Investment consulting firm, MyFiduciary, has joined the rebrand-trend with the unveiling of a new name last week.
The advisory firm, which entered a formal joint venture with IWIinvestor last year, is now known as Mapua Wealth.
Mapua means “prolific, bearing an abundance of fruit, productive”, according to the online Māori dictionary.
Tupu Angitu, the commercial arm of the Lake Taupō Forest Trust, took a 25 per cent stake in MyFiduciary last year, bringing the consultancy together with its IWIinvestor subsidiary.
IWIinvestor, the Māori-focused financial services specialist, hired MyFiduciary as investment consultant in 2019.
In a statement, Mapua board chair, Toni Kerr (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga), said: “Our mission is to help our clients create wellbeing and prosperity that lasts for generations. Our approach recognises the importance of long-term planning and investment strategies that can benefit current and future generations.”
The now combined Mapua group has approximately 75 clients, spanning “financial advice firms, charities, foundations, Māori and iwi organisations, KiwiSaver and pension providers, fund managers, and industry bodies” that collectively represent about $20 billion of assets, the release says.
Mapua has about $6 billion in model portfolios – either fully implemented or in a design capacity.
Meanwhile, Castle Point Funds co-founder, Richard Stubbs, has resurfaced at broker-based wealth management group, Forsyth Barr.
Stubbs is director institutional wealth management for the group, which boasts about $25 billion in assets under custody.
The firm acquired Hobson Wealth last year to overtake Craigs Investment Partners as the largest advisory network (by adviser numbers) in the country. Forsyth Barr has about 240 advisers operating under its licence, according to official data.
Perpetual Guardian bought Castle Point in June soon after the boutique lost a key institutional mandate with BNZ. The BNZ KiwiSaver and funds business joined the FirstCape conglomerate earlier this year – merging with Jarden, JBWere and Harbour Asset Management.
Harbour took over all BNZ Australasian asset management duties, seeing Mint, Nikko and Castle Point lose mandates.
In the wake of the Perpetual Guardian takeover, three of the four Castle Point founders have left the business. The former Tower Investments portfolio management team launched Castle Point in 2013.
Also last week, Simplicity signalled a lurch towards more active policy lobbying with the hire of high-profile economist, Shamubeel Eaqub.
Eaqub joins the $7 billion plus KiwiSaver and funds firm as chief economist and head of policy.
The well-known NZ economic commentator was a Simplicity director from June 2017 to August 2019.
He also brings along his recent research partner, Rosie Collins, to fill similar duties at Simplicity.
Dating back to 2015 the UK-based Collins has held various economic analytical roles with Unicef, the Reserve Bank of NZ, the International Energy Agency and Sense Partners.
Collins says on her website that she researches “wealth inequality, predatory debt, climate change and contemporary experiences of social connection”.
The two new staff members “will be focused on areas of economics and policy that are of interest to Simplicity in its role as a fund manager”, according to a release.
Elsewhere, global platform powerhouse, FNZ, has continued its C-suite makeover with the appointment of Jan Wohlschiess as group head of operations and delivery.
Wohlschiess comes to FNZ from the Barclays private bank where he was global chief operating officer.
Previously, Wohlschiess held several high-level roles at Deutsche Bank including chief operating officer and chief information officer.
At FNZ he has been charged with “ensuring the company continues to provide innovative and transformative solutions to its global customer base”.
The senior hire comes soon after a management shake-up for the Wellington-originated company that saw founder, Adrian Durham, step down as CEO to take on a board/special adviser role.
Durham stepped aside in favour of Blythe Masters, a co-founder of Motive Partners, the private equity firm that took a stake in FNZ several years ago.
Along with Masters, FNZ named Roman Regelman as group president and Stephen Daffron as strategic adviser.
All but two of the FNZ senior management team were appointed no earlier than 2021 with five of the 14 top executives assuming their roles this year.