Russell Investments has filled a senior asset consultant role left vacant by the departure of George Thomson for BNZ this August.
In a note to clients last week, Russell confirmed Guy Fisher, previously Aon Hewitt investment consultant, would step into the position as of next week.
Fisher, who officially ended an almost five-year career with Aon last Friday, would work with Russell’s asset consulting and implemented investing clients, according to the firm’s NZ chief, Alister van der Maas.
“Guy has a wealth of knowledge and experience in advice and relationship management and will be a very strong and complementary addition to our institutional team,” van der Maas said in a note to clients on Friday.
Before joining Aon in 2014, Fisher was a financial adviser with Milestone Financial Services for just over a year. Prior to Milestone, he was head of investments for ANZ Private Bank for close to seven-and-a-half years ending May 2012.
The Edinburgh-educated Fisher also served almost two years as head of NZX indices and data product development after arriving from the UK in 2003.
He will be based in the Wellington region.
In NZ Aon provides “investment advice to a wide range of organisations including superannuation funds, wealth managers, charitable trusts, community trusts, church groups and iwi”, the group’s website says.
Under Fisher’s watch, Aon won the consulting gig at the $200 million Community Trust of Southland.
“Aon Hewitt is one of the largest investment consultants in the world, with over US$4.6 trillion in assets under advice,” the website says. “Globally, we have over 600 colleagues, who serve over 2,200 investment consulting clients.”
In NZ, the Aon consulting team also includes Simon Ferry, who joined the firm as head of retirement and financial management in May last year after over three years with Mercer Hong Kong retirement leader.
Aon also manages a roughly $500 million KiwiSaver scheme – featuring a menu of underlying fund managers including Milford and Russell Investments.
Last week another Wellington-based investment consultant, Chris Di Leva, shipped out for new shores after a seven-year stint with Mercer.
Di Leva joins the $3 billion plus Wellington boutique Harbour Asset Management this week in a newly-created role of multi-asset specialist.
In a statement Harbour says Di Leva would “assume responsibility for multi asset portfolios and, over time, client relationships from Simon Pannett”.
“Simon will transition his focus exclusively to credit research strengthening the research underpinning the Harbour Income Fund,” the statement says.
While Harbour does not offer a multi-asset fund per se, the manager has been devising diversified investment strategies for clients over many years, a spokesperson for the manager said.
“The creation of the Multi-Asset Specialist role reflects Harbour’s commitment to this growing aspect of our business, driven by client demand following a strong track record in managing equities and fixed interest over almost a decade,” the statement says.
Di Leva, who joined Mercer in 2011, was responsible for developing multi-manager portfolios, tailoring dynamic asset allocation tilts and advising clients.
“He also led manager research in New Zealand for listed Australasian equity and property strategies,” Harbour says.
Last week the firm also launched a new property fund, headed by Harbour director and portfolio manager, Shane Solly.
The Harbour Real Estate Investment Fund can invest in a wide range of real estate-related stocks as well as traditional listed property securities.
According to Harbour, the new fund’s ambit could include “property management, sea ports, toll roads, airports, cell-phone towers, aged care & retirement villages, waste management facilities and data centres industries”.