A year ago, the world was salivating at the prospect of current account deficits in the developing world. Now, it's terrified. It's a terrific investment opportunity.
Is the simplest smart beta approach just repackaging old investment ideas in higher fee structures?
What's a very good long-term return from equity markets? What's fair? Take for example, Sigma Pharmaceuticals.
The Academy Spring Seminar 2013 featured four sessions: Mock FOMC meeting; The state of economics/investing and of long-term expectations; A global perspective to bottom-up fundamental research, an Insurance sector case study; and, Investing in property.
Most target-date funds have two shortcomings that can be improved.
Conference 2013 facilitated debate on the markets, strategies and investing with particular focus on how to better construct portfolios for the whole of an investor's life so that they are more likely to achieve their goals.
Failing to find outperformance amongst active managers may be more a problem of measurement than a failure of active management.
This article contends that some arguments used to validate alternative indexing can be easily proven false.
The term "smart beta" is comparatively new but the idea of using alternative methods to construct investable indices has been around a long time. Does it actually work?
For what types of funds are performance fees warranted, and what is a reasonable performance fee structure?
The view is that advent of Big Data is a transformative event. But there are two arguments against the importance of Big Data to the economy and advancement of social welfare.
All of the Conference sessions are building blocks for this session which helps delegates determine the key takeouts from the jam-packed program and actions delegates should take when building investor portfolios.
To build a truly diversified portfolio, you need to consider alternative investments as a third dimension alongside equities and fixed income.
Multi-asset absolute return investing offers more certainty of achieving the right outcome for clients and portfolios which are more sustainable through an investor’s life stages.
A fundamental-based approach to equity index investing can be a powerful way to reduce risk and improve performance over the investment lifecycle.
Top performing shares often display a high ROE, while poor performing shares display the reverse - making ROE a superior valuation input to PE ratios.
Australians have sought offshore diversification for years. The logical extension is to think more deeply about how to make offshore exposures complement local ones.
Agricultural equities is the 'third leg' of the global natural resources sector, joining energy and mining.
Real return funds with their more dynamic and go-anywhere structures are designed to be able to navigate through difficult and normal times. Can they really deliver?
If you're making investments you can't sell for 10 years, how do you go about selecting them? What lessons can be learned from history?
Simplifications taken in building Australian equity strategies may result in a portfolio that doesn't achieve what it's been designed to do, particularly in relation to income and volatility.
Allocating to countries with net wealth rather than net debt can lead to superior portfolio outcomes.
Under the lifecycle investing approach, real return outcomes are the most crucial measure of investment outcomes. But managing real return risk involves thinking differently about what risk really means in portfolios.
For most, human capital is the most important source of financial capital and consumption through life. Nurturing, managing and protecting it is of paramount importance.
The world is going through a period of demographic shift that is without parallel in history - with six investment sectors advantaged.
At a practical level, how can we manage the risk of a client not maintaining their desired standard of living in retirement because they have lived longer than expected?
The rule of thumb 4% pa safe withdrawal rate has proven fairly robust in ensuring most retirees don't run out of money, but it is coming under pressure in the current environment.
Managing sequencing risk - the risk of poor or negative returns near or around retirement age when a portfolio is at its largest and most vulnerable - is a critical component of lifecycle investing.
Is the strong performance of trend-following strategies a statistical fluke of the last few decades or a more robust phenomenon over a wide range of economic conditions?
Yield hungry investors would do well to take stock of their real investment objectives before making the headlong plunge into rapidly appreciating high yielding stocks and bonds.
Today's younger generation will become tomorrow's older generation. This predictability makes demographic shifts the single most powerful investment force of our time.
In constructing a portfolio to help clients meet their retirement goals, practitioners need to factor in the three most significant risks. A logical, valuation-based approach can help.
Baby boomer retirees need an investment approach that delivers the income they need and maintains the ability to meet their other objectives too.
As investors move into decumulation, infrastructure can make a meaningful contribution to portfolios.
The traditional balanced fund for retirement investing resulted in a GFC return of -27%. It's time to put in place a new approach to plan for THE future as opposed to A future.
Australian investors can get better returns and increase the transparency of the companies they invest in, by including unlisted equity in portfolios.
Traditional unit trust structures can be disadvantageous to clients seeking higher income. New options better manage this from both an investment and structure perspective.
To fill the income void, investors need not look much further than Australia's liquid and ever-growing bond market which, unlike the majority of the developed world, still offers positive real rates.
Lifecycle investing differs from more traditional approaches to financial planning in a number of important ways - but it is not without its challenges.
