It’s my pleasure to share with you my first column as Australian Managing Director and I’m looking forward to providing a business update each quarter, along with some key insights from within our broader global operations which I hope will be relevant to you and some of your business planning.
The start of 2024 has provided some positive rewards for investors and encouraging signs for our markets. However, as we know too well, there are still uncertainties and challenges ahead, especially in terms of stubborn inflation, monetary policy settings and ongoing geopolitical tensions. The headwinds pushing into the Chinese economy and the outcome of the US and UK elections later this year will leave their fingerprints on our economy and financial markets more broadly – further highlighting the ongoing importance to investors of experienced advice relationships and professionally managed portfolios.
While a soft landing remains the base case for us, we continue our vigilance in actively monitoring financial markets, data signals and fund manager actions and sharing these insights with our clients.
New functionality in Mosaic
Our most recent new feature releases within Zenith Mosaic are continuing to grow the capabilities of our flagship research and portfolio insights platform. Mosaic subscribers can now:
- view qualitative research reports for three prominent platforms: BT Panorama, AMP North and DASH, which provide comprehensive insights provided by our group partner and super specialist, Chant West
- review underlying exposures, enabling users to compare portfolios, investments or models in more detail, and
- benefit from clearer and more interactive investment visuals that chart investment outcomes across a number of variables relevant for advisers and your clients.
Log-in to explore these new features or contact our Sales team to arrange an online demonstration including trial access to the platform.
RIAA Conference
If you’re seeking professional development opportunities specific to responsible investing and sustainability, the upcoming Responsible Investment Association Australasia annual conference is a great professional development opportunity for advisers.
Our own Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment, Dugald Higgins, will be participating in an interesting panel session on the journey of incorporating responsible investment principles into the advice process. The panel looks at the need for clients to consider their long-term financial plans and not be distracted by short-term volatility, along with exploring the opportunities that lay ahead for sustainable investing more broadly.
More detailed information about the program is available here.
Working within AI
We share the commonly held view that AI is being quickly adopted, though still in its relatively early stages of rollout and therefore needs to be managed with cautious optimism. Being part of a global financial services data and technology business, we embarked a little while ago on our own AI journey, selectively deploying Microsoft Co-pilot (Microsoft’s answer to ChatGPT) to improve a number of our internal processes and explore use cases where we believe we can better service our clients. We’ve dedicated a specialist IT and digital team to this purpose and look forward to providing relevant updates to you as we continue down this path.
Congratulations to our Research team
We’ve recently been nominated for the Australian Wealth Management Awards as a finalist in the Investment Research Firm category, which is a fantastic acknowledgement of our market-leading research capability. While it’s the first time this awards event has been held, we’re very fortunate to have been acknowledged through a number of industry awards over recent years, many seeking feedback from fund managers and advisers to arrive at their award outcomes. The quality and depth of our research and our highly experienced internal research team are frequently highlighted as key drivers of these award nominations, which is a credit to the long-standing expertise and capabilities of our team.
Kind regards,
Jason Huddy
Managing Director
