It’s with some excitement that I share on 31 March, funds under management in our managed account portfolios surpassed $4 billion. This is a significant milestone for the business and testimony to both the hard work of our team and the continued support of our clients as we work to deliver a premium managed account offering to the market. With the ongoing growth in popularity of managed accounts, the team is working on new portfolios to meet the needs of our expanding client base and I’m very optimistic about the continued growth of our managed accounts capability.
Chant West news
On 25 May, we’ll once again host the annual Chant West Super Fund of the Year awards in Sydney – their 10th annual awards celebrating the super sector. This is an important event for the industry as it acknowledges excellence in a variety of categories and is consistent with the awards theme this year, raising the bar. In recent times, the government and regulators have raised the bar for super funds with member outcomes assessments, heatmaps and the performance test. In response, Chant West has raised the bar on the standard required for a fund to receive its highest rating of 5 apples. This year’s awards will once again highlight those funds that keep raising the bar to drive better outcomes for their members.
The team has also introduced a new award this year, Best Fund: Responsible Investment, to recognise the increasing importance of ESG issues to super funds and their members, assessing how funds incorporate responsible investment (RI) considerations into their ‘core’ portfolios and leveraging the recently introduced RI classification we now assign funds as part of our overall assessment.
The list of award finalists in 10 of the 13 categories are available now.
And while we’re on the topic of super, Chant West’s Senior Investment Research Manager, Mano Mohankumar, and Associate Research Analyst, Jordan Davies, have written an interesting analysis of the impacts of covid-related switching that occurred when the pandemic first broke, and what this means in real terms for those fund members who didn’t get the timing right.
Getting more from Zenith’s sector reports
There’s a wealth of insight and analysis in our annual calendar of sector reports produced for each asset class and to help you easily access the highlights, we’re creating short podcasts for key sectors. In case you missed our first Inside the Sector podcast, the Australian smaller companies episode looked at why this dynamic and diverse asset class has enjoyed strong performance, where the opportunities are coming from and why it presents such rich opportunities for active managers (log-in into Mosaic to listen). Keep an eye out for the global listed infrastructure podcast over the coming weeks.
Building our asset allocation capability
With the current market conditions and anticipated volatility continuing into the calendar year, the value of experienced asset allocation input into portfolio decisions has never been more important. Our asset allocation capability, led by highly experienced wealth professional and Head of Asset Allocation, Damien Hennessy, continues to provide critical insights for our managed accounts and consulting team, informing strategic asset allocation decisions from a unique Australian perspective. If you’d like to hear the team’s views on the year ahead, I recommend taking a look at Damien’s latest video update, or please get in touch for an overview of our range of asset allocation services.
The benefits of meeting in-person
Over the last few months, our team has enjoyed meeting Australian-based managers face-to-face after such a long time operating in an online environment. While online meetings served us well during an extraordinary time, we’re reminded of the myriad of benefits of meeting investment teams face-to-face, such as better reading of body language, watching how a team interacts and engages, and getting a stronger understanding of team culture and working environment. Ultimately, being able to meet with managers in-person enhances our ability to build relationships with their teams and grows managers’ willingness and ability to be open and transparent in the way they engage. And this extra level of insight delivers a more rounded research offering for you, our clients.
Best wishes
David Wright
Chief Executive Officer
