We partner with financial advisers to deliver investment research and managed account solutions for investors.

The COVID pandemic has imposed a huge cost on the world in both human and economic terms. The way we spend our work and leisure time has been forced to undergo a radical shift in a compressed timeframe. With many companies demonstrating they can operate at, or near, capacity with most employees working from home, will there be a full return to the office? Will office markets be fundamentally disrupted? And how should investors react?

Over the last decade, there have been two pivotal trends in financial markets: the increase in index-based investing (mainly through ETFs) and the rise of responsible investing. While traditionally most ESG-centric strategies have been actively managed, index-based strategies are rapidly growing in number, size and complexity. With responsible investing being so highly subjective, can this be captured through an index-based approach such as an ETF rather than employing active management?

Advisers using managed accounts do so for the many benefits this structure provides to their clients and their broader business. In the process of establishing their suite of managed accounts though, advisers must also understand the nuances that exist in how fees are structured and disclosed to ensure their clients fully understand them. Unfortunately, the inconsistent application of ASIC’s fee guidelines adds a layer of confusion that makes comparing managed account portfolio options more challenging than it should be in the market today.

Given its origin, the first countries to be affected by COVID-19 were those in emerging markets, particularly those within Asia. However, some countries have been more successful than others in containing the spread of the virus and as expected, there’s a direct correlation between a country’s success with managing COVID-19 and its equity market performance.