News Round Up

Quicken's day of reckoning, 2000 in 2000, Aegis wraps up $1 bill, PTO unshackled,

Monday, December 11th 2000, 6:35AM

Finance portal Quicken has decided to move all its New Zealand operations to Sydney as part of a cost rationalistion project.

The move comes after its parent company, listed Australian stock Reckon, posted a worse than expected financial result.

The New Zealand website will remain a base for software registration and information. Transactional and data services presently aggregated under the website will now be serviced directly to clients by suppliers.

Aegis wraps up $1 bill
Sovereign's Aegis wrap account system, which was established in 1998, now $1 billion in funds under administration.

This is an important milestone for the business as it is widely believed that the break-even point for such an offering is about $750 million under administration.

Aegis general manager Paul Baldwin expects the growth rate to continue as "more and more advisers are switching from internal systems to forming strategic alliances with administration service providers."

Aegis is planning to further enhance its offering.

Enhancements such as Fast Trade, which speeds up share-buying, and the provision of wholesale services to financial institutions such as banks, have already been added.

2000 in 2000

More than 2000 funds in Australia and New Zealand now have star ratings from research house Morningstar.

The 2000 funds with rating represent one-third of the 5284 managed funds on Morningstar's database. Its ratings now encompass 51% of retail net assets in the A$199 billion Australian and New Zealand retail managed funds industry. (In NZ it covers 60% of the market).

Morningstar says the majority of investors' money finds its way into funds with three or more stars.

"While no more than 15% of funds can achieve a five star Morningstar rating, those five star funds hold 24% of the net assets rated by Morningstar."

Public Trust unshackled
A bill introduced to Parliament last week will unshackle the Public Trust from its archaic governing legislation and also allows the Government to get its hands on some of the office's $78 million reserves.

The bill, which essentially corporatises the PTO, clarifies its ownership and makes provision for a one off distribution to the Government.

Under the bill the PTO will become a crown entity, it will be governed by a board which will report to the minister.

The board will be responsible for setting Public Trust interest rates, commissions and other charges. Currently some of these decisions are made by in Parliament by an Order-In-Council.

The minister in charge of the PTO, Jim Anderton, says the office will continue to provide wills free of charge to any New Zealander who wants one if they nominate Public Trust as executor.

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