Is it still appropriate to say Happy New Year in February? Given the challenges we experienced in 2020, I think it’s acceptable and I genuinely hope you feel refreshed after a well-deserved break over the festive season and enjoy a more settled year this year. From a business perspective, we’re anticipating another busy and productive year with a pipeline of new tools and services to better support our clients as they adapt to the ever-changing competitive and investment market environment.
Business update
The transition to Mosaic as our primary research and portfolio insights platform is nearing completion, with a range of new features available to subscribers soon. One key element of these enhancements is the launch of Portfolio Builder, which will deliver portfolio reporting and analysis including access to underlying holdings exposures in equities, REITs and fixed income for individual funds and constructed portfolios. As part of these enhancements, we’ll also decommission our original research platform, the Adviser Portal, without losing any of your favourite functionality, but we’ll share more detail with you about these changes and new tools overing coming weeks.
In Chant West news, we appointed a new Head of Institutional Sales, Don Sillar, to the business. Don has a wealth of experience in financial services in both the institutional and retail sectors including distribution, product management, client management and operations. We’re really pleased we’ve been able to attract such a senior, experienced professional with Don’s strong understanding of our clients, their varying needs and the regulatory environment in which they operate.
Our Research team has once again risen to the challenge of commencing 2021’s manager reviews remotely, and I’m pleased to say the process has been seamless. It’s a testament to their strong team dynamic and culture, and their robust research process and methodology. The team has also been working to build a new ratings framework for index funds, as we’re seeing increased demand for a solution which caters for the specific nature of this category. The new framework will be in place by end of March so we look forward to sharing more detail with you closer to the roll-out.
What’s new?
- Chant West last week released its new Wrap Comparator dashboard, allowing users to compare key data such as platform fees and costs to assist in preparing the Member Outcomes Assessment, which is now a Government-mandated reporting requirement.
- On 15 February, our panel-style webinar will tackle the topic of ‘Responsible Investing: what does the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) mean for you?’. This discussion involves an impressive line-up of panellists: the adviser perspective from Paul Kearney - CEO and Founder of Kearney Group, the fund manager view from Richard Brandweiner - Pendal Australia CEO and Member of the ASFI Steering Committee, and Zenith’s own Dugald Higgins covering the research angle. I highly recommend you join us for this CPD-accredited event.
Pleasingly, the year ended with both client specific customised managed account portfolios and Zenith’s Elite Blends and Essentials portfolios recording strong returns for investors. The managed account structure was fully tested during the extreme highs and lows of investment markets in 2020, and the ability to rebalance and adjust client portfolios efficiently proved a godsend in firstly protecting investors’ capital and then fully participating in the strong market rebound.
As always, please get in touch with me directly or our Sales team if you have questions or would like more information on the above.
