As we approach the second half of 2024, I’d like to share an update on developments within the business as well as some insights from our extended network.
Enhancing Mosaic: Providing you with easy access to more information
One of our key business priorities is to provide you with relevant and reliable data (super and non-super), tools and resources to support your ongoing investment decisions and recommendations to clients. That’s why we’re continually investing in our flagship research and portfolio insights platform, Zenith Mosaic, to deliver new features and functionality that better support your easy access to fund information that is important to you and add value to the advice process.
Our latest enhancement is a new ‘visualisation’ feature that allows you to export your performance, risk and underlying exposure comparison metrics directly to PowerPoint. Given the flexibility of PowerPoint, you can now seamlessly incorporate these insights into your reports or presentations and then easily share those insights with clients and colleagues.
This feature is available to all Mosaic users, noting that underlying exposure comparison metrics are only available if your subscription includes Portfolio Builder. If you’d like to upgrade your subscription, please contact our Sales team.
Strengthening our team to support our clients
As you may already be aware, we’re pleased to have recently welcomed Ben Davis back to Zenith as a Senior Investment Consultant. Ben is a familiar face to many of you, as he was a respected leader and a key member of our research, consulting and product teams for nearly 20 years. After taking a year off to pursue personal interests, Ben has returned to Zenith with a renewed passion for investing and a desire to help our clients achieve their goals.
Ben will be the primary consultant for a number of our customised managed account clients, as well as providing valuable support for our Portfolio Solutions team, from his extensive knowledge and network across our market. He will also be involved in the ongoing development and evolution of our managed account offering to advisers and their clients, which continues to see strong growth.
Managed accounts - expanding our platform reach to provide advisers with more choice
In July, we’ll launch the Zenith Essentials portfolios on Expand, Insignia’s newest platform offering and the 10th platform to host our managed account portfolios. This means we can now offer advisers more choice and flexibility in accessing our portfolios, as well as cater to the different fee budgets and client risk profiles.
Our Essentials portfolios are designed to provide a cost-effective and diversified exposure to a range of asset classes, using a combination of active and passive strategies. They’re suitable for clients who are looking for a simple and efficient solution to meet their long-term investment objectives.
If you’re interested in learning more about our Essentials portfolios or any of our other portfolio solutions, please visit our website or contact our Sales team for more information.
Encouraging, gradual growth in retirement income offerings for clients
Whilst it’s taken a little longer than we hoped it might, we’ve been encouraged to see the expansion of retirement income products coming to market. These products (and attached services) are becoming more popular and relevant as people live longer and face more uncertainty in their retirement planning.
We’re proud to offer our specialist research capabilities to support the consideration of these products through our group partner Chant West, as they have extensive experience and expertise in not just assessing super and pension fund offerings, but also assessing dedicated longevity products for advisers and their clients. We believe that these products can potentially offer significant value and peace of mind to your clients who are approaching or already in retirement. If you’d like more information on our super and pension research and ratings, please reach out to our Sales team.
Celebrating Super
While we’re talking about all things super and pension funds, Chant West recently hosted their annual Super Fund Awards to recognise and celebrate excellence in the super industry. This year’s theme, ‘Retirement Takes Centre Stage’, emphasised the growing importance of retirement preparedness and member outcomes.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists across 13 categories, showcasing outstanding achievements in investments, member services, advice and insurance. I note especially the winners in the following categories, which reflect our group’s core areas of focus and differentiation:
- Best Fund: Investments – Aware Super
- Best Fund: Lifetime Product – AMP MyNorth Lifetime
- Best Fund: Member Services – Cbus
- Best Fund: Advice Services – Australian Retirement Trust - Super Savings
- Super Fund of the Year – Aware Super
View the full list of winners here.
Looking ahead
As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we’re mindful of the uncertainties and challenges that still lie ahead for the global economy, financial markets and regulators and we continue to advocate for the importance of ongoing, quality advice to help investors navigate these uncertainties.
Inflationary pressures, monetary policy shifts, Government elections and geopolitical tensions are some of the factors that we’re closely monitoring and assessing through our highly experienced research, portfolio solutions and asset allocation teams.
Through our global network and our local expertise, we’re committed to providing you with timely, relevant insights and guidance to help you assess and manage these complex and dynamic conditions for your clients and your business.
Kind regards,
Jason Huddy
Managing Director
