After more than two decades of working with financial advisers through our research and portfolio consulting service, we sit in a privileged position where we have the opportunity to observe key trends and changes across the broader industry. Our Portfolio Solutions team recently concluded quarterly Investment Committee meetings across our national client base and through their observations and direct feedback from advisers, we’re seeing some recurring themes.
· A shift in the needs of the end client, particularly around managing the transfer of inter-generational wealth and a growing need for specialised retirement planning services. The emphasis on meeting diverse retirement planning needs with more innovative product solutions is consistent with what we see in the super sector through our super research, data and insights business, Chant West. It’s fair to say that the super sector has some work to do in terms of innovation in this space and needs to more closely engage with advisers for the best interests of their retiring members.
· Growth opportunities and growing pains in tandem, in terms of the opportunity to bring more advisers into the practice to serve their growing number of clients. Several practices spoke of their advisers being near maximum capacity in terms of their client management capability and the need to find more advisers to support practice growth and to support existing advisers with efficiency gains that help them serve more clients.
· Pressure on fees, which is naturally driving a focus on finding ways to reduce the cost to serve clients. We believe this will require an increased dependency on technology and tools that allow each practice to efficiently scale their service offering.
’Growth’ is also a recurring theme though it means different things to different practices. We remain fully committed to our long history of supporting the delivery of personal advice to investors and enabling advisers to evolve their business to support an expanding client base.
Connecting with our clients
It’s always great to meet with clients and the broader adviser community in person. We recently participated in Hannemann & Brown’s Wealth Symposium in WA, where our Head of Portfolio Solutions Steven Tang shared his views on the future prosperity for equity markets, and how diversification is more crucial than ever before in making portfolios resilient in the face of market volatility and geo-political risks.
We also hosted an adviser update in Brisbane, providing attendees with our economic and markets perspective and an overview of how that’s impacting portfolios over the short and long term. Both events were great opportunities to connect with our clients and learn from them how we can better contribute important content to support their ongoing engagement with clients.
Supporting clients with timely market insights
Our research and portfolio solutions teams sit at the core of our business and produce a wealth of insights to inform our clients and support your advice delivery.
As our investment research team conduct their annual program of sector reviews, we’re afforded deep insights into market trends and changes. The growing global popularity of private assets is one of those trends. Some of the emerging themes across this sector include:
· the evolution of wraps’/master trusts’ capability to support private assets in a managed account format is fuelling the level of traction in this sector
· tapping into the capabilities of global private equity and debt managers is currently a major focus for the wealth segment - filtering the good from the not-so-good has perhaps never been more important
· a significant growth and variability in the capabilities of managers to manage illiquid strategies in an open-ended structure, and
· some general frustration with the performance of public bond and credit markets, particularly through 2022.
Off the back of recent market volatility, we produced a special edition of our Let’s Talk Markets podcast explaining the market turmoil in the US and Japan, its causes, and how to navigate subsequent discussions with your clients. The podcast is available in Mosaic or on Spotify. These podcasts are produced monthly, so I encourage you to listen to these short but interesting discussions about the challenging markets we’re operating within.
We also recently sat down with Andrew Canobi from Franklin Templeton to talk about finding income-generating assets in the fixed income sector and the important role this sector plays in portfolios. I encourage you to watch this timely interview.
Zenith Fund Awards
On 18 October, the Zenith research team will once again come together with more than 300 representatives from the funds management industry to acknowledge and celebrate excellence across more than 20 sectors and disciplines. In its 12th year, the awards aim to raise the standard of funds management in the industry for the ultimate benefit of the end investor, your clients. You can view the list of finalists here and we look forward to sharing the winners with you after the event.
This year, we’re proudly supporting Mission Australia as our chosen charity and the exceptional work they do helping Australians find safe and affordable housing, supporting disadvantaged children and families, empowering troubled young people and assisting those with mental illness and disabilities.
Wishing you all the best for the sprint towards the end of the calendar year, and all the hard work and celebrations that come with it.
Kind regards
Jason Huddy
Managing Director
