Jason Lindsay, has shifted from a portfolio manager role at the $40 billion Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) fund to Forsyth Barr.
Lindsay, who managed the ACC Australasian infrastructure portfolio for the last six years, will join Craig Alexander as co-head of the Forsyth Barr funds management division.
Forsyth Barr holds about $300 million in its range of managed funds, including about $125 million sourced from the Summer KiwiSaver scheme.
In a statement, Forsyth Barr said: “The timing of this appointment reflects Forsyth Barr’s views regarding opportunities in the broader market.
“Jason’s appointment will help to ensure continuing high quality investment performance, as well as helping to further grow funds under management.”
Most NZ stock broking houses also dabble in managed funds including Craigs (QuayStreet) and Jarden (via its majority shareholding of Harbour Asset Management).
Prior to his ACC role, Lindsay was head of institutional research at FNZC (now Jarden) and two-times winner of the INFINZ analyst of the year award.
Elsewhere, former executive director of the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC), David Kneebone, has emerged as favourite to take on the now-vacant Retirement Commissioner role.
Kneebone is currently general manager of the Hong Kong Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC) but will end his almost six-year stint there late in December this year.
IFEC performs a similar role in Hong Kong to the CFFC, which provides a range of financial education services (including the Sorted website) under the purview of the Retirement Commissioner.
Previous Retirement Commissioner, Diane Maxwell, finished a six-year term in the plumb government job this June – although her last few months were marred by bullying accusations from former staff members.
Maxwell was stood down last year but was later cleared of bullying charges before serving out her final weeks as Retirement Commissioner.
Peter Cordtz, CFFC general manager community, stepped up as interim Retirement Commissioner following Maxwell’s exit.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Minister, Kris Faafoi, said the Retirement Commissioner appointment was “still under consideration”.
Maxwell earned between $320,000 and $330,000 as Retirement Commissioner over the 12 months to June 30 last year, according to the latest CFFC annual report.
Meanwhile, Wellington-based financial training organisation, Maxima, has launched two new performance attribution and risk management courses targeting “all people involved in looking after investments for wholesale and retail funds”.
The just-released modules, which offer two continuing professional development (CPD) apiece, are designed to help investment specialists understand what drives portfolio returns and “articulate and explain that performance to their clients in relatively simple terms”.
Maxima is a joint venture between Dynamique and Compliance Plus to offer financial education and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance services to the investment industry in the UK and NZ.
Guy Dobson, Dynamique founder, said there has been a huge uptick in demand for performance attribution training “across all asset classes”.
Dobson said Dynamique was also experiencing increasing interest from NZ funds, particularly large entities, in the StatPro performance attribution and analytics system.
Dynamique inked a deal in 2017 with the UK-headquartered StatPro to market its cloud-based Revolution service in NZ.
Also last week Heritage Trustees formally adopted the brand of its new Australian owner, Sargon.
Now known as Sargon NZ, the company has secured three supervisory clients so far: Kernel Weatlh; Kōura Wealth; and, Christian Savings.
Sargon co-founder, Phillip Kingston, said in a release that while the rebranding was “a somewhat technical change, it’s an important milestone for our team and clients as we seek to further expand our presence in New Zealand, leveraging what the Heritage team started here, more than 20 years ago”.