Like people, economies and markets have lifecycles. This global macro economic, geopolitical and market scene setter looks at where we are in the macro lifecycle and implications for portfolios.
There will be a significant focus by investors in the future to address the mismatch between their risk profile and the risk level of their portfolios.
Lifecycle investing considers the whole of a person's life to ensure acceptable standards of living are achieved consistently. It differs from more traditional approaches to financial planning in a number of important ways.
Are investors better off taking higher dividend yields offered on stocks than investing in a new breed ASX-listed hybrid?
Big event risk is less important today than back in 2008 and 2009, when investing was all about whether the world was going to melt down. It's now important to focus on the micro.
Is it more important for a fund manager to have strong investment team stability, or to have some turnover of investment team staff to allow for new ideas?
Napoleon famously wanted his generals to be lucky. But in funds management, skill is more dependable. Batting average gives some good insights.
Symposium facilitated debate on the three pillars of portfolio construction – markets, strategies and investing - to help delegates build better quality portfolios. This CPD Quiz is for delegates to complete, to receive Structured CPD Hours.
Some lament the end of the mining boom - but resources company dividends payout ratios may now rise.
Symposium facilitates debate on the three pillars of portfolio construction – markets, strategies and investing. Established in 2011, it is THE New Zealand investment conference of the year.
Clients who buy insurance accept they may never see any benefit. Annuities offer more value per dollar spent than common general insurance products.
The key takeouts and actions to take when building investor portfolios.
Property’s attractive characteristic as an asset class is that it is able to deliver relatively stable revenue streams, with a growth profile in line with inflation. This presentation and paper discuss listed property in the context of the New Zealand market and give some perspective on the sector’s track record over the last cycle.
A changing Equity Risk Premium has implications beyond considering allocations to equities and bonds. This presentation and paper consider the factors that might drive a change in the Equity Risk Premium and ask - If elevated ERPs fall, which sectors and stocks might benefit the most? What implications might that have for investing?
For nearly 30 years bond yields globally have fallen, generating significantly positive returns to investors - but with yields near record lows and global growth improving, this is unlikely to continue. This presentation and paper explore the development of the NZ fixed income market and consider ways for investors to better protect themselves against the growing risks.
Throughout Symposium 2013, PortfolioConstruction Forum Publisher and Symposium Moderator, Graham Rich, presented Video Thought Pieces in which leading global investment experts shared their thoughts on investment challenges. This video featured a panel of experts debating the opportunities and possibilities created by the aging population via the resulting seismic shift in health care, jobs, education, housing, transportation, technology, travel, consumer products and entertainment.
Is it possible to reduce emerging markets’ volatility without sacrificing return potential? This paper and presentation show that a portfolio with emerging stocks, bonds and currencies managed in an active, unconstrained and integrated strategy can capture a greater set of opportunities to seek the high returns associated with EM growth, with better risk management potential.
The low yield world has focused investors on the costs of investing, while changing regulation is leading to greater alignment between portfolio choices and risk-return profiles. Together these factors are transforming the use of active management, indexing and the blending of investment styles. This paper and presentation highlight the results of a survey of various approaches to blending active and index funds in portfolios.
It is time for investors to reorient their thinking about bond allocations and the investment strategies that drive them. In this environment, bond investors will need to adapt if they hope to prosper.
ETFs have grown substantially in size, range, complexity and popularity in recent years. This presentation and paper provide the key issues and portfolio strategy considerations relating to ETFs that can form part of the client conversation. These considerations are not often discussed but should influence whether and how ETFs may be used by clients relative to alternative structures.
Many of the conventional approaches to post-retirement portfolio construction have not been scrutinised adequately in terms of possible outcomes for retirees adopting these approaches. This paper and presentation assess the possible outcomes of using these approaches in meeting income objectives and examines how the advice process can evolve to better address specific objectives by adopting a more holistic approach to portfolio construction.
Building a better global equity portfolio requires a new structure that incorporates both high-growth/higher expected-return elements (emerging markets and small cap, for example) and a complementary low volatility component. This paper and presentation explain why low-volatility equities make sense and provides an overview of the types of strategies available.
This presentation was preparation for the interactive workshop later in the program, looking at the fundamental principles behind diversification, the critical role of correlation in getting diversification benefits, and how practically to consider the benefits of diversification when designing portfolios.
Managed funds which commingle different tax rate investors may become dinosaurs unless managers develop funds tailored to a single tax class.
What is an appropriate track record for a fund before it should be used?
Three key themes came out of Zenith's latest review of the global equity long-only funds sector.