Investment News

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) will carry out the first independent investment review of the circa $50 billion Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), the government revealed last week, in a process first put in train well over a year ago. Newly appointed ACC Minister Andrew Bayly said the investment review was one of two “commissioned” by the… [Read More…]

Australia-based global equities manager, GCQ, has gone live with a wholesale NZ portfolio investment entity (PIE) in an inaugural fund-hosting win for Adminis. The GCQ invests into the underlying concentrated international shares strategy launched by the Australian manager in 2022. GCQ, standing for ‘global concentrated quality’ – and not to be confused with the Florida-headquartered,… [Read More…]

When it formed in 2018, Financial Advice NZ (FANZ) marked yet another attempt to unify the various tribes in an historically factional industry. And despite some scepticism at the time, the coalition of investment, insurance and mortgage advisers has held over a transformative seven-year period for the sector. FANZ chief, Nick Hakes, said the three… [Read More…]

Kernel Wealth has bolstered its senior ranks as the digital-only index fund and KiwiSaver provider closes in on $2 billion in assets under management after almost six years in operation. The Auckland-headquartered Kernel named Andy Havill and Helen Skinner last week as respective heads of marketing and distribution/sustainability to bring its staff count up to… [Read More…]

Political meddling in US fund manager decisions continued apace last week after attorneys general of 17 states signed a letter slamming BlackRock and five other firms over poor disclosure and “misrepresentations” of Chinese investments. In the letter sent to BlackRock, State Street, Invesco, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, the state legal chiefs allege the… [Read More…]

Global pension funds have ratcheted up exposure to alternatives while developing more nuanced strategies around the previous catch-all asset designation. According to the just-published Thinking Ahead Institute (TAI) survey of the sector, the largest global pension investors increased allocations to alternative assets from 13 per cent in 2004 to about 20 per cent by the… [Read More…]

Flows into green-flavoured investment funds are highly sensitive to climate change media coverage trends, according to a new academic study. The paper released by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) this month found “heightening climate news results in significantly larger capital inflows into green funds versus their non-green counterparts”. In an analysis that also compared… [Read More…]

In a surprise role-reversal, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) is encouraging advisory firms to ease back on over-zealous compliance practices that could be stifling the sector. FMA chief, Samantha Barrass, told a Financial Services Council (FSC) briefing last week that the regulator’s “monitoring of financial advice providers has continued to evolve, focusing on what compliance… [Read More…]

KiwiSaver provider, Aurora Capital, has made a leadership change with two former Fisher Fund executives joining the fast-growing scheme while incumbent general manager, Ian Coates, departs. Sharon Mackay and Marcus Wild – respectively, Aurora chief executive officer and chief client officer – were culled from Fisher last July under a C-suite clean-out engineered by new… [Read More…]

ASB solidified its number two ranking in the KiwiSaver market by the end of last year, pulling ahead of the Fisher Funds collective while closing the gap on market leader, ANZ. The latest quarterly Morningstar KiwiSaver report shows the single ASB scheme held more than $18.3 billion as at December 31 compared to a little… [Read More…]