The Ascent of ANZ

ANZ Funds Management, in conjunction with Frank Russell, are offering a sophisticated, mix 'n match balanced fund to New Zealand investors.

Wednesday, October 28th 1998, 12:00AM

ANZ Funds Management has brought to New Zealand the Ascent Investment Programme that is probably best described as a customised balanced fund.
Ascent, which is done in conjunction with highly-regarded international advisory company Frank Russell, is labeled as "an innovative multi-manager programme."
In essence it is two funds, The Gateway World Shares fund, Gateway World Bond fund which can be mixed and matched in any proportions to create the ideal portfolio for an investor.
Frank Russell uses a multi-asset, multi-style, multi-manager process to select the managers for the funds. The idea is that by selecting the best mix of managers the funds will consistently provide excess returns, with low risk.

The managers are selected through Frank Russell's rigorous worldwide research programme which monitors 2200 fund managers. Of that 2200, 300 are of primary interest to Frank Russell and 11 of those (covering five asset classes) have been chosen for the Ascent programme.
Frank Russell has also developed a sophisticated software package that determines the mix of funds required to put a client in their desired position on the efficient frontier (the mix which gives the best return for their risk profile).
ANZ Funds Management general manager Anthony Quirk says one of the key benefits of the programme is that it gives New Zealand investors access to some of the best fund managers in the world which would normally only be available to wholesale investors.
It is set up using a nominee structure where the manager advises on how to manage the money, rather than the money being invested into one of the manager's funds.
Quirk says Ascent is the next stage of the growing ANZFM/Frank Russell alliance which was formed last year. The next step will probably be the introduction of a wrap account.
ANZFM has high hopes for Ascent based on the experience of its Australian counterpart.
There it has pulled in A$1.3 billion in seven months - four times more than it was budgeted to achieve in a year.
Australian investors have decided that Ascent gives them their required manager diversification within one portfolio. So instead of spreading their investments around a number of fund managers, they have consolidated their portfolio within ANZ.
The average holding of an Ascent Australia is A$100,000.
Ascent in New Zealand will initially be distributed through the ANZ Investment Advisory network.

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