interoceptive ability” – or awareness of their body’s physiological state – was a strong predictor of market traders “relative profitability, and strikingly, how long they survived in the… [Read More…]

John Peterson, former fund manager and asset consultant, has presented a forceful case to the Productivity Commission inquiry into the efficiency of the superannuation system backing the argument that an extreme focus on costs is to the detriment of super fund members. MySuper comes in for a particular serve. The director of the Peterson Research… [Read More…]

The Auckland High Court has set aside four weeks to hear the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) take on Milford Asset Management portfolio manager, Mark Warminger. Slated for a 10am start next Monday (September 26), the Warminger trial will be a landmark event for both the NZ funds industry and the regulator, which is pursuing a… [Read More…]

The recently-created $200 million Maritime Retirement Superannuation (MRS) scheme has confirmed several manager appointments as it beds down the merger of the two predecessor entities. David Young, MRS board of trustees chair, said the scheme had named Devon Funds Management as NZ equities manager. Devon along with AMP Capital (via underlying manager Schroders) would also… [Read More…]

Forsyth Barr has joined fellow stockbroking firm, Craigs Investment Partners in launching a rebranded KiwiSaver scheme. The freshly-named Summer KiwiSaver features high-profile financial adviser, Martin Hawes, as chair of the investment committee. According to the Summer KiwiSaver product disclosure statement (PDS), the investment committee “provides advice to us on the investment mix for the Summer… [Read More…